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GENERAL NEWS www.kitchenwarenews.com n MAY 2014 n KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW 5 turns 170 years old next year. Over that time, six generations of the Fissler family have been involved in running the company, with the seventh-generation coming along, Kepka says. All of the company's products are still made in the same factory in Germany that was started 170 years ago. "It's still the same place," Kepka said. This year's Solea collection continues on the traditional ideas familiar to the housewares market from the company's original Pro collection, which was introduced 40 years ago and is the most- copied design in the worldwide cookware market. "We are proud that we have been copied so often," Kepka said. At first glance, the biggest difference between the Solea pots and the Pro collection pots sitting beside them on the shelf was Solea's glass lids. They 're tempered glass that will not break in normal kitchen usage, Kepka said. Challenged to prove it there and then, he picked up a lid and looked around him. " W here's something hard?" he asked. Heads swiveled as those within earshot scanned the display space around them. Kepka spotted the maple cutting board on a nearby counter, took a step toward it and banged down the lid, edge first, then held it up to demonstrate that it was undamaged. He looked back down at the cutting board, said a quiet, "Sorry," to it and used a thumb to rub the dent he'd left behind the way a parent rubs a smudge from a child's cheek. The Solea lids are convex to redirect condensed steam back into the pot. When the pot is opened, the lid is designed to be set down onto the pot's rim rather than down onto the stove so that condensate from the lid will drip back down into the pot rather than onto the stove or counter top, which will be a relief to home cooks who enjoy cooking more than scrubbing the stove top afterward. When the pot is closed, the lid sits on a rim that's curved to create a gap for easy draining of cooking liquids into the sink. That curve in the rim also allows a perfect drip-free pour of sauce into a serving dish. Solea also features a cool handle that, when the pot is used on the stove top, the handle will never exceed 42˚ C, so the pot can be picked up without protection for the hands. If the pot goes into the oven, of course, the handle's temperature will rise to the oven temperature. The base of the Solea pots has an aluminum core encapsulated by stainless steel that's welded onto the body of the pot with 2,500 tons of pressure. That pressure ensures a perfect seal between base and pot, without any gaps that could cause uneven heat transfer to the cooking surface. The Novogrill pan in the Solea collection can be used like an outdoor grill to cook or sear meat or vegetables with little or no oil. When you put a piece of meat down onto the Novogrill, it'll stick for the first couple of minutes, just until the surface has seared, and then it ' ll release from the pan so it's easy to pick up without tearing the meat. The pan has divots in the cooking surface that hold liquid released from grilling vegetables, which allows the vegetables' surface to caramelize in the Maillard reaction so beloved of those professional chefs who know how to use it to create flavor as well as surface texture. Not all of these ideas are new to Solea, and Fissler isn't claiming credit for revolutionary change in its product line, but each of the small innovations add together to make a pot that 's not just another pot, Kepka said. "We try to find those little tiny ideas to be better than the competitors." A little more revolutionary will be a digital pressure cooker that's currently in development and is expected to be released at the end of this year. It'll be paired with an app for digital devices that will offer access to a large recipe database, the cooker's instruction manual and real-time information on what's happening inside the pot. Fissler is currently crowd-sourcing recipes and testing them in its laboratories before adding them to the recipe database that will be updated monthly on an ongoing basis. Solea is available immediately in sets and open stock. Fissler (Cont. from Page 1)