https://www.quora.com/How-do-professional-cooks-and-chefs-manage-to-cook-without-needing-non-stick-pans Very easily, in fact. To begin, let’s consider what makes food stick to a pan in the first place. Pans, being made out of metal, have irregularities on the surface that I refer to as pores. Magnified view of stainless steel When a pan is heated, these pores “open up,” or expand . This happens on a microscopic level, not visible to the eye, but it’s happening. When a pan cools, these pores close back up, or contract . When you hear someone talk about “seasoning a pan,” they are taking advantage of this by using oil to fill in these little pores. The pan heats, oil is applied, becomes polymerized and rubbed into the pores, when the pan cools, the polymerized oil gets trapped in these pores as they close back up (thanks to Andrew Rothman for pointing this out in the comments). Excess oil is removed and the pan takes on a slicker, shinier appearance due to the p...