Marc Grégoire, a keen fisherman, wanted to make his rod reel in more smoothly and, in the 1950s, experimented to see if a non stick coating might provide the answer. It did! But his wife suggested that coating the cooking pans would have a more worthwhile application by making them easier to cook with and simpler to clean. Now, Tefal is the number one name in non-stick products and small appliances.