You have to make sure to buy a heavy duty, preferrably professional grade pan. Thick base. Most important. I have owned my pans for about five years, and nary a warp. Completely flat. I also have a glass top stove. Note to the wise, do not use a dishwasher to clean good cookware. Always clean pans, pots, knives, etc. by hand.
Any good restaurant supply house will have good quality non stick pans. Also, I' m not sure where you live, but many large department stores (JC Penny in the States, the Bay here in Canada) have good quality wares. Be aware, they do not come cheap, but they will not have to soon be replaced.
North American cookware companies seem to use the terms "saute" and "sauteuse" interchangeably, but technically, the saute pan is the straight-sided one, and the sauteuse or "fry pan" is the slope-sided one.
In French cooking equipment terms, the straight-sided one is called a "sautoir", and the sauteuse has higher sides and while angled out, they are not curved. The curved, shorter sided one is called a poele (and probably what most North Americans would identify as a "frying pan"). So the issue is really that there are a lot of different names floating around for just 3 types of pans.
When you saute, you want to maximize cooking surface area, so that things don't steam. Sloped sides will reduce the cooking surface, so that's why a saute pan will have straight sides. Regarding the lid, it would be used in the case that you want to cover the pan after a sear, to braise or steam. It also makes your pan more versatile.
Regardless of the etymology of "saute", according to La Cuisine de Reference, the definition of saute is to cook quickly in a small amount of oil, and any of the aforementioned pans can be used for this cooking technique.
"Sauter - Cuire rapidement des petites pièces de viande, de poisson ou de légumes dans un sautoir, une sauteuse ou une poêle, avec un peu de matière grasse."
Best Answer
Surely it is some sort of gimmicky bacon pan. You lay the bacon over the hump and clamp it down like you would with a bacon press, then the trough-like sides catch the grease.
I could see it maybe being used to make naan bread. Once it's puffed up you clamp the top down and flip upside down to blacken the bubbles like would happen in a tandoor. Seems like a little bit of a stretch though.