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In-Depth Product Review: Bottega Del Rame (Mazzetti copper cookware) – 30 cm diameter tin-lined 3 mm copper skillet (frying pan)

Bottega del Rame - Mazzetti Copper 30 cm 12 inch frying pan
Bottega del Rame – Mazzetti Copper 30 cm 12 inch frying pan

Note: If you have an induction stove, see De Buyer Prima Matera as well.

THE COMPANY

Bottega del Rame (Italian for “Copper Shop”) is the workshop of Mr. Cesare Mazzetti, located in the town of Montepulciano in central Italy (between Florence and Rome in the Tuscany region).1

Cesare’s grandfather, Bernardo Mazzetti (1863-1909, born in Montepulciano), was a farmer who was injured from falling out of an oak tree.  He returned to his birthplace of Montepulciano to pursue his interest in metalworking, buying rough copper from a foundry in Gran Sasso and forming them into copperware for his wife to sell at marketplaces in the nearby towns of Chianciano, Pienza, Petroio, and Torrita.

Bernardo was a competent coppersmith in his own right, but he decided to send his son Giuseppe (1903-1982, born in Montepulciano) to apprentice with the master coppersmith Ghiotto of Porta Farina.  When Master Ghiotto died, Giuseppe bought all of Ghiotto’s tools, stamps, anvils, forges, and lathes which dated back to 1850-1857, some of which are still in use today.

Guiseppe had two sons, both plumbers, but eventually Cesare (1936- ) returned to help his father’s increasingly famous Montepulciano copper workshop.  Since 1982, Cesare has made copper cookware, plates, and other housewares at the workshop.  Like his grandfather and father, Cesare makes copperware by hand (using tools like hammers) rather than by hydraulic presses.  Says Mazzetti: “To be a coppersmith has been and is for me a dream come true…. I derive great satisfaction doing what I love. I work with passion and integrity and my life is peaceful and full of love.”

Cesare’s son is an engineer, so it appears that Mazzetti’s copper shop will close when Cesare retires (he is 80 as of 2016).  In the meantime, Cesare continues to make heirloom-quality copperware for sale.  Mazzetti even made a plate for Pope Benedict XVI.  And you can get a Mazzetti copperware piece of your own, too.

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In-Depth Product Review: KitchenAid KCH112KLKD Hard Anodized Nonstick 12″ Skillet with Glass Lid Cookware – Black Diamond

KitchenAid KCH112KLKD Hard Anodized Nonstick 12 Inch Skillet with Glass Lid
KitchenAid KCH112KLKD Hard Anodized Nonstick 12 Inch Skillet with Glass Lid

THE COMPANY

In 1897, Clarence Charles Hobart started the Hobart Electric Manufacturing Company (Troy, Ohio). The company sold motorized coffee mills, meat grinders, and (starting in 1908) stand mixers for commercial bakeries.

In 1919, after World War I, Hobart formed the KitchenAid division, which produced smaller-scale stand mixers for residential customers. Hobart continued to sell non-residential products under the Hobart brand. The overall company remained profitable and independent for decades, occasionally adding new product lines to the KitchenAid brand, such as dishwashers.

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In-Depth Product Review: Scanpan CSX Stainless Steel 5-Ply Cladded Pans (Scanpan 67102800 CSX 11-inch/28-cm covered sauté pan)

Scanpan 67102800 CSX Covered Saute Pan, 11-Inch
Scanpan 67102800 CSX Covered Saute Pan, 11-Inch

THE COMPANY

Scanpan (“Scan” for “Scandanavian” since they are made in Denmark; “pan” meaning cooking pan) is a Danish company founded in 1956.1

Scanpan is perhaps better known for its nonstick Scanpan CTX line of cookware–which Scanpan tries its best to portray as something other than a PTFE/Teflon pan even though it is in fact a PTFE/Teflon pan.  That’s why they can only advertise it as PFOA-free instead of both PFOA- and PTFE-free.  (Those acronyms are confusing; if you need to refresh your memory on the difference, click here.)  Scanpan is not the only European cookware maker that tries to cover up its use of PTFE; Woll and Swiss Diamond do the same.

But Scanpan also makes a Scanpan CSX product line that is constructed similarly to All-Clad Stainless, with three visible layers: an interior 18/10 stainless steel cooking surface layer, a middle layer of aluminum alloy, and an exterior 18/0 magnetic stainless steel exterior that makes the pan compatible with induction stoves.  (The overly-enthusiastic Scanpan marketers count the microscopically thin bonding layers of aluminum as separate layers, but in actuality it has just as few layers as All-Clad Stainless.)

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In-Depth Product Review: Mauviel Copper M250c (Mauviel M’Heritage, aka 250C aka Cuprinox): Stainless Steel Lining, Cast Iron Handles, 2.5mm Total Thickness

Mauviel 2.5mm M'Heritage M250c Copper Pan on Induction Converter Disc
Mauviel 2.5mm M’Heritage M250c Copper Pan on Induction Converter Disc

Note: If you have an induction stove, see De Buyer Prima Matera instead.

THE COMPANY

Mauviel (pronounced “moe-vee-ELL”) is an French company that has a ~200 year tradition of making fine cookware and is one of the oldest French cookware manufacturers still around.

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