Oser Communications Group

6 GENERAL NEWS KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW n MAY 2019 n www.kitchenwarenews.com General News International Home + Housewares Show a Showcase for Innovation BY LORRIE BAUMANN This year at the International Home + Housewares Show, Meyer Corporation Vice President of Business Development, Strategic Branding, E-Commerce Jeff rey Kruskall introduced a new collection of Rachael Ray cookware called Create Delicious, designed to give home cooks a sense of ease in their kitchen. Offered in three versions, colorful enameled aluminum, hard anodized and stainless steel, the collection was created in close collaboration with Ray herself and reflects the way that she likes to cook in her own home as well as the kind of cooking she demonstrates on her television program, Kruskall said. In particular, Ray enjoys entertaining f riends at home, and that's reflected in the size of some of the larger pieces, according to Kruskall. The collection may be more likely to appeal to the home cook who's feeding a family than one who's a member of one of the 27 percent or so of American households consisting of just one person. Each of the three lines in the collection includes flared rims for drip-free pouring, double riveted stainless steel handles wrapped in heat-resistant silicone and shatter-resistant tempered glass to help cooks monitor the cooking process without releasing heat, moisture and flavor along the way. The collection offers flexible stovetop to oven cooking and is oven safe to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Elsewhere on the show floor, celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern was wowing the crowd in Kai USA's booth as he helped Shun introduce new additions to the line. "I was a customer for some of their brands for 18 or 19 years," Zimmern said, noting that it still feels a little odd to him to be getting his culinary knives f rom the same company that had long been supplying him with the Kershaw knives he uses during his hunting and fishing expeditions. He said that, for both the Shun and Kershaw lines, what impresses him most is the steel. "I think that they're just beautiful," he said, but the performance is what he really likes. The Shun knife that he uses most in his own cooking has a scimitar shape that particularly pleases him for its versatility and its ease of care, he said. "To me, that is the single best knife for any culinary use," he said. "I just adore them." The new Emile Henry Covered Baker is perfect for traditional creamy casseroles, or better yet, for lightened-up dishes for everyday eating and for special occasions. The 14.5-inch by 11-inch ceramic dish is oven-proof and has a lid to match. It 's designed to go into the oven and sit beautifully as a serving dish on a party table or for everyday use. The Emile Henry Casserole, made in France from Burgundy clay, retails for $120 and is available in Sugar (white) and Rouge (red). The dish is dishwasher- safe and extremely durable and resistant to mechanical shock and wide variations in temperature. It can be placed into a preheated oven and is oven safe to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Like all Emile Henry products, the Emile Henry Covered Baker is made of all-natural materials and is backed by a 10-year warranty, which is not offered by any other ceramic manufacturers. Mauviel, a French family business that's in its sixth generation of ownership, introduced two new, tri-ply Mauviel 1830 contemporary cookware collections made in France: M'3 and M'Urban. The modern designs make it easy to mix and match the copper and stainless. The glamorous copper M'3 cookware collections, made f rom a multilayer compound of copper, aluminum and stainless steel, offers premium performance while remaining light and manageable. The modern, M'3 pots are 2mm thick and feature a brushed copper exterior, a pouring rim and stainless-steel handles fixed with stainless rivets. These copper saucepans, sauté pans, fry pans and stew pans range in retail from $170 to $400, depending upon size and shape. The stainless steel M'Urban is resolutely chic with its brushed steel finish and striking silhouettes. The pots are made f rom a stainless steel, aluminum, stainless steel alloy that offers excellent cooking performance. The range of cookware includes assorted sizes of frypans, saucepans, sauté pans and stewpots as well a selection of key nonstick pans. The retail prices for M'Urban pieces range from $100 to $300, depending upon size and shape. Zyliss, a DKB brand, previewed its new Comfort Knives, which the company will be bringing to market in the second half of this year. The range features high quality Japanese stainless-steel blades with a taper ground edge. Designed for comfort, the knives feature patented touch points and a soft touch secure grip handles that give the user more control. There are 11 different blade profiles for different tasks, including a Chefs, Santoku, and Cheese Knife, as well as a two-piece Paring Knife Set. Each knife comes with a blade sheath for safe in-drawer storage that also protects the blade. Zyliss will be packaging them on peggable cards with sets in peggable boxes for easy merchandising. Suggested retail prices are $9.99 to $14.99 for open stock items and $14.99 for the Paring Knife Set. Cole & Mason, also a DKB brand, is celebrating its 100th year in 2019 with its Future Classics pieces that use contemporary materials and finishes in combination with timeless silhouettes. The Exford Nickel Gift Set is a new design that features the company's Precision+ grinding mechanism. The 6.5-inch mill combines a multi-faceted clear body and a satin-finished curved top with knob for grind size adjustment. The Exford Nickel is sold as a gift set that retails for $39.99. Prepara's new Tastemaker Alcohol Infuser is designed to appeal to the home entertainer who wants to impress guests around the bar. Fruit goes into a Tritan cup that plugs into the neck of a liquor bottle. The bottle is tipped to fill the cup, which has a one-way valve at its bottom to prevent the liquor f rom running back down into the bottle. After 15 minutes, two f ruit- infused cocktails are ready to serve. According to Prepara Owner Dean Chapman, the product is also fun to use with candy in the infusion cup. It retails for $24.99 and is dishwasher safe. Prodyne is appealing to the same home entertainers with its innovative Coolin Curve™, which it's calling an evolution in wine chilling. This patent-pending curved bottom wine bucket eases wine bottle insertion into ice. When the bottle base first makes contact with the ice, the engineered shape and design allow ice cubes to slide up the wall and tumble over the fully inserted bottle. The contoured body cleverly solves the problem of ice impaction during wine bottle insertion. The Coolin Curve is BPA-free crystal clear acrylic and has silicone feet to prevent the bucket from sliding and to protect tabletops. Prodyne's also using the f ruit infusion idea, but its Trim Fruit Infusion Pitcher is designed to appeal to healthy eaters. This expansion item for Prodyne's collection of infusion beverageware is a 60-ounce pitcher that fits into a refrigerator door. The crystal- clear BPA-free pitcher is available in three different color lids: clear, red and green. The Trim Fruit Infusion Pitcher is the latest addition to a wide assortment of BPA- f ree f ruit infusion beverageware that includes the ICED Fruit Infusion Pitcher, a unique combo pitcher that can be used with a fruit infusion rod and a freezer ice tube simultaneously. The Flavor Jar, Flavor Bottle and Flavor Carafe have removable necks and strainers to hold back fruit as you pour and conveniently fit in a refrigerator door shelf. The Diamond Cut Acrylic Fruit Infusion Pitcher has a stunning acrylic thick wall diamond cut design. The BIG Fruit Infusion Pitcher features a generous 3.5-quart capacity with a larger infusion rod to accommodate more fruit. KN

• Cover