BUSINESS
News Graphic - 05/17/2016
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GMTODAY.COM
High-quality cookware aims to enhance kitchens
By Laurie Arendt
News Graphic Correspondent
CEDARBURG — When Sara Dahmen
brings her Housekeeper Crockery line
to Cedarburg’s Rustic Palate Saturday,
she’ll be returning something to downtown Cedarburg that hasn’t been in its
kitchens for more than 100 years: highquality, American-made kitchenware.
“Everyone talks about the importance of natural, organic, locally
grown food, but we really don’t think
about what we are cooking in,” said
Dahmen, the founder of Port Washington-based Housekeeper Cookery. “We
really should. We take this wonderful
food and we throw it into cookware
that is made from impure materials
and leaches chemicals into our foods.”
Dahmen first became interested in
historic cookware while writing her
historical novel, “Doctor Kinney’s
Housekeeper,”
which
required
research into what actually comprised
an 1800s kitchen. What she found was
that this equipment – tall copper pots,
handmade pottery and cast-iron cookware, among other things – was incredibly difficult to find for the modern
kitchen.
“In addition to that, higher-end cookware is now made in France or Italy,
not America,” she said. “Celebrity
chefs are paid to endorse and use this
cookware. And what is made in America isn’t built to last in the way the historic cookware was.”
In a quirky twist of fate, the idea of
starting her own cookware company
actually started as a marketing tool for
her book, which won the Grand Prize
Laramie Award in Western historical
fiction by the Chanticleer Book
Reviews.
“When you are a self-published
author, you’re encouraged to have a
marketing platform to sell the book,”
she said. “I thought, hmmm, historical
fiction, set in a kitchen … why not
actually start a kitchenware line?”
So that’s what she did, embarking on
a round of cold calls to find sources
and manufacturers who could provide
her with the inventory for her new venture.
“People have been absolutely wonderful to me,” she said. “They could
have completely blown me off, but they
haven’t.”
Many of the vendors she is working
with are longtime producers, with
decades of experience in their respective crafts. Dahmen also has purposely
tried to source her products from local
vendors, which include a one-womanpotter from Saukville (Shanal Pottery)
and iron skillets cast at Roloff Manufacturing Corp. in Kaukauna. She is
now collaborating with another known
copper smith in the country focused on
copper pots.
Submitted photos
Sarah Dahmen works on crafting an item at her Houskeeper Cookery workshop in
Port Washington.
If you go
Sarah Dahmen will present her line of Housekeeper Crockery and talk about cookware
with customers. Food samples will be available. She said she’s happy to share her
knowledge of historic cookware and encourages visitors to bring in their pieces.
Where: Rustic Palate, W63 N712 Washington Ave., Cedarburg
When: 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday
Website: www.housekeepercrokery.com
Seasoned pans, left, and copper pots, right, are offered by Housekeeper Crockery.
“I’ve had a crash course in metallurgy,” said Dahmen, who is now an
apprentice tinsmith and coppersmith
herself.
It’s been about a 15-month journey
for Dahmen from inspiration to rollout
with Housekeeper Crockery, and she’s
established a website with information
about her product line and a blog. Her
book is also available via the website.
It can be seen at www.housekeepercrockery.com.
edarburg-owned communications firm, acquired
Copyright © 2016 Conley Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved. 05/17/2016
June 28, 2016 9:36 am (GMT +5:00)
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