International Home + Housewares Show 2010: Six great ideas for the kitchen

If you want to see what’s new—and what’s coming—for the kitchen, the International Home + Housewares Show is the place to do it. Every spring, the world’s largest audience of home goods and housewares professionals—more than 60,000 in all—descends upon Chicago’s McCormick Place. Marion and I elbowed our way through the crowds, looking for interesting new tools, gadgets and ideas for home cooks. Here’s what we found.

1. Hot Pot, BODUM Inc.

Perhaps best known for their beautifully practical coffee presses, BODUM brings plenty of functional style to the rest of the kitchen too. These HOT POTS go from the stovetop to the table, from the oven to the fridge. They’re  made of heat-resistant borosilicate glass, with flexible silicone lids that can act as both a trivet and pot holder.

You can use HOT POTS in the microwave too. The food-grade silicone lids even have pin-point holes for venting. Don’t look for HOT POTS just yet, though. They’ll be available in early summer,  in three different sizes—8 ounces, 34 ounces and 85 ounces—and in multiple colors. To see more of what BODUM offers, including cookware, serveware, gadgets, countertop appliances and, yes, coffee press pots, visit the BODUM USA website.

2. POURfect Bowls, POURfect

Okay, so these technically aren’t new, but they’re new to us. And they make such total sense to anyone who’s wiped up a kitchen spill or three, that we had to share them with you. Inventor Randy Kaas calls POURfect bowls “the original spill-proof bowl.”

He could be right. They feature a dripless spout with a pivot under the spout to position the bowl on another container for easy pouring, even with one hand. Their channel and gull wing design directs both wet and dry ingredients exactly where they need to go. POURfect bowls feature an egg cracking ledge that keeps all of the egg inside the bowl and a rubber ring on the bottom for added stability while mixing ingredients. They also have English and Metric measurements inside the bowls to make measuring simple. The dishwasher-safe bowls are available in 1-cup, 2-cup, 4-cup, 6-cup, 8-cup and 12-cup sizes and are designed to nest within each other for easy storage. For more information, visit the POURfect Bowl website.

3. The Spatula Bouquet, Charles Viancin Paris

We first met Charles Viancin at the 2009 International Home + Housewares Show. He absolutely charmed us with his Inspired by Nature collection of “cooking products that are inspired directly by the beauty and clever complexity of nature.” The pieces were a perfect mix of beautiful, whimsical and utterly practical.

At the time, Viancin was looking for an American distributor, so his kitchen tools were available in Europe and Japan, but not here. Well, now he’s found an official distributor in the US and Canada, the Catamount Glassware Company in Bennington, Vermont.

And that means you can now actually buy clever tools like the Spatula Bouquet, three frond-shaped spatulas that snap into a suction cup holder to create a light, fresh and airy bouquet. The holder doubles as a spoon rest while cooking, and the sturdy, nylon spatulas feature FDA-approved silicone heads that won’t scratch stainless steel, copper, nonstick or ceramics. To see the complete line of fun, hardworking kitchen accessories, visit the Charles Viancin Paris website.

4. Solid Green Bamboo Cutting Boards, TruBamboo

Bamboo is perhaps the quintessential renewable resource, the fastest growing woody plant in the world. It is an incredibly durable alternative to hardwoods, harder than maple, and using it helps conserve hardwood forests. TruBamboo has been using bamboo to make eco-friendly housewares products since 2003. The industry leader, they make up 25% of the market.

This year, TruBamboo announced the launch of its Solid Green line of products, designed to bring added style and convenience to cooks wanting to be more green in their kitchens. The Tigris Bamboo boards shown above are made from multi-colored bamboo fibers compressed to create patterned boards perfect for serving pieces.

And while we all want to be greener, we want it to be easy. So TruBamboo is introducing Solid Green dishwasher-safe boards, shown at left. They combine bamboo’s renewable and naturally antibacterial qualities with easy maintenance. These and other Solid Green products are due to appear in stores this summer. Meanwhile, you can check out TruBamboo’s full line of bamboo housewares at their website.

5. Induction-ready Cookware, Fagor America/Fundix

Ready or not, induction cooking is coming. It’s safer and faster than conventional stoves, using 90% of the energy produced, compared to only 55% for gas burners and 65% for traditional electric ranges. Two companies we saw at the show are definitely ready.

For all its contemporary styling, the Spanish kitchenware line Fundix has 400 years of metal casting history behind it. Their Induction Line of cast aluminum cookware is sturdy, warp-resistant and nonstick and can be used on all kinds of cooktops, including induction.

Aluminum offers quick, even heat distribution, making Fundix cookware even more energy efficient. And removable handles on skillets, grill pans and saucepans makes storing easy, even in the tiniest kitchen.

Fundix was yet another European company looking for a distributor at the show. Its beautiful pots and pans are not currently available in the US.

Well, unless you talk to Fagor America. A leader in ultra-efficient induction cooktops and home appliances, the company recently announced the expansion of its induction-ready cast aluminum cookware line. A cookware line manufactured for them by none other than Fundix. Their Fagor Cast Aluminum line features removable stainless steel handles and a double layer of PFOA-Free Whitford non-stick coating. The durable nonstick coating is scratch resistant for years of use and easy clean up.

Whether you’re ready for induction cooking or not, you can check out these beautiful, sturdy cookware lines at the Fundix website or Fagor America website.

6. Artist-designed Dinnerware, Ink Dish

Design Director Caroline Pople and her family had been designing dinnerware patterns for over 30 years. Finding it difficult to persuade any of the major companies to buy their more contemporary designs, she and David Harding founded Ink Dish in 2008. When their Irezumi design shown here was named to Metropolitan Home’s 2009 Design 100 list, they knew they were on to something. The design “is based on the Japanese style of tattooing known as Irezumi,” according to the Ink Dish website. “Vibrant dragons, colorful Koi, cherry blossoms and waves weave together organically to exhibit this ancient style of tattooing, blending in the same way on porcelain as they would on a body.”

San Diego-based Ink Dish brings the visions of cutting edge artists like Paul Timman of Sunset Strip Tattoo [who designed the Irezumi collection] and Alyson Fox to the table. All products are ‘A’ quality porcelain decorated with an inglaze decal that results in a product that is elegant and microwave and dishwasher safe.

And they’re definitely not your grandmother’s china. “There are a lot of talented bridal designers working in tabletop, but that only serves part of the population,” says Dave Harding, CEO. “Our customers want a product that makes them say ‘wow!’ when they see the design, resonates when they hear the story behind it, and delivers good value when they reach for their wallet.” See what has everyone saying, “Wow!” Visit the Ink Dish website.