Ceramic is a common material used for cookware such as frying pans and woks. However, unlike metal cookware, ceramic cookware can be damaged due to the formation of thermal shock fractures which ultimately compromises the structural integrity of the cookware. Due to the brittle nature of ceramic, the fracture toughness of ceramic can be much less than that of the metal used in metal cookware. This is because the brittle ceramic material fails when a flaw is introduced, which in this case is thermal shock. Some ceramic coating layers are designed to be tougher than the substrate, which is ceramic. However, the coatings are often still fragile relative to metal. Furthermore, since the surface to volume ratio is higher for ceramic than it is for metal, small surface cracks can become large due to thermal shock when ceramic is exposed to high temperatures as in cooking, drying or heating situations. These thermal shock fractures are problematic for cookware and can lead to a reduced cooking efficiency of the cookware, or may even become dangerous to the user, such as when the cookware implodes when exposed to higher temperatures. Consequently, there is a need for a ceramic coating system that resists cracking and has improved fracture toughness to inhibit the development of thermal shock fractures. The coatings must also be compatible with the high temperature range of the cookware, and offer the same visual appearance as the underlying ceramic substrate.