Cookware

"What's this?" I ask the proprietor of Hitachiya, a Japanese cookware store in Torrance. I couldn't imagine how such a crude metal spike could possibly be used in the kitchen. "For nailing an eel to a board. " I shudder, remembering the one time I dealt with a still-wriggling eel. "And this?" I wonder, examining a hinged wire mesh basket with handle. "For roasting ginkgo nuts. " I'd made a trip to Hitachiya to buy a Japanese-made hand-hammered steel wok recommended by my friend Sonoko Sakai.

One of the hottest items on cooks' holiday lists this year is one of the oldest types of cookware around: cast iron. But today's skillets aren't necessarily the same as your grandmother's. While you can find antique cookware - and there is a growing market for it - new cast iron is increasingly accessible, both to find (you no longer have to go to a hardware store or camping outlet to buy it) and to use straight off the shelf. About 10 years ago, Lodge Manufacturing Co. introduced pre-seasoned cookware (and now seasons all of its cookware)

One of the hottest items on cooks' holiday lists this year is one of the oldest types of cookware around: cast iron. But today's skillets aren't necessarily the same as your grandmother's. While you can find antique cookware - and there is a growing market for it - new cast iron is increasingly accessible, both to find (you no longer have to go to a hardware store or camping outlet to buy it) and to use straight off the shelf. About 10 years ago, Lodge Manufacturing Co. introduced pre-seasoned cookware (and now seasons all of its cookware)

"What's this?" I ask the proprietor of Hitachiya, a Japanese cookware store in Torrance. I couldn't imagine how such a crude metal spike could possibly be used in the kitchen. "For nailing an eel to a board. " I shudder, remembering the one time I dealt with a still-wriggling eel. "And this?" I wonder, examining a hinged wire mesh basket with handle. "For roasting ginkgo nuts. " I'd made a trip to Hitachiya to buy a Japanese-made hand-hammered steel wok recommended by my friend Sonoko Sakai.

Going hand in hand in success and popularity with microwave ovens is glass bakeware. During the last decade, these versatile cooking utensils have shown tremendous growth. Since metal pots and pans reflect microwave energy and could ruin the microwave unit, glass is ideal for this type of cooking. Now, going beyond the ordinary benefits of glass in microwave, as well as conventional and convection baking, is the new non-stick Pyrex Clear Advantage bakeware from Corning Glass Works, N.Y.

We may be stuck with non-stick cookware forever, now that health-conscious individuals are finding low-cholesterol, low-calorie benefits in no-oil food preparation. However, the biggest disappointment with ordinary non-stick cookware is that the marriage of the coating to the pan is far from a long-lasting bond. Peter Liu, marketing director for Le Cook's-Ware, Inc. in San Francisco, blames the short-lived performance to "the everyday abrasion of cooking utensils that wears out the non-stick coating."

The semi-annual 85th International Housewares Show held recently in Chicago's McCormick Place produced a monstrous display of new gourmet products and recent modifications of old hot-selling small household appliances and other products for the home. A first-timer at the show but staging a full-blast presentation was Philips Home Products, which just opened the U. S. market for a sleek-looking line of small appliances.

Potentially harmful lead levels found in imported ceramic cookware have prompted the Food and Drug Administration to announce a recall of the items. The target of the action is ceramic teapots and pitchers decorated with a "Delft Blue" mill and flower pattern. The products, manufactured in the Netherlands, are distributed by Dutch American Import Co., an Irvine-based firm.

Define housewares show: an affair, an attempt for household merchandise, given the time and space, to romance professional store buyers. List housewares: cookware, bakeware, kitchen tools, gadgets, non-electric and electric equipment, table - top accessories like china, plasticware, glassware and linens, decorative accessories, furniture, storage and closet products, hardware, bath and cleaning products . . .

It all began with the introduction of the food processor about 12 years ago. "You're looking at the beginning of a revolution," the late James Beard told a reporter at that time as the new Cuisinart model arrived. Pushed to the public eye through tremendous promotions, the revolutionary electric kitchen machine spurred trends in cooking and home entertaining. Never before had the food world been brought to the limelight in such a way. Traveling food connoisseurs and an influx of immigrants brought new (and old)

W. Howard Lester, former chairman and chief executive of gourmet cookware retailer Williams-Sonoma Inc. , died Monday at his home in Indian Wells after battling cancer, the company announced. He was 75. Lester and a partner bought San Francisco-based Williams-Sonoma from founder Chuck Williams for $100,000 in 1978, when it generated $4 million in annual sales and had four stores ? on Sutter Street in San Francisco, on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa and at the Town and Country Village in Palo Alto.

Williams-Sonoma Inc., the biggest U.S. gourmet-cookware chain, reported profit Wednesday that exceeded analysts' estimates and increased its full-year earnings forecast. The stock price rose the most in more than five years. The retailer's Pottery Barn unit, whose 190 stores account for half of revenue, boosted sales at locations open at least a year for the first time in five quarters.

Gourmet-cookware retailer Williams-Sonoma Inc. on Tuesday reported holiday sales that exceeded analysts' estimates on gains at all but one of its chains. The company's stock rose 5.85%, the most in more than two years. Sales at Williams-Sonoma's stores open more than a year rose 1.1% for the eight weeks through Dec. 24, the San Francisco-based retailer said. Total revenue gained 3.6% to $900.4 million.

Terra-cotta cazuelas not only look good, they can be used in the oven, the microwave or on the stove top. But you have to treat them right. Cazuelas can be brittle when new, so they should be soaked for several hours before their first use. Once soaked, they can be used for cooking, although exposure to high heat from a direct flame isn't recommended. Resoak them occasionally to restore their moisture content. Five-inch cazuelas, about $3.

Linking prostate cancer to a widespread industrial compound, scientists have found that exposure to a chemical that leaks from plastic causes genetic changes in animals' developing prostate glands that are precursors of the most common form of cancer in males. The chemical, bisphenol A, or BPA, is used in the manufacture of hard, polycarbonate plastic for baby bottles, microwave cookware and other consumer goods, and it has been detected in nearly every human body tested.

FIRST we started buying pizza stones, massive pottery slabs that bake more evenly than flimsy metal sheets ever can. Since then, some bold souls have been on a mighty quest for ever more slow, traditional cooking. They buy brick linings for their ovens or even install brick ovens in their backyards. So maybe it's time for stone pots to make a comeback. That's stone, not stoneware. Stoneware is just a kind of clay fired at a high temperature.

Some cookware, this Circulon. Hot and brand new, it's lightweight. Cooks evenly and fast. Handles are cool. Its durable. Stylish. And above all it's non-stick. But so are a hundred other lines of cookware on the market. Circulon, manufactured by Le-Cook's Ware in San Francisco, is conveniently lightweight. However, it is not the inexpensive cookware that suffers dings and dents with every slight knock.

Terra-cotta cazuelas not only look good, they can be used in the oven, the microwave or on the stove top. But you have to treat them right. Cazuelas can be brittle when new, so they should be soaked for several hours before their first use. Once soaked, they can be used for cooking, although exposure to high heat from a direct flame isn't recommended. Resoak them occasionally to restore their moisture content. Five-inch cazuelas, about $3.

For home cooks and professional chefs, Teflon might be the best kitchen innovation since sliced bread became a cliche. A pan with the nonstick coating makes easy-to-lift omelets and cleans up like a dream. The concept of a cooking surface so smooth that nothing sticks has even leapt into the political lexicon. An American leader who weathered scandal and criticism became known as the Teflon president.

A few months after I moved to Paris two years ago, I wrote a Her World column about some of my favorite places to see and things to do in the City of Light -- not the Louvre or Luxembourg Gardens, but little secrets you get to know only by walking the same block every day or by going out for milk and happening upon something wonderful. That's the Paris I'm finally getting to know, and it's apparently inexhaustible.