Our Place etched the lotus effect into a pan — nonstick with no coating to wear off

Most nonstick pans depend on a coating, and that coating is usually PFAS — the 'forever chemicals' so strongly bonded that they persist in the environment for thousands of years. Some research ties PFAS exposure to increased cancer risk, decreased fertility and developmental delays, and US states have been tightening rules; California already requires cookware brands to list PFAS on labels. Our Place's first Always Pan had used a long-lasting PFAS-free coating, but like every coated pan it would eventually wear under high heat and harsh scrubbing.

So after that launch, the design team began brainstorming a nonstick pan that would need no coating at all. The answer came from the lotus effect: over centuries of natural selection, lotus leaves grew a dense layer of microscopic protrusions, called papillae, that reduce the contact area between leaf and water so drops roll off.

Our Place's processing technique creates the same kind of microstructure — an imperceptible web of tiny interconnected structures — directly in the surface of the all-metal Titanium Always Pan Pro. 'If you were to put the leaf under a microscope, you'd see these very small microstructures that prevent that water from sticking in any way. That's what's happening with our NoCo technology,' cofounder Shiza Shahid told Fast Company.

Getting the texture right took 'hundreds of prototypes' and constant trade-offs, said Kristina Wasserman, associate vice president of product, design and merchandising: fixing one variable often meant stepping back somewhere else. The finished pan is chrome throughout, with an interior 300% stronger than stainless steel, heat-safe to 1,000 degrees, dishwasher-safe and unfazed by metal utensils or scouring — because there is no coating to scratch off — and it ships with a lifetime warranty.

PFAS coatings are cheap and standard, but they degrade with heat and scrubbing and face growing state regulation.

The lotus effect offered a proof that microstructure, not chemistry, can keep a surface from sticking.

Building the texture into the pan's own structure means nothing can wear off — the nonstick is the pan.

California's labeling law and pending state rules created market pressure for coating-free cookware.

When an industry's standard material is the problem, don't hunt for a better version of it — redesign the substrate so the material isn't needed at all.

The Titanium Always Pan Pro launched as Our Place's premium pan, patent-pending NoCo Nonstick technology and a lifetime warranty. The source does not say whether the wider cookware industry follows it away from PFAS coatings.