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GENERAL NEWS KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW n JANUARY 2018 n www.kitchenwarenews.com 10 Cooking And Serving in the English Style Dry roasts and soggy veg have given way to minted peas, cauliflower cheese and f resh goat cheese tarts. "Now they're being presented in a more contemporary way. We have taken in a little bit of French influence, and a little bit of Italian influence as well." The key to this cooking style's appeal is an emphasis on seasonality. "I think the best thing to start with is some very good ingredients. Go to the market and find some really beautiful ingredients, and then [say], 'What can I do with this?'" Robb says. "You can just go online and look up recipes for asparagus. You don't have to be a professional cook to find good ingredients and make something simple with them. That's how you develop your own cuisine within your own little kitchen at home." Improvising at the grocery store starts with acquiring kitchen tools that can handle any scenario. "The basics [are] a very good chopping board, an assortment of sharp knives, a really good peeler – a Microplane grater is really essential for Parmesan, nutmeg or citrus – and heavy based saute pan, something you can get a really crunchy golden finish on without using extra oil," says Robb. She also recommends one large Dutch oven or a Le Creuset casserole for slow cooking. "I keep some wooden spoons for sweet, and some for savor y. A really long-handled wooden spoon for jams. I love to have good rubber spatulas for mixing and scraping. I do have some silicone spoons for really spicy or pungent foods, I use both." Home cooks can be ready to entertain with just a few good pieces of bakeware and an oven. "For a ver y informal thing, quiche is a very good thing. There are so many bad quiches in the world, it's wonderful to have a homemade one," says Robb. "Really, you can put absolutely anything into it. I use pancetta. There's a hundred and one different cheeses, I love a roasted pepper and goat cheese." For something more formal, roasts or braises can be handled in a Dutch oven or casserole. "A good dish for the winter is a casserole, something along the lines of a boeuf bourgignon. It's one of those things, the basic recipe stays the same, but there are little changes." Any f ruit in season can be integrated into dessert. "A really simple dessert is what we call a crumble. Fruit at the bottom, be it apple and cinnamon, or rhubarb, with a crispy topping. It's based on an old dish called Apple Betty. There's lots of different variations. And then some homemade ice cream to go with that," Robb adds. Even in a fancier dining experience, consumers can feel confident serving with a mixed set of dishware. "People no longer have formal sets of dinnerware, these are ver y mix and match. That 's the trend, where things are becoming less formal," says Robb. "I think, for the home cook, it's nice to have something really simple to serve on." Robb is currently designing a dishware line, and her aesthetic for that favors clean, white surfaces with little accents of illustration, preferably of f ruits or vegetables. KN (cont. from Page 1) Which Spiralizers Are Best for Your Customers? BY ROBIN MATHER Spiralizers may continue to be a white- hot kitchen gizmo this year, and interest in them shows no sign of cooling, if manufacturers' release of new versions are any indication. The gadgets, which turn a variety of vegetables into a sort of imitation pasta, are popular with dieters, people who are eating low-carb, the Paleo-passionate, and the gluten-free crowd. They're also popular with the health-conscious and vegan and vegetarian customers. They 're most commonly used to turn zucchini or yellow squash into "zoodles," or vegetable noodles, but can also be used with sweet potatoes, onions, potatoes, beets, winter squash or any other firm vegetable or f ruit. Sales trends are hard to track because the gadgets channel isn't examined separately by those who study market trends. But one way to get a glimpse into the market is to look at pasta sales, because spiralizer "noodles" often substitute for more traditional pasta. Mintel reported earlier this year that pasta sales in the U.S., Canada, France and Australia were flat f rom 2011 to 2015, and down 2 percent in the U.K and, amazingly, Italy for the same period. Mintel's research revealed that about a third of households have at least one member who has elected to go gluten-f ree. "The trend for gluten-f ree and low-carb diets and the vilification of wheat as a contributor to a variety of ailments, including weight gain, have contributed to the flat and declining sales of pasta in many key markets," Mintel Food and Drink Analyst Jodie Minotto said. The Institute of Food Technologists reported that average purchases of pasta at retail was expected to be nearly six pounds per capita in 2016, down f rom nearly 6.25 pounds the year before. We Tried Three Types of Spiralizers Spiralizers come in three basic styles, with the least expensive requiring more physical effort than the most expensive ones. The least expensive, and the style that's great for people who are curious but not ready to commit, are the manual ones that work like a sort of giant pencil sharpener or as a peeler/shaver that gives a noodle- y result. Oxo Good Grips' manual sharpener requires some effort to use, in our test, but for zucchini, results are quick and relatively easy. The protective shields guarding the user's hands f rom its sharp blades are a welcome addition. See more at www.Oxo.com. Some types in this category look like potato peelers, with special serrated blades to cut the "noodles." Oxo Good Grips makes one, and Spiralizer, which makes several styles of spiralizers, offers this type in a package deal with their pencil- sharpener model. See more at www.Spiralizer.us. British company Kilner has expanded into a line of jar lids that turn their canning jars into machines. The company makes a spiralizer set that includes a 34- ounce canning jar with a special lid, which makes it easy to pack up a salad to carry for lunch. Learn more at www.KilnerJar.co.uk. Another type of spiralizer is a step up f rom the pencil sharpener type. They're still manually powered, but they tend to have four suction feet to the machine hold steady on the countertop. You center the vegetable between a pronged holder and the blade, and turn a crank. Among these is the plastic-bodied Paderno World Cuisine spiralizer, now available in the original three-blade or a newly updated four-blade version. The vegetable holding mechanism on these is a little more effective than the pencil sharpener type, and, because they core zucchini in particular, the part of the vegetable that tends to go mushy in cooking is avoided. You can learn more at www.Paderno.com. Paderno also sells the Rouet Spiral Slicer, which is all metal. At a suggested retail price of $649, however, it may be best suited to commercial kitchens. Other companies that sell machines very similar to the plastic Paderno are Spiralizer, Charmed and Kinzi. They all function the same way, however. The most expensive among the devices are electric powered. These include an attachment for the KitchenAid mixer, which offers five blades and a peeling blade, good for both f ruits and vegetables. It has a learning curve, we found, but gets good reviews from its users on such web sites as Amazon and Houzz. Suggested retail is $129.99, but people who already have a KitchenAid may be willing to add the attachment, which fits any KitchenAid mixer, to their accessories collection. Learn more at www.KitchenAid.com. MLITER offers an electric spiralizer with three blades and a 1-liter compact storage container that can go into the ref rigerator. It functions much like a food processor, with a chute and pusher to feed the vegetable into the blades. Oster makes a similar machine that 's slightly less expensive (retail price of $45.99 vs. $36.87 for the Oster), and Hamilton Beach makes an almost identical spiralizer with a retail price of $49.00. NutriBullet has introduced its Veggie Bullet Spiralizer and Food Processor, which may satisfy customers who don't really like single-purpose gadgets. See more at www.Nutribullet.com. Mandolines, both inexpensive and pricey ones, can do fine julienne cutting of f ruits and vegetables, but we didn't include them because their results are straight, not curly. Offering a range of spiralizers to your customers may be the key to increased sales of these handy devices. KN

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