They really stand behind their products

I guess the the FedEx guy didn't know I was home when he literally tossed a large carton on my front steps this afternoon. Once I saw the return address, I hoped Calphalon had replaced the 10-inch, non-stick sautee pan whose blackened interior I could no longer get clean.

I had returned the Calphalon One pan with a short note, saying I would be happy if Calphalon would just clean it. (I want to say and write Calaphon.) But inside the carton was a smaller carton with a replacement. We often used the pan to make omelets and frittatas that we started on the stove and finished in the oven.

This year, I also returned two cooking knives to Gerber Legendary Blades; though usable, the handle of one was warped and pulling away from the steel, and the handle cover of the other had deteriorated. After a while, the company returned both Balance Plus knives, saying it hadn't made them since 1988. But it also sent along a catalog and a gift certificate that allowed me to order two beautiful pocket knives with genuine horn handles.

In a previous post, I wrote about having to fight Pfaltzgraff for a refund after I returned a dinnerware set from China that had been recalled for high levels of lead and cadmium. Pfaltzgraff could learn a thing or two about customer service from Calphalon and Gerber. Maybe the company should be renamed Falsegraff. See post, "If it's made in China, is it safe?"

If it's made in China, is it safe?

I have started shopping for new cookware and hope to replace all my non-stick pots and pans with good, old-fashioned metal, prompted by reports that some plastic coatings may break down under high heat and contaminate food.

I long ago stopped re-heating food in plastic containers for the same reason. But a dinnerware set I bought in 2007 left a really bad taste in my mouth, raising the suspicion that a lot of products made in China may not be safe. And so much of the cookware I have looked at is made in China.

In 2007, I bought the elaborately painted Villa della Luna pattern from Pfaltzgraff, enough plates, bowls and cups for 12. When I re-heated leftovers -- and we cook at home five days a week and eat a lot of leftovers -- I would plate the food before putting it in the microwave. After about a year, I started to notice that the paint on the dinner plates I used to reheat food was fading in the dishwasher.

I called Pfaltzgraff, only to be told that the dinner plates and other items in my set had been recalled, because tests revealed high levels of lead and cadmium. I had never received a notice of the recall, but, luckily, I still had the original boxes, now filled with my old dinnerware. I packed up the new pattern and returned it, then had to fight with Pfaltzgraff to get a refund.

I used the old plates until I finally found dinnerware that wasn't made in China -- porcelain in a simple white-on-white pattern made in Germany by Rosenthal. I feel much safer re-heating food in the microwave. And I'm searching for pots and pans made anywhere but in China.