I was cooking at my mother's house and both of her big saute pans have raised middles, so there's less liquid in the middle of the pan directly over the burner and more in a ring around the outside where the pan is cooler, making cooking the liquid off chicken (cooked from frozen) without burning the chicken in the middle of the pan really difficult.
My question is, what would be the advantage of this design versus a flat bottomed large saute pan?