My go to pan and I gave this 4 stars instead of 5. Its complicated and I will tell you why. I have Lodge cast iron in three sizes and a ceramic coated dutch oven, I have All Clad stainless in various sizes. I have non stick from Kirkland signature in various sizes. I used to work in a restaurant (not as a career) and I cook on the stove every day.

BROWNING- Five stars - This pan is the best and it shines here. I rate cast iron a very close second. They each have their advantages but overall the carbon steel browns better just ever so slightly without as much carbon build up in the pan and with a little bit less weight. Its close to call, but that is my call. The carbon steel heats up so much faster. non stick is the worst at this at browning but it can be done

HANDLE - 4 stars - I like the feel of the handle because the design doesnt want to spin in your hands like some pans that have nice comfortable smooth handles. A handle is not about comfort, its about safety and function. The All Clad wins this HAND DOWN even though some knock those pans for their handles. Their handles are best of not spinning when you hands are greasy or wet while still looking great. This carbon steel pan's handle however is just to big and raises up to high but other than that it functions well.

NON STICK - 5 stars - Once you have it treated properly its pretty amazing and you don't have to worry about a coating coming off at any temp. I can cook fried eggs or toast bread without sticking. Cant treat stainless like this to get this effect and cast iron comes in at a tie with with my non stick pans. Obviously my nonstick does it the best, but you have to worry about heat and scratches and how abrasive cleaners takes it off and how much you eat it over the years....it goes somewhere....yeah, in your food.

HEAT DISTRIBUTION - three stars on an electric stove, 5 stars on a gas stove. Of all my pans, this pan comes in last place for this if I am using an electric stove. Now its still usable of course, but if I rank them, then that is how it goes for me.

MAINTENANCE 3 stars - None of the pans are perfect here. This pan you have to be concerned about your treatment if you boil a water or acid based liquid. For me, I would give my All Clad stainless the nod here. Nonstick is the easiest to clean but you have to baby it more. Cast iron you have some of the same concerns as the carbon steel but with more weight to man handle.

DURABILITY - 5 stars - I rate it high so far. This would be a good open fire pan, oven pan, broiler pan. I have heard some stories that induction warps it or excessive temp changes warps it. I am aware of that and am careful so that would be a knock i guess. I gave it a 5 star however I would rate it second behind cast iron. Cast iron is practically indestructible on the stove or on a fire.

VERSATILITY - 3 stars - I use this pan the most because its meets my cooking trends and personality, however I believes its the least versatile or tied for last with the non-stick. I find my ALL Clad stainless the most versatile and if I could have only one pan, a 12 in All Clad stainless even though I use mine less than this carbon steel pan.

VALUE - 4 stars - a really good pan at a logical and decent price. Stainless is ridiculous but that is because they have to work around and design around the stainless steel heat distribution by putting in different cores and layering. Chemical companies make the non-stick coatings for those pans. And cast iron is by far that greatest value. They are cheap...unless you go with a couple brands..

SUMMARY - This is my go to pan because it matches me. I never put it up as it always on my stove. Its heavy, just not as heavy as cast iron. I dont flip foods in it like I do my non-stick and my All Clad because they are light. I dont make gravies, or tomato sauces, chili, stews or roasts in my carbon steel. I could, but I go for cast iron or stainless as the better match, but out of 50 meals or dishes, based on how and what I cook, 30 of them would be in carbon steel, 10 in stainless, 8 cast iron, 2 in nonstick.

I haven't actually used my Matfer pan yet. I'm still trying to scrub off the wax coating as I take a break to write this. I know it will be a great pan and I won't have to ever scrub again, however it feels like I have done the entire pans lifetime worth of scubbing already and I'm still not done. I tried the simple dish soap and regular green scotch bright sponge at first, as the Matfer videos show, but when I started to heat the pan on the stove and wiped it with a dry paper towel I noticed the film was still there. I hadn't even touched it. I'm on my second Mr. Clean magic eraser already, it's the only thing that works. The entire back side is also covered in wax. I plan to season both sides to protect from rust, so I'm scrubbing away.

Update: during my 15 min break the side I finished scrubbing started to rust so I had to go back and scrub again. I'm beat. I dried it on the stove top and I'll have to finish getting the coating off later. This is much more work than I expected. Maybe this isn't necessary but I saw something that said if the coating is left on you don't get a proper layer of seasoning. Since I don't plan to ever scrub or use soap again I'm doing it now.

Great for searing meat and vegetables because of its size. Perfect for fajitas. Because it is heavy and has a perfectly flat bottom, it works great on my electric stove and acts as comal for perfect homemade tortillas. Actual comals I looked at couldn't match this for size and metal thickness. Yeah, you have to use two hands to pickup, but that is why it does what it does so well.

After proper seasoning, this pan works better than non-stick and cast iron!

Day 1: Cleaned pan inside and out with plastic scrub brush using hot water and dish soap, rinsed, then wiped dry and finished drying on stovetop. I missed a small spot of protective stuff but it's on the outside so I'm not concerned. Then followed manufacture instructions (which is very close to those in America's Test Kitchen video). Set electric coil stovetop to medium heat 5, heated 1/3 cup sunflower oil, 2/3 cup table salt, and peels of 2 potatoes, stirring and moving the mixture in the pan and up the sides for about 15-20 minutes until mixture is pretty dark and blackened. It didn't smoke too much until the last few minutes. Discarded contents and wiped with paper towel: see Photo 1 at this point--a beautiful patina already formed. To test, I fried an egg using 1 tbsp oil. When the egg white set, with very little cajoling the egg slid around pan as if ice skating, just like others have said. Woohoo! Success. But I was still worrisome given that I had to help lift the egg. So I repeated the potato peel seasoning process: see Photo 2, a shiny beauty. I let the pan cool on the same heated coil, then stowed it away.

Day 2: Pan fried some potato pancakes on medium heat in my newly minted/seasoned carbon steel pan using 2 tbsp olive oil, and they cooked up like a dream! NO STICKING at all, and slid around the pan: see Photo 3...sorry, no video to share. Then I fried the rest of the potatoes and they crisped up golden brown, again no sticking: see Photo 4. Poured out excess oil and simply wiped clean/dry with paper towel: Photo 5. Voila!

Some minor flaws:
> Given the handle adds weight, the pan tends to tilt a little toward handle.
> Pan bottom is not completely flat; outer edge/rim of bottom doesn't quite make contact with heat coil. As you can see in the photos, the color is still light there although food doesn't stick. As such, the heat is concentrated more toward the center of pan.
> Out of the box, slight scratches in pan and there's a rough spot on rim but it's on the outside; these minor flaws don't affect cooking, so they didn't bother me. However, quality control needs to be stepped up in manufacturing facility.
> The pan is quite heavy and handle quite long. Due to the thickness and size (11-7/8" pan), this baby is quite heavy for my petite 5' frame and strength. In time, I'll have to learn how to hold the handle to balance the weight with minimal stress on my forearm. (Even so, the handle is angled so that it fits in the oven nicely.)

So far so good. I'm really really really happy with my new pan, just the fact that food isn't sticking is a huge win for me! Hope it will sear my meats well. It also seems to work well on medium heat setting without having to use medium high heat. I will update if there's anything to report, but I expect this baby will be my go-to pan for searing, sautéing and anything pan-frying. Happy cooking time!

Update after a month's use:
Seared some steaks beautifully and then sautéed mushrooms, but deglazing the pan with a splash of white wine while sautéing mushrooms removed much of the patina and the pan started sticking...bummer. Don't know if anyone else tried deglazing pan with alcohol and got same result. Another lesson learned was not to use plastic utensil cuz the pan got so hot that it literally melted the plastic. When I tried to "scrape" the fond, I noticed odd streaks forming in the pan...yikes! I now had to scrub off the streaks of plastic and stuck-on fond or whatever and reworked the salt-oil-potato peel seasoning; a beautiful glossy patina is back and eggs cooked up wonderfully again, although they didn't "ice skate." This whole experience left me a bit disheartened, sigh. However, I noticed that food cooked on a well seasoned pan actually tasted more flavorful, like the "wok-flavor" in good Chinese cooking. Hence, I'm not giving up just yet and will continue to learn to work with this baby. Maybe the key is that whenever it starts sticking, you just need to clean off the stuck-on food well and re-season pan using the potato skin method. BTW, cleaning was a breeze (before I messed it up with plastic spatula). Another lesson learned is that after searing meat, it's best to clean pan if there are residual drippings before searing the next batch, or else drippings from first batch will burn.

Best method to clean pan: With heat turned off, while pan is still hot/warm scrub using a large wad of paper towel with a tsp oil (or residual oil in pan) and some salt; won't scratch the metal and gets out much of the stuck on stuff.

The media could not be loaded. This turned out to be a fine pan. First off though getting it ready to cook. Cleaning the protective coating off of the pan was a pain. I wish there was a better way to protect these pans. I cleaned, and scrapped, and scrubbed to get that stuff off for almost an hour. Then it started to show signs of rust. So that was enough of cleaning for me. Time to season.

I used the salt and potato skins technique for seasoning. Worked ok. Then I oiled it it up with avocado oil and placed it in the oven at 450 degrees. Pan did not change color much and I never got it to that nice bronze color I see a lot of people get. So to heck with seasoning it, I'm just gonna cook with it. I've done sausage, bacon, eggs (over easy and an omelette) steaks, chicken, mushrooms & onions, and pork chops. All this with no sticking.

All of that cooking and the pan is what I would call well seasoned. It's just not bronze in color. Go figure. I like the pan though. It has nice weight to it. The handle does not get too hot when cook short meals. It's just continues to warm up the longer you cook. That's expected of course. It's a snap to clean. I just let it cool then use some hot running water in the sink and the stuff just rises off. If there is some heavier cooked on bits just boil some water in the pan until the stuff softens up then wipe it out. Easy. Great pan I fully recommend it.

Update 08/28/2021: Pan is outstanding. It has developed a nice dark patina now and food just slides around in it. With a little oil even delicate fish fillets release easily. Patience is needed with these pans. Sure you can season it as directed for a few hours, then drop an egg with butter/oil for the "egg test". The egg might slide around or it might stick some. It's not a failure. Cook in it. Steaks, hamburger, chicken, fish and more. Give the pan time to really get that patina built up after lots of cooking. This pan is a superb piece of cookware.

03/31/2022 Update: I mistakenly added some sauce to the pan that had vinegar in it. It ate away some of the seasoning that I had built up over the last few months. I'm not too concerned about it at this point. I'll just keep cooking with it and see how it goes.

12/19/2022 Update: This latest photo is of my pan after two years of cooking. It's amazing how slick it is. I just cooked a couple of eggs in it, then wiped it out with a paper towel. It doesn't get much better that this!