Thanks to this discussion, I went ahead and ordered the Matfer 11", which arrived quickly from Amazon. Lots of good experiences with cast iron, but I wanted to compare. So I followed Matfer's instructions to season: potato peels, salt, and oil (canola was on hand so I used it); cooked up some mushroom/chicken hash after seasoning and it worked really well for starters. Will keep at it and see if I can get that glassy no-stick surface everyone talks about, but in any case I already love this thing!