Raymond Blanc by Anolon

Anolon have re-launched their existing cookware ranges as the Raymond Blanc by Anolon collection. This is not a new relationship between Raymond Blanc and Anolon - previously he had endorsed the Anolon Professional range.

Anolon are widely regarded as being one the industry leaders in the design and development of cookware and kitchen knives. Their cookware products combine quality and style with the overall aim of enabling the home chef to achieve professional results.

Raymond Blanc OBE is one of the most respected and honoured chefs not only in the UK but across Europe. Among his sizeable collection of awards is European Chef of the Year. He has a reputation, as the Good Hotel Guide points out, for “perfection”. The regard with which he is held within the culinary world coupled, with his attention to detail, makes him the ideal partner in the development of new ranges of cookware. Although famous for the use of the finest ingredients in his cooking, he is also fully aware of the importance of the role that equipment plays in cooking. It is for this reason that he was happy to become involved in the redevelopment of the Anolon range and also to give his name to the new ranges produced as a result of this exciting collaboration.

The new Raymond Blanc by Anolon ranges has seen the development of products that encompass all aspects of the cooking process, from pots to non-stick bakeware and from precision knives to essential kitchen tools and gadgets. The new portfolio features three new ranges of pans, Anodized Clad, Professional and Stainless Steel. All of which have been expertly created to ensure that they produce a professional cooking performance. Both sides of the partnership, Raymond Blanc and Anolon have worked hard in striving to reach perfectionism with the new products. All of the pans in the three new Raymond Blanc by Anolon ranges come with a lifetime guarantee.

How do you like your eggs cooked?

We thought we would do something different with this blog posting. We have decided to highlight some of the different 'egg' related products that we sell on our website.
Progressive 5-in-1 Egg Slicer This Egg Slicer will enable you to easily slice, pierce, dice, half or wedge your eggs.
Judge Vista 4 Hole Egg Poacher Ever had problems poaching your eggs? If you have then this could be ideal for you. This gadget will enable you to poach up to 4 eggs at the same time. It has a vented glass lid to enable you to monitor the progress of the eggs during cooking. It is also dishwasher safe.
Alessi Mr Chin Egg Cup Alessi products are famous for the innovative, stylish and often quirky design. This Mr Chin egg cup fits all these criteria. It was designed by Stefano Giovannion and Rumiko Takedo.
Egg Perfect Colour Changing Egg Timer This gadget has been created so that your boiled eggs will turn out how you want every time. It changes colour so that you can see when your eggs are ready. It will let you know when your eggs are soft, medium or hard boiled. It works by sensing the heat and not by measuring time. It can take into account the number of eggs that you are cooking, the amount of eggs and even the altitude at which the eggs are being cooked.
Eddingtons Set of 2 Poach Perfect Silicone Egg Poachers This egg poacher is both fun and practical as well as being easy to use. Its silicone construction makes it exceedingly flexible, this means that all you need to do is turn the mould inside out to remove the egg. It is heat resistant up to 250C as well as being dishwater, microwave and freezer safe. It can if you want also be used for cooking desserts. This gadget was the GOLD Winner in the Cookware and Bakeware category at the 2009 Industry Awards.
Eddingtons Large Egg Spatula This novelty fried egg design spatula is perfect for flipping eggs. Don't be fooled by its fun design, it is exceedingly practical, it's use is not limited to flipping eggs, if you wish you could also use it for turning omelettes and pancakes.
Born to Shop I Love Morning Time for Breakfast Set This breakfast set is the ideal way to brighten up your mornings. As well as the scatter tray and china mug it comes with a I Love Morning Time eggcup.
Master Class Stainless Steel Egg Slicer This egg slicer from Master Class has 8 stainless steel cutting wires designed for specifically slicing eggs perfectly time after time.
Alessi Coccodandy Egg Basket Another product that is easily identifiable as being an Alessi design. Like all Alessi products behind the innovative and stylised design is a product with a practical purpose. In the case of this gadget it is a basket that enables you to boil four eggs simultaneously.
Eddingtons Double Egg Poacher Double Egg Poachers. Hang on the rim or stand on the bottom of the pan. Non-stick peel. Designed to make it easy to poach two eggs simultaneously. It has been designed so that it will either hang on the rim of a pan or sit on the bottom of a pan.
Progressive Non-Stick Triple Egg Poacher This gadget has been designed to enable you to poach three eggs simultaneously, also guarantees that your poached eggs out with a consistent neat shape.
Kitchen Craft Stainless Steel Egg Rings Set These simple stainless steel rings have been designed to ensure that your fried eggs always turn out neatly with a consistent shape.

Do you have a favourite or do you have any experience of using any of the above products? Did any of the gadgets designed for poaching an egg enable you to make the 'perfect' poached egg. Let us know what you think of them.

New ranges from Dunoon, Creative Tops and Typhoon added to our website

We continually add new stock to our online shop and we like to ensure that we stock the products that people actually want. This week has seen us add a series of new ranges from three major brands to our online store.

These include a new designs from Dunoon mugs. Dunoon ceramics are without doubt one of the market leaders in the manufacture of fine bone quality china mugs and teapots. They like to ensure that their products are contemporary, often their ranges are only available for between 6 and 12 months. They have launched a new range of Signs of the Zodiac mugs. The 12 mugs in this collection each feature an individual sign of the zodiac. As well as adding the Sign of the Zodiac range we have also added two new individual mugs by Dunoon. For patriotic people there is a choice of a new Born and Bred in England or Born and Bred in Scotland mug.

We have also expanded our collection of Creative Tops placemats that we sell. We have added the new V&A Brompton Rose, V&A Brocade Placemats and the V&A Victoria Placemats ranges to the website. The designs for the three new ranges of placemats mirror the designs of the V&A fine bone mugs that were produced earlier this year by Creative Tops which proved to be a phenomenal success.

Another new collection that we have added to the website is the GreenPan range from Typhoon. These pans gave been described as a ‘revolution in cookware’. They have been manufactured with a Thermolon non-stick coating, which results in 60% less CO2 being emitted during the manufacturing process. Another added extra bonus is the non-stick coating will not be destroyed if you overheat these pans, as the ceramic construction will withstand temperatures of 450C/850F.

We expect to be able to announce several other new exciting additions to our range shortly, as soon as we have that information we will add it here.

The new Jamie Oliver series

Last night I saw the trailer for the new Jamie Oliver series, Jamie’s American Road Trip. The show features as the name suggests Jamie Oliver travelling and cooking in the US. The advert for the show has him dressed up as all six characters from the Village People. If you are too young or just not familiar with the Village People it would not be an understatement to say that they did not dress conservatively. I will leave it you to Google them if you are that interested in how they looked. It is good to see that Jamie Oliver can still laugh at himself.

I don’t know if the Americans will take to Jamie’s personality. Besides filming this show he has also spent a considerable amount of time over the ‘pond’ working on building the ‘Jamie Oliver’ brand.

In this country he is almost as well known for his campaign to improve school dinners, change unhealthy diets and cooking habits as he is as a chef. To some extent he was fortunate in that his ‘rise’ corresponded with people becoming more conscious about their food, the so called rise of the ‘foodie’. This was the time when chefs became media personalities, one newspaper even making the claim that “cooking was the new rock ‘n’ roll”.

It is interesting as a cookware retailer to see the effect a chef having a new television series can have on the particular chefs own cookware ranges. Although there have only been adverts for the new show so far we have already noticed an increase in activity on the Jamie Oliver Cookware pages of our website. This has helped raise the profiles the two ranges that he launched last month, the Jamie Oliver Knife Range and the Jamie Oliver Tools Range. There has definitely been an increased interest in Jamie Oliver branded cookware, as well as an increase in sales. This proves that Jamie Oliver still has the ability to inspire people to be more adventurous in their cooking, which has got be a good thing?

Spend £50 or over on an order and you can get a FREE Recycling Bag Set

At the moment on the Pots and Pans website we have decided that if you spend over £50 you can get a free Premier Recycling Bag Set (worth £7.00). All you need to do is add it your order.

The bags are colour coded, this means it easier to identify what type of recycling the bag is being used for. The bags are exceedingly durable and come with handles making them easy to carry. They are strong enough to hold paper, plastics or glass. The bags are washable so that you re-use them.

If you spend over £100 you can choose instead to get a free Natural Origins 8 Bottle Wine Rack, worth £15.00. This rubberwood and chrome wine rack will store up to 8 bottles of wine.

Hollywood gives Le Creuset free advertising

In the USA the success of the film Julie & Julia has seen a dramatic increase in the sales of Le Creuset cast iron cookware. Le Creuset features extensively in the cookery sequences of the film that is based on the book Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, written in 1961. The film tells the story of two woman, these are the Julie and Julia of the title. Meryl Streep plays the role of Julia Child, the author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking while Amy Andrews plays Julie Powell who attempts to cook all the 524 recipes that are contained in the book.

In the film both women when cooking use Le Creuset pots exclusively. This product placement has lead to a major increase in the sales of Le Creuset products in the US. The success of the film has also given the sales of both the book and French cookery classes a major lift.

Many retailers are already re-branding Le Creuset as the Julie & Julia cookware. Advertising from Le Creuset features pictures of the woman using their products in the film. Competitions offer people the opportunity to win tickets for the film or merchandise associated with the film along with the Le Creuset products that feature in the film.

Le Creuset, as a brand has always been one of our best sellers and we expect that this free advertising will make it even more popular. The film is scheduled to be released in the UK on the 11th of September. The products that feature in the film are from the new Le Creuset Stainless Steel range as well as the cerise casserole dish.

An unusual use of pots and pans

Everyday we receive emails from customers and friends with either questions or advice about pots and pans. Yesterday we received one from a customer who sent us instead an unusual news story concerning pots and pans. After reading it and checking up to ensure that it was true we decided that this one was worth sharing with you on the blog.

In Mezzema, a small village of 85 people in Liguria in the north west of Italy the local priest took the unilateral decision to stop ringing the church bells after he received a complaint from a tourist about the early morning bell ringing. This infuriated the residents. One of whom complained that the bells “keep the elderly company” as well as it being a century old tradition. The villagers received no joy from their initial discussions with the priest concerning the bell ringing. They decided that they needed to take more direct action if they were to receive any satisfaction. The plan they hatched was to walk round the village in groups banging pots and pans as loudly as possibly at the times that the bells were supposed to ring. After doing this on several occasions the priest finally relented and the bells have started to chime again.

This has got to be one of the most unusual uses of pots and pans that we have come across. We have never tested our pans to see which one would be the nosiest but a quick straw poll came to the consensus that it would probably be the one of the Stellar pans that would win this competition. If you disagree with us we would love to hear your suggestions.

Spend £40 or over and get a FREE gift...

At present if you spend £40 or over on an order you can claim a free Le Creuset Cerise Silicone Spatula, which is worth £4.40. If you spend £75 or over you can claim a free Natural Origins 8 Bottle Wine Rack. This normally retails at £15.

Instructions for how to claim your free gift are on the website. This offer is available while stocks last. It is limited to one free gift per order.

Don't forget that there is free delivery on orders of £50 or over.
*Equivalent discount for areas outside of Great Britain.