Le Creuset Controversy & Sage Specials

This week I have a raft of Sage special offers, along with the Nespresso Citiz return, now manufactured by DeLonghi. But before I start on this, there was an article in the Telegraph on the first of this month, by Katie Morley, about Le Creuset’s nonstick range, called Toughened Non Stick (TNS).  In the article she made some comments that were fair and some that were unfair, although admittedly the latter were born out of ignorance.

Or, to put it in other words, she bought from John Lewis (a good retailer, but not a great one) and not Art of Living, where she’d would have been informed of how to use her non stick purchases to get the best cooking results and to extend the life of the pans, into the bargain.

If you'd like to read her whole article then you can do so here.   Otherwise, I've summarised what I thought were her five main issues below.

1. That spending large sums of money on high quality nonstick cookware doesn’t mean long life. Well, she’d had her pans 6 years when the problems surfaced and Le Creuset offered to provide a FOC (Free of Charge) replacement which is pretty good support I think. But the other point I’d make is that no nonstick coating lasts forever, however good the quality, hence the benefit of a pan that's designed to work without e.g. cast iron, iron, steel or stainless steel.

2. The coating had worn down to such an extent that it was increasingly difficult to cook on.  And that 3. Le Creuset also said she had over heated the pan. Which she thought was impudent of them to point out.  These two points are closely related. My experience tells me that the nonstick coating wasn’t worn down, it had been over heated.** And once a coating has been overheated (over 270 degrees) then it starts to degrade (this applies to all plastic based nonsticks, not just Le Creuset’s) and will start to become less and less nonstick with time, so making it harder and harder to cook on.

4. Her penultimate point was that her Le Creuset pans contain PTFE. To my knowledge Le Creuset haven't used PTFE in their coating since at the latest 2015. However, plastic based nonsticks do usually have PFAS chemicals in them, so called 'forever chemicals', and so do everyone else’s coatings unless you move to a ceramic based coating like the one GreenPan use. Part of the problem here is that we just do not know what the current PFAS chemicals are doing to us, so it’s hard to know if we should be happy using them or conversely avoiding them at all costs.  The case has not yet been proven. *

5. Her last point seems a little petulant, when she says

“I don’t wish to be told which cooking oils I can and can’t use, or that I’m not allowed to fry on high heats because my pan can’t handle it.”

Actually, the phrase “a little petulant” is a very tolerant standpoint. Showing her complete ignorance on the subject would be more accurate. And that of course is ok, she is not alone in not understanding why she had unintentionally buggered up her pans. But to then write about it in a national newspaper without researching the subject is, to say the least, puzzling. And, that in my opinion is a muted statement in a situation that rather makes my blood boil. Journalists have a responsibility to research their subject when writing, don’t they?

Now, as I write this, my guts just full of irritation and ire at the girl, a slightly more reasonable Andrew surfaces, and starts to wonder why she thought she knew best. And the answer comes back, because it’s an everyday occurrence, cooking. Afterall, we all do it, day in day out, don't we. 'I don’t wish to be told what to do' ….. Well, it seems you should be told Katie and to be scrupulously fair to you, you are far from being alone in your state of ignorance.  Le Creuset recommend not only using lower temperatures** but don't recommend using olive oil, because It has a very low flash point, lower than most other oils. Extra virgin olive oil burns at say about 150 degrees Celsius* (and that is low!) and burnt oils not only become very sticky and difficult to remove off nonstick coatings but also become a potential carcinogen. So, their recommendations should be taken seriously, they know more than most on the subject.

* I believe that a rule of thumb is that extra virgin olive oil burns at a lower temperature than one that’s been processed more. So, there is no one temperature cooking oils will burn at.

** High quality Nonstick coatings are heat proof to around 270c and then they start to degrade, Get to 350c and its all over. This applies to ALL plastic based non sticks. So if you really need higher temperatures than this,  it best by far, to go for an uncoated pan.

Now, all of this might make you believe that I’m a fan of nonstick coatings. To be clear, I am not. Because although we sell far more nonstick pans than stick pans, eight or nine times out of ten, you will, with a bit of practice, get better results with uncoated pans than coated ones. They will be healthier and tastier and the pan will probably last you, your life time.

It’s a short week this week so I am just listing the offers from Sage below and as I mentioned in the beginning, De Longhi are now charged with making the Nespresso Citiz machines, so very good to have these machines back, as they’ve been a consistent seller for many many years.

For you patient readers, this week, I am offering a further £20 off the already discounted Sage kitchen electricals listed below. Just use discount code SAGE20 if shopping online, or let us know who you are if coming into our Reigate or Cobham shops.

I trust that you have a pleasant and peaceful weekend.

Warm regards,

Andrew