i never used any pan with a surface other than flat (perhaps cuz i am not originally from US) now i am looking at this :
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00004S8E0.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
and i don’t understand the purpose of these grooves. what difference exactly do they make in cooking ? as compared to something with a flat surface like a normal skillet ?
i understand that the chicken will have those imprinted on it when done, but i am talking about the difference in taste ?
Those are ridges, not grooves. Small distinction, perhaps, but anyway.
Traditionally, cooking on a grill is done outdoors, over charcoal or a gas burner, where food is cooked by radiation heating. The portions of the food touching the grill’s slats get charred, adding flavor, and the openings in the grill allow fat to drip away from the food. Grill pans such as the one shown in your link are supposed to provide this cooking environment indoors. There are also electric grills with nonstick coatings to cut down on fat even more; the most famous example of this is probably the George Foreman Grill.
It’s all fancy marketing tied up in the American conception of grilling. You’re still frying in a pan, but the food looks grilled because of the faux “grill marks”. I can put whipped cream and a cherry on a pile of shit and call it a sundae, but it still tastes like shit with whipped cream and a cherry.
In reality truly grilled food doesn’t taste anything like the pan grilled and imprinted version because it is missing the flavor imparted by the open flame. The only thing they share are the fancy grill marks. It is a huge marketing ploy, grilling is popular- now how do we take that and associate it with an indoor cooking method. And BBQ-- now that is entirely different from grilling- Grilling as an art, perhaps.
i understand open flame is different. we didnt grill meat or barbeque from where i came, but we did make shish kebab, and i love that sh1t 
that said, what i really want to know is whether these RIDGES actually make a difference relative to flat pan. it is understood they do not duplicate open flame.
I’ve never used a grill pan myself, so I can’t comment first-hand on how it affects the flavor of food in comparison to a flat skillet. Functionally, though, it would seem that it should have less of a sticking problem because of the smaller contact area to food. And you’ll probably have to change the heat setting, too, because of the smaller contact.
If it means anything, Cook’s Illustrated tested the George Foreman Grill in May and was less than impressed, and thought that a flat skillet was better. However, I’m not sure if the problems they saw were intrinsic to the “simulated grilling” technique, or because of the electric grill’s clamshell design, thus making foods steam in some cases, which is detrimental to hamburger patties.
I’m at the library now and can dig up some more information:
[ul]Wolf, Burt. The New Cooks’ Catalogue, © 2000, pp. 237 & 239[/ul]I think that should answer your question, yes?
hehe, good thing i didn’t want to spend $90 anyway