All-Clad

All-Clad's story begins in 1967 when metallurgist John Ulam — then working for Allegheny Ludlum in Pittsburgh — started a metal-bonding company called Clad Metals. He accidentally discovered that bonding aluminum to stainless steel made exceptional cookware, and by 1971 he formally established All-Clad Metalcrafters in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania to sell it. A Bloomingdale's buyer spotted the pans at a trade show in the mid-1970s, launching the brand into upscale retail and putting it on the map for home cooks. Growth exploded through the 1980s and 90s, fueled by word of mouth and advertising in food publications like Gourmet and Bon Appétit. Ulam sold the company in 1988 (reportedly as he battled cancer) and passed away in early 1989. The brand changed hands a few more times — Pittsburgh's Pittsburgh Annealing Box Co. in 1988, Waterford Wedgwood in 1999 — before French conglomerate Groupe SEB acquired it in 2004, where it remains today. Through all of it, All-Clad has continued manufacturing in the same Canonsburg factory John Ulam opened over 55 years ago.