S. W. Farber, Inc.

The S.W. Farber company was established in 1900 when S.W. Farber, a tinsmith, set up a shop in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The initial products were copper and brass bowls and vases. In 1910, the company introduced Farberware, the line of kitchenware for which it is best known, with chrome and silver-plated table accessories. It produced kitchenware, pots, and pans in the 1920s and moved into the appliance field in 1930 when it developed the first Farberware coffee percolator. Farber improved this with the Coffee Robot coffeemaker of 1937 that could keep coffee warm long after it had brewed. The Broiler Robot, which followed in 1938, was advertised as “the first broiler that could cook at the dinner table.”

Farberware stainless steel and aluminum pans were introduced in 1949 after the company had moved away from wartime demands and invested in stainless steel production. It produced the first stainless steel electric frying pan in 1954. Sold to the multinational Hanson Industries in 1987, it is now a part of Salton Inc. and continues to produce coffeemakers, juicers, and waffle makers.

See also
Coffeemakers

Crate&Barrel

The Chicago couple Gordon and Carole Segal established Crate&Barrel in 1962. Like Terence Conran in the United Kingdom, they realized that others would enjoy the design and quality of kitchen and home products that they had found on journeys within the United States and abroad. The idea came to them while doing the washing up.

They renovated a 1,700-square-foot former elevator factory in Chicago’s Old Town district. The decor was, by necessity, very cheap; the walls were lined with crating timber and the products displayed in packing crates and barrels. The first store employed three people and offered gourmet cookware and other contemporary housewares in greater variety and at better prices than elsewhere in Chicago.

The first Crate&Barrel mail-order catalogue was produced in 1967 and the first store outside Chicago opened in 1977. Crate&Barrel opened in San Francisco in 1985 and in New York in 1995. In 1998, it entered a partnership with the world’s largest mail-order company, Otto Versand of Hamburg, Germany.

Crate&Barrel has grown into one of the most influential retailers in the United States, with over eighty stores. Its flagship store opened on North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, in 1990. Although the store has been described as resembling a giant food processor, its main forms are a cube with a cylindrical attachment, literally a crate and barrel.

Like Habitat, Crate&Barrel helped create “lifestyle” shopping and influenced both consumers and other retailers. Apart from furniture and linens it sells a wide range of stylish appliances from manufacturers such as KitchenAid and Dualit. The company has a strong philanthropic policy and passes unsold goods on to local charities. It also has financially supported AIDS-related causes.

Cookware

During the nineteenth century the majority of cooking pots had been made of cast iron. A major United Kingdom company manufacturing cooking pots was Kenricks of Birmingham. Lighter wares were of sheet tin. Enameled cast iron was developed in the 1850s. It was easier to clean and more attractive, despite a limited color range. A mottled blue was one of the commonest colors. Germany, Austria, and France were all significant producers. The 1870s saw innovations in the metal industry. Pressed mild steel appeared as a result of the Bessemer and Siemens processes. Aluminum wares were produced in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom from the 1880s. The American West Bend Company of West Bend, Wisconsin, began production of aluminum cookware in 1911. Its main customer was the mail-order company Sears, Roebuck.

The new cooking methods of gas and later electricity had an effect on cookware. Enameled iron saucepans were unpredictable and milk pans boiled over due to the uneven conductivity of iron and enamel. American manufacturers did continue with cast iron, offering bright enameled colors on the outside. British manufacturers moved to steel and aluminum.

The cookware industries of Europe and America went into wartime production between 1914 and 1918 and emerged with improved technologies. The most popular British brands were Tower, Diamond Brand, Swan, and Goat. Steel cookware was often enameled in either green or beige with contrasting rims in a darker shade. In postwar Germany, the once mighty BMW company had to cease producing aircraft engines and move into pots and pans to survive.

Aluminum wares were well suited to electric stoves. In 1934 the Wear Ever Company produced a range with heat resistant plastic handles. Stainless steel, an alloy of steel, nickel, and chromium developed in the 1920s, offered better resistance to rust and acidic corrosion. West Bend introduced their Waterless Cooker in 1921. Based on the suggestion of one of its salesmen, the lid of the cooker was fitted with clamps that prevented the escape of steam during cooking, making the addition of water unnecessary. They sold well and led to the introduction of a range of waterless wares known as the Flavo-Seal line. The U.S. Revere Copper and Brass Company developed a range of stainless steel pans with copper plated bottoms. Marketed in 1939 as Revere Ware, they gave better heat distribution.

In addition to stainless steel materials, chrome plated steel and heatproof glass like Pyrex was becoming popular. Colored aluminum was also fashionable during the late 1940s and 1950s. Anodized aluminum wares have a satin gloss finish and were introduced in 1946 by the Aluminum Utensil Company. West Bend had introduced anodized wares with colored dyes by 1950; these materials improved the aesthetics of cookware during the 1950s when the look of a kitchen became more important to manufacturers and consumers. This trend continued throughout the late twentieth century.

The first nonstick pan was introduced in 1956 by a Frenchman, Marc Gregoire, and his wife, Colette. Gregoire had experimented with the low friction substance PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) to produce a smoother running fishing reel. His wife suggested that it would have more commercial success if applied to cookware. The resulting Tefal company became a brand leader as nonstick Teflon-coated pans became popular during the 1960s and 1970s.

Traditional manufacturers also received a boost during the 1970s as a result of public interest in antiques and the positive reassessment of much Victorian taste. A refurbished range or new Aga in a suburban home required the “right” pans. The French firm of Le Creuset benefited enormously. Founded in 1925 at Fresnoy-Le Grand at St. Quentin, its heavy, hand-finished enameled cast-iron pots and pans were just right.

Cultural and social trends also influenced cookware. The success of Asian and Eastern restaurants during the 1960s and 1970s led to a rising interest in cooking such dishes at home. In the United Kingdom, the Habitat stores led the way, selling woks, rice steamers, and chicken bricks. Another trend was toward professional cookware as the Western media began to promote “lifestyle” eating and drinking in the 1980s. For those inspired by celebrity chefs, popular choices were the Elysee Line of 1981 by Cuisinox, a French company established in the 1930s, or Calphalon of 1978, a range of commercial, hard anodized aluminum wares made in Ohio. Another serious choice was Le Pentole designed in 1979 for Industrie Casalinghi Mori in Italy by Nika Sala. This is a stylish modern reworking of a stacking steamer with five pans.

A more recent innovation has been the specialized pan designed for use away from the stove burner (hob). The Tefal Le Saucier is a nonstick saucepan with an integral mixing paddle powered by an electric spindle through its base. It sits on an individual hot-plate with electronic controls for heating, timing, and stirring. Equally French is the Tibos electric crepe maker, with a nonstick griddle and spreading device.

Cookware has largely retained its traditional forms throughout the twentieth century; the main advances have been in the better performing and lighter materials used and the aesthetic choices available. Most cookware performs well, dependent on price, and both manufacturers and consumers are equally influenced by popular fashions and tastes.