What was cooking at the housewares show

In my previous posts, I’ve talked about the new items and trends I noticed at the International Home and Housewares Show earlier this week.

Definitely there are some continuing trends that bear repeating:

Color and silicone--and the combination of the two—continue in the kitchen. Reds, black and white, blues and greens remain popular. Also keep eyes peeled for some new colors from KitchenAid – in both its stand mixers and its kitchen tools line—such as a cherry pink, orange, pear and turquoise.

Silicone – Remember a few years ago when silicone was for spatulas and those nifty baking mats? We’ve seen silicone’s applications stretch into bakeware (Silicone Zone, Lekue, KitchenAid, and later this year, Kaiser Bakeware’s silicone forms on metal racks) then to those easy-to-store, jack-in-the-box colanders (Chef’N, Dexas, Oxo, Silicone Zone.) And this year, steamers and steam cases from Lekue, Orka/Mastrad, SiliconeZone are hitting the market.

Tagines
Tagines, those conical beauties used for slow Morrocan cooking, continue to multiply. And silicone is being put to use here too.

• Silicone Zone’s tagine – has a flip-up lip so it fits both a 12-inch and a 10-inch pan. Plus it is microwave safe and can be used as a splatter guard too.

• Orka/Mastrad is introducing a two-piece silicone tagine set in both red and green.

• And along the lines of a more traditional tagine…in its Flame Top Clay, Emile Henry expands its Tagine offerings to include Figue, a luscious, deep purple hue.

Celebrity Endorsements
Celebrity chefs from TV Food Network continue to endorse brands or develop their own cookware lines

• Hey, y'all guess who is coming out with a cookware line? Paula Deen is following up on her 2007 launch of her condiment line (with Smithfield Specialty Foods Group) with a namesake cookware line. Meyer, which also markets the Rachael Ray line of cookware, said the Deen line is their largest brand launch to date. Expect tabletop, bakeware, cookware and even a nifty teakettle in the fall.

• Tyler Florence – teamed up Outset Inc., known for their grill tools, to create a line called Tyler Florence Food Tools.

• Expect the Jamie Oliver line by Marison to hit the U.S. market in July.

• Rachael Ray line of cookware, with Meyer, will add yellow items in the third quarter. Also more cast iron items are in the works.
• BBC 's foul-mouthed chef Gordon Ramsay is introducing a cookware line.
  

Buzz words

• Bisphenol A-free, known as BPA-free for short, is coming on strong in the reusable water bottle market.

• Green cookware or perfluorooctanoic acid-free or PFOA –free nonstick coatings on cookware.