The Cook’s Kitchen

Cookware has changed. Recently I was asked to film an infomercial about a new eco-friendly line of cookware that entered the market, a product able to safely replace traditional non-stick cookware. Sitting there with other chefs, including Todd English and Chef Gui, I started thinking about chefs and their pans.

Pan is a term of ancient origin, deriving from panna a Celtic word. What makes it different from other utensils was its flat bottom. This is all pans and sauté pans, while very different in shape, are nonetheless called “pans.”  The frying pan remained unchanged for many years. Whether made of tinned copper or cast iron, the frying pan had a broad, shallow body and a long handle to keep the cook’s hand out of the fire.  In America, we often use the word “skillet,” especially when writing about cooking.  It just sounds better, less greasy and more appealing, a funny thought since most open hearth pans with legs were once called “spiders.”

Because I am The Organic Chef and because I live on an organic farm, my wife recently bought me an antique wood burning stove.  Inside the oven, I discovered BLACK GOLD, a set of antique cast iron pans. What a chef’s delight. It brought to mind my first introduction to a cast iron pan.  I think back on my first cast iron dinner … The memory is truly a treasure.

I was doing my first tour of many under a very traditional Northern Italian chef. I was cleaning under the broiler and Chef happened to be standing next to me soooo… I asked “Chef, why is this old pan always under your broiler? We never ever use it.” He said, “you have never used a cast iron skillet?” I said I had never seen a cast iron skillet. Chef made me what he called “Casino Chicken” (a roaster cut into 16 pieces dusted with tapioca flour, salt and pepper, fried in 1 pound of hot frothy unclarified butter for 45 minutes ’till good and done 20 +/- minutes per side), simple and good.

Wait a minute! Chef was cooking for me? What was it about this pan that would compel Chef to cook for an apprentice? Needless to say the meal is one I will never forget. The magic from the pan was in the meal and now was within me. I was hooked making everything from tarte tatin (using any fruits available), breads, cobblers, upside down cakes, chocolate clafoutis with fruit and or nuts, blackened anything. Chef finally ask me one day “Are you through, Al?”  I told him “for now.” He smiled.

If you are one of the fortunate ones to have a family hand me down, somehow the history makes the cooking even better. Perhaps it is the cast iron itself that screams history from meals passed? Maybe it is a great memory of grandma frying up some chicken?  There is a good feeling you get from cast iron that no other cooking vessel can give you.

Go in search for some Black Gold. Find it and you will be rewarded with a treasure indeed.

Cast iron frying pans must be seasoned before use and periodically afterwards. Many traditionalists maintain that a cast iron frying pan should never be washed, but rather wiped clean after each use. Washing destroys the anti-stick finish that forms through use and will promote rust. If you need to scrub, use kosher salt and a terry cloth that you will find will become its only purpose. Keep that cloth with your pan.

*some facts from Wikipedia