Aluminium

Aluminium is an excellent conductor of heat - 5 times better than iron, 9 times better than stainless steel. Thanks to its superior conductivity, an aluminium pan distributes the heat uniformly over the entire surface and cooking temperatures are easily controlled. This makes it possible to obtain even cooking of food of any shape and whatever their position in the pan with respect to the center of the burner.

An additional advantage of aluminium cookware is that it is much lighter than other materials, which makes it easier to carry.

Cast iron

Cast iron is most often used on its own or is enameled to seal the cookware and make it attractive. Incredibly durable, cast iron's enormous advantage is its ability to hold heat. Therefore it is often used for woks, tajines, kettles, oven casseroles, etc.

A typical characteristic of cast iron is that it is a heavy material. Therefore, woks in cast iron e.g. will need two side handles instead of a long handle, so they become easier to lift and carry.

Multi-ply material

All of the usual cookware metals can be used in combination, which is called multi-ply material, to leverage advantages and neutralize disadvantages.
Tri-ply stainless steel, e.g. sandwiches a layer of aluminium between 2 layers of stainless steel. The resulting cookware item enjoys all of the heat conductivity of aluminium, plus the good looks and utility of steel.

Stainless steel

Stainless steel as such is not a good heat conductor. Therefore it will always be combined with a highly conductible metal (like aluminium or copper). This conductible metal will mostly be found in the base surface only, or in other cases you will find it back all over the body surface, which we call multilayer material.
Utensils made of stainless steel have almost unlimited durability, withstand all usual food and detergents and have a neutral odour and taste. Stainless steel can resist temperatures up to 482°F.