I bought this pan for two reasons: one, because I needed a way to cook eggs besides using a plastic egg poacher; and two, because I needed a pan to cook an egg in a rounded shape for inclusion in an English muffin breakfast sandwich or home made breakfast biscuits. This last weekend I made biscuits, cooked some Conecuh sausage (a local product), and egg biscuits. I am so glad I found this pan. It is exactly what I needed. It requires some assembly, which is minor, and it comes with a good quality silicon spatula to use with removing food from the pan. Before cooking I sprayed the pan pockets with crisco spray and with a little encouragement from the spatula, the eggs came out easily after cooking. I am looking forward to using this for various kitchen creations and for a long time. As far as the plastic egg poacher, it works well but we're trying to find ways to prepare food that don't require cooking in/with plastic. Granted, the pan is coated with teflon, which is a plastic, but stovetop and microwave are different ways of cooking and as long as I don't overheat the pan (beyond 570° F), I think we're ok.