Garcima 13 1/2-inch Pata Negra Restaurant Grade Paella Pan, 34cm

My first paella pan and I love it! Ideal for home-cooked paella, but remember to oil the pan before storing it away due to its carbon steel material.

Made several Paella's with Cuisinart's large red Paella Pan, getting crunchy caramelized Socarrat bottom at end always a problem as thin material and "teflon" coating, finally overdid it and burnet on bottom and no way to remove because of coating. So raised bar and bought this and larger 16" cheaper no lid pans for better heat distribution more robust scriptable surface. Used both once each, for increased effect, tried cooking both on outdoor gas Outland brand large firepit using natural gas (see pic of 16" pan), boiled too fiercely, need to raise, so finished on stovetop. 13.5" fed four hungry adults, could have fed 6. 16" is 40% bigger area and after starter fed 12 adults with side vegetable dish. As others said great heat distribution, but against included directions my wife washed smaller pan and set in rack to dry, and got thin patina of rust within 3 min. I re-washed and red and oiled immediatly as per instructions, perfect.

Love this pan, perfect size for 6 people or 4 big eaters. Follow the care instructions after use and is in great shape.

First picture - it’s condition after using two times. Just read a manual how to clean it. Always dry well and apply oil after using to store it properly. Really great pan that will last a lifetime.

I bought this paella pan and it rusted when used. It looked nice and it is heavy. I thought I'll make a nice paella for my son's birthday. Very disappointed.

I've had a 42 cm red-handle Garcima paella pan for over 30 years. It's almost always too big for the number of people I'm cooking for. It's the traditional Valencia shape and metal thickness: that is, it rocks on a flat surface, and you have to be very attentive to heat control because the metal is thin. It's a great pan; in fact, they're all great pans, but you should understand how they're different. The Pata Negra pans with the black handles are made of metal that's twice as thick as the traditional red handle pans. That means that the pan is more rugged, that it changes temperature slightly more slowly, and that it's somewhat less liable to get hot spots. Look at the product brochure I've scanned for you, and notice that most of the sizes are printed in black, but that four of them are printed in red. The red sizes don't rock when they're on a flat surface; they're made to be usable directly on an induction stove or a glass-topped range. The sizes in black have the traditional Valencia shape, where the middle of the pan is slightly depressed, the pan rocks, and you can't use it on an induction cooker without an adapter plate to turn it into a radiant cooking heat source. If they won't work on induction stoves, which are becoming increasingly popular, why keep making the Valencia shape? Because there are cooking techniques you can do with that shape that aren't possible if the pan is dead flat. The belly allows fats and juices to pool in the center of the pan. That means that you can use that part of the pan to color your proteins by frying them in oil, then push them up to the higher parts of the pan until it's time to start adding your rice and liquids. When the pan is completely flat, there is no particular place where the oils collect, so the way to use them is to brown your proteins a little at a time, grab the browned ingredients with a pair of tongs and put them aside on a tray to hold, and only after everything is nicely browned, then put everything back into the paella pan with the rice and the liquid. It's a different technique demanded by the fact that the pan has a different shape. Is this better or worse? Don't ask silly questions; just know what the attributes of the tool are. If you're always cooking on an induction stove, you'd be nuts not to get one of the flat bottomed pans. If you're cooking over a flame — gas, wood, or charcoal — both shapes will work for you, but you'll need to use different techniques on the completely flat shape than the traditional descriptions of techniques you may have read about when the demonstrator is using a pan in the Valencia shape . The important thing is to know that there is a difference, and to use a technique that will produce the result that you're looking for. By the way, there's a lot of whining in the reviews about the metal discoloring or rusting. If your pan doesn't end up black, it's because you don't use it. As for rust, after you've cleaned up, melt a little dot of lard on the clean, warm pan that you've just dried over your heat source, and use some kitchen paper to rub a thin film of lard all over the metal. My 30-year-old pan is black and mottled, and has never had a bit of rust.