Cookware Without the Carbon Footprint

When I’m introduced to the naked pan at a talk on organic and sustainable cookware for the Sydney International Crave Food Festival – I wonder where it will lead.  It turns out my moment of immaturity is peacefully replaced with an insightful introduction to ways in which we can minimise our carbon footprint with our cookware.

There is no real organisation of recycling in kitchen ware, we continue to cook with teflon, stainless steel, aluminum and copper pots and pans and unless we opt for re-use sites like craigslist and gumtree the recycling process gets very complicated.  An obvious point is yes, the initial cost. NakedPans don’t come cheap, retailing between $150 to $300 a pop, but, they’re durable, long lasting and even recyclable so i’d say your better off on the long term.

The story behind Oigen has all the greenies in the audience serving up sustainable salutes. As a private industry with organic certification, the profits go to the people of the Oigen community. The mother hen of this family business has been brought out from Japan with her interpreter and tells us of the place and practices behind the company.  Situated in Oshu city, 500km NNE east of Tokyo (inland from the tsunami effected areas) are the traditional studios of a handful of craftsmen who hand-make the cast iron cookware.  The NakedPan range have inherited the traditional cooking styles of iron kettle making.  It starts out as an iron slab and is applied with heat after the casting process- providing a natural product made from a single material.

The NakedPans come raw which allows the iron pores to soak in the oils from your cooking and over time they turn black.  The demonstrating chef explains to us that flaxseed oil is the best oil to season it with and the structure of the pan allows for an even distribution of heat.  To clean them, no detergents are needed, simply cook the pealings of your veggie scraps with some oil and rinse it with water.  Again- the pan needs the oil to be trapped in the pores.  He tells us that macrobiotic chefs use iron ware to infuse iron into the food and that residual heat continues when you bring the pan to the table and serve.

For more info on the NakedPan range go to http://www.nakedpan.com/   and if you can read japanese check out the Oigen team at http://www.oigen.co.jp