Get ready for outdoor cooking this summer with British handmade BBQ tools forged by Somerset blacksmith
www.alexpoleironwork.com
Barbecue season will start early this year with the slight easing of restrictions meaning up to six people can meet outdoors. As lockdown restrictions lift and outdoor socialising is permitted, the great British barbecue season will begin in earnest.
At Alex Pole Ironwork there is everything a keen barbecue or fire cook needs to cook over flames, including spun iron pans and skillets that can be used on open flame, skewers, spatulas and tongs.
There is a strong and growing movement towards using more sustainable cooking utensils and cookware. That movement also goes hand in hand with the increase in desire to not import goods from the other side of the world.
Alex Pole comments, “The pans we cook in, the utensils we serve with, and the cutlery we use, are as important to any meal as the ingredients, it’s all part of the flavour, and the pleasure of cooking. Why cook an organically reared, 48-day salt-aged steak that cost £40 in a £6 aluminium, chemically coated frying pan? That is about as insulting to both the cow and the farmer as you can get, not to mention the use of the chemicals to make mainstream pans ‘non-stick’.”
The tools we use in the kitchen are probably the most used items in our houses, other than our phones and devices, and as such will start to play a big role in the global push towards more environmentally conscious living - spun steel and cast-iron pans will last a life time (several in fact if well looked after). Make it properly, buy it once, and it can be passed on down the generations.
Buying properly made, British made kitchenware adds to the drive towards a cleaner world. It also adds to the flavour of the food and experience of cooking it.
Cook with Alex Pole Ironwork tools this summer.
BBQ Tools Set
The ultimate tool set for any keen fire chef or BBQ maestro, including six skewers, tongs, spatula and a meat fork, all wrapped up in a beautiful canvas roll made by Francli Craftwear in Cornwall. (£225 alexpoleironwork.com)
11-inch frying pan
Beautiful hand sun carbon steel, which is smooth and naturally non-stick, with forged handles and copper rivets. This beautiful pan will last a lifetime if cared for properly. (£135 alexpoleironwork.com)
Four-piece drinks set
Set up a bar in the garden with a corkscrew, traditional bottle opener, ring bottle opener and three cocktail spoons. The corkscrew and spoons are hand forged in ‘black’ stainless stell and the bottle opener in steel with a leather lanyard. (£135 alexpoleironwork.com)
The Forge Kitchen Cookbook
The Forge Kitchen is full of inspiration and outdoor cooking ideas and recipes. A collaboration between Alex Pole and co-author Pooch Horsburgh and 21 chefs including Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Gill Meller, Anja Dunk, Valentine Warner and Olia Hercules, each of The Forge Kitchen chefs has taken their inspiration from cookware made in the fires of Alex Pole’s Somerset forge.
The Forge Kitchen fuses traditionally made kitchenware with contemporary chefs and the very best ingredients to create a unique set of ingredients. Recipes include scallops with brown shrimp and sorrel butter by Olia Hercules; hogget with salsa verde by Gill Meller; chilli squid with ginger, basil yoghurt and sweetcorn chutney by Nathan Outlaw; beetroot tatin with roasted garlic, thyme and goat’s cheese; and piperade with baked eggs and crispy pancetta by Thomasina Miers.
“The Forge Kitchen celebrates the vital energy between great kitchen tools, great ingredients and great cooking - and the results are beautiful, satisfying and delicious.” Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, River Cottage
The Forge Kitchen is £25 and available to buy at www.alexpoleironwork.com
About The Forge Kitchenware
Alex Pole is a British blacksmith making traditionally hand-forged kitchenware and cooking utensils, made in the fires of his Somerset workshop. Forging is the ancient art of shaping metal by heating it in a fire and hammering. It is an art that is full of tradition and folklore but with many modern applications.
Alex has been working as a blacksmith for over 25 years and founded The Forge Kitchenware in 2015. He makes pieces for home kitchens, outdoor cooking and bespoke pieces for cooks, chefs and restaurants including Nathan Outlaw, Christian Stevenson aka DJ BBQ, Gill Meller, Mark Hix and Thomasina Miers. Each piece is individually forged, using local materials, wherever possible, by a small team of skilled craftsmen dedicated to producing the highest quality work. One of Alex’s primary aims is to promote blacksmithing, and the makers movement, across the UK and to show its relevance in the 21st century.
Every piece of Forge Kitchenware be it a skillet, knife, coffee scoop or an axe, starts as a simple bar of steel, which is heated and repeatedly hit on the anvil until it is the correct size, shape and style. Heat, strike, repeat! The Forge Kitchenware takes the everyday and redefines it to create beautiful and tactical, yet wholly functional, pieces of work. Each piece is designed with simple form, clean lines and functionality and are made to last a lifetime.
Notes to editors
Alex Pole Ironwork
The Forge, South Harp Farm Yard, Over Stratton, Somerset, TA13 5LB
www.alexpoleironwork.com | @alexpoleironwork
Blacksmith courses and Forge and Feast events will resume later in 2021.
For more information, interview or a site visit to The Forge, please contact Hannah Blake at The Dining Room on 07730 039 361 or hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk
