The Kaizen Classic Pan Pro: hammered titanium surface and gold handle

Pure titanium · SlipScale™

Our Science

Why we cook on titanium, how a lotus leaf taught us to skip the coating, and what is really in the pans most kitchens use.

No coating.
Just titanium.

Most non-stick pans are aluminium with a coating sprayed on top. The coating makes them slippery, and it is also the part that wears off. Kaizen pans have none.

The cooking surface is solid, pure titanium, pressed with a pattern that lets food release. It doesn't react with food, it doesn't rust, and there is nothing on it to flake into dinner.

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The SlipScale surface: rounded titanium scales spiralling out from the centre of the pan

Why titanium

A metal that keeps to itself.

Better by design

Finally, non-stick
without a coating.

The Kaizen Wok Pan Pro with its hammered titanium surface

Coated pans get their slip from a chemical layer, and every use takes a little of it away. Kaizen pans get theirs from shape. Thousands of rounded titanium scales keep food from lying flat against the metal. Nothing is sprayed on, so nothing comes off.

Coatings0to chip, flake or wear off
Layers5bonded edge to edge, never coated
Safe to1000°Fon any hob and in the oven
Water droplets beading on a lotus leaf
Inspired byNelumbo nucifera

SlipScale™ technology

Borrowed from the lotus leaf.

Lotus plants grow in muddy ponds, yet their leaves come up spotless. In the 1970s the German botanist Wilhelm Barthlott looked at one under an electron microscope and found out why. The leaf is covered in tiny bumps. Water rests on their tips, touches almost nothing, beads up and rolls away, taking dirt with it. He called it the lotus effect.

SlipScale puts the same idea into metal. Rounded titanium scales start at the centre of the pan, spiral outward and climb halfway up the wall. Food rests on the raised scales, and a thin film of oil settles in the grooves between them. Less contact means less to stick to.

*Naturally non-stick means preheating for 1 to 2 minutes and adding a little oil. SlipScale is a metal surface, not a coating, so it rewards a little technique.

Flat metalFood lies flat against the surface. Proteins grip every point of contact and stick.
Lotus leafWater sits on the tips of tiny bumps with air underneath, so it barely touches the leaf.
SlipScale titaniumFood rests on the raised scales. A thin film of oil fills the grooves in between, so there is little to grip.

What's in other pans

Take a closer look.

Every pan material is a trade-off. This is what you are cooking on when it isn't titanium.

A worn non-stick pan with scratches and patches where the coating has flaked off
One scratch in non-stick can release~9,100 particles

PTFE non-stick

The slippery layer on most non-stick pans is PTFE. It starts to break down at about 260°C (500°F), and an empty pan on a high flame can pass that in minutes. Makers warn bird owners about the fumes for a reason.

Kaizen: no coating, nothing to break down.

Forever chemicals

PTFE belongs to the PFAS family, called forever chemicals because they barely break down. The CDC finds PFAS in the blood of nearly everyone it tests, and the EPA links some of them to effects on immunity, hormones and the risk of certain cancers.

Kaizen: tested PFAS-free by Light Labs.

Ceramic non-stick

Usually free of PTFE, and still a coating. The thin glass-like layer loses its slip faster than most people expect, and once it wears through you are cooking on the aluminium underneath.

Kaizen: the slip comes from the metal's shape.

Bare aluminium

Light and quick to heat, which is why it sits under most coatings. On its own it reacts with acidic and salty food like tomato sauce or lemon, and more metal moves into the food when it does.

Kaizen: aluminium sealed inside, never on the surface.

Stainless steel

A durable metal we have nothing against. Eggs weld to it without practised technique, and a 2013 study found new stainless steel released nickel and chromium into simmering tomato sauce. That matters if you have a nickel allergy.

Kaizen: food only touches titanium.

Cast iron

Built to last generations, and it weighs like it: about 3.5 kg (7.7 lb) for a 12-inch skillet. It needs seasoning, careful drying and a break from acidic food, which strips the seasoning and tastes of metal.

Kaizen: no seasoning, no rust, fine with tomato.

Light Labs tested

3rd party tested.
Nothing hiding in your pan.

Light Labs, an independent lab, tests our cooking surface for PFAS and 30+ other substances that can leach into food. The report is public, dated and linked from every product page. Here is what they look for, and don't find.

See the report
PFAS & PTFE"forever chemicals"
Heavy metalslead, cadmium & more
Coatingsnothing to chip or flake
Microplasticsnone shed into food
The Kaizen Classic Pan Pro The Kaizen Deep Pan Pro The SlipScale titanium surface up close The gold Kaizen handle with the KAIZEN wordmark
Day 1Nothing to break in

Built once.
Kept for life.

Every pan cooks well on day one, coated pans included. Yours needs no seasoning and no special treatment. Preheat for a minute or two, add a little oil, and food lets go once it has seared.

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Sources

  1. U.S. EPA. Our current understanding of the human health and environmental risks of PFAS.
  2. U.S. CDC, National Biomonitoring Program. Per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) factsheet.
  3. IARC Monographs vol. 135 (2023): PFOA classified as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1).
  4. Luo Y. et al. (2022). Raman imaging for the identification of Teflon microplastics and nanoplastics released from non-stick cookware. Science of the Total Environment.
  5. Kamerud K.L., Hobbie K.A., Anderson K.A. (2013). Stainless steel leaches nickel and chromium into foods during cooking. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
  6. Barthlott W., Neinhuis C. (1997). Purity of the sacred lotus, or escape from contamination in biological surfaces. Planta.
  7. Titanium properties (density, melting point, history): standard reference values, e.g. Royal Society of Chemistry periodic table.
  8. Kaizen product specifications and the Light Labs test report for the Kaizen cooking surface.

Kaizen makes cookware. Nothing on this page is medical advice.