Italian archaeologists have found a site near Naples where the precursors of non-stick pans were produced more than 2,000 years ago. The finding confirms that non-stick frying pans, an essential tool in any modern kitchen, were used in the Roman Empire. The cookware was known as "Cumanae testae" or "Cumanae patellae," (pans from the city of Cumae) and was mentioned in the first-century Roman cookbook De Re Coquinaria as the most suitable pans for making chicken stews. However, the pans from Cumae remained a mystery until 1975, when Giuseppe Pucci, archaeologist and professor of history of Greek and Roman art,...