I haven't seen a whole lot said in the thread below about ceramic coatings. While I like and use cast iron and stainless steel in my kitchen, I've been very pleasantly surprised by some of the "non-commercial" grade ceramic pans I've encountered recently. Especially for those times when I just want to fry an egg and I'm not doing soufflé or omelets, there's a lot to be said for reaching for a generic ceramic pan. Conducts heat uniformly, doesn't stick, cleans up beautifully, and as far as I can tell doesn't contain any kind of harmful chemicals. For a beginning cook in particular, I'd really recommend this path over some of these other options that take a bit more effort in both cooking and clean / care.