Chopped onions and a non-melting pan

Brace yourself onion - it's all over.

The kit has arrived.  Pans have seen action.  Onions have met their end under the relentless cutting, turning and slicing of the chopper.

Sounds like Saturday Morning Kitchen meets Robort Wars. So to get to the point, my Pampered Chef Super Starter kit arrived in one seriously large box  and I have practiced a couple of recipes so far - including an apple tart tartin in the saute pan. Putting a rubberised-handled pan in the oven feels all wrong.  Why doesn't it melt?  What forces are at work here?  Why isn't there a pool of bubbling rubber on the base of the oven with thick acrid smoke belching across the kitchen?

I have no idea.  All I need to concentrate on is remembering to remember that the pan handle is damned hot after hosting an apple tartin for 20 minutes at 180 degrees.

Eyes forward.  It's the first cooking show on Saturday.