Italy is known to be fiercely protective of its culinary heritage and culture. So, for a global brand like HexClad to enter its commercial market, it was always going to be with a bang; enter top chef Massimo Bottura.
At a launch event in Milan last month, Bottura made one thing clear: if he didn’t endorse the product, he wouldn’t be there. “People were surprised when I agreed to be an ambassador for HexClad — because I’ve never done it. It’s the first company that I’ve worked with that is not Italian,” he said to Gourmet Traveller at the event.
According to HexClad founder Danny Winer, it took two-and-a-half years to get Bottura on board as he trialled and tested the product. The chef joins a league of the world’s best on HexClad’s Culinary Council, including Gordon Ramsay (a co-owner since 2021), Clare Smyth, Dominique Crenn and Nancy Silverton.
Known for running the three-star Osteria Francescana in Modena (which featured in the first episode of Netflix’s Chef’s Table), several one-star Gucci Osterias around the world and his guesthouse Casa Maria Luigia, Bottura’s proudest achievement is clearly Food For Soul, the organisation he founded with partner Lara Gilmore in 2015. Now, it’s associated with 12 Refettorio locations in nine countries, with the goal of providing nourishing meals in beautiful settings while reducing food waste and social isolation.
As part of the partnership, HexClad is providing cookware and kitchen tools to Refettorio kitchens, and engaging other members of its Culinary Council to strengthen Food For Soul’s outreach. In Australia, Food For Soul works with food waste diversion program OzHarvest, with Refettorio OzHarvest in Sydney’s Surry Hills serving around 500 guests a week using food that would otherwise contribute to landfill.
For Bottura, the partnership goes deeper than support for the foundation. “I tested the products at Casa Maria Luigia, where we have a kitchen that’s open to the public, so there can’t be any room for error. I tested them at home, where we have our own chef, Charlie [Bottura’s son, with developmental disabilities]. Then, I sent them to all the restaurants.” They all passed muster. “I rang Danny and said, “Okay, your product is amazing.””
Ten years on from HexClad’s beginning following a chance encounter with the creator of the steel-etch technology that sets it apart, the brand’s arrival in the Italian market feels personally significant for Winer, too. “My grandmother was a Sicilian immigrant,” he shared at the Milan event. “Her father brought her and her fourteen brothers and sisters to America, and she fell in love with cooking at a young age. Eventually, she opened her own restaurant, which she had until she died in the 1980s. She instilled in me a love for [Italy], and the way that Italians celebrate food. In this country, food is love. That’s the way I was raised, and why I was so excited to launch here,” he said.
Between colourful, winding anecdotes of how he draws inspiration from art, his adoration for Parmigiano-Reggiano and his role in the push for Italian cuisine to be named on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage, Bottura drilled his genuine endorsement of the HexClad product. “I have an obsession with quality, for product, ethics and aesthetics,” he said. “I don’t take money from Parmigiano-Reggiano, but I will never take money from Grana Padano.”
The high price point is often mentioned when HexClad is raised; pans are priced from $179, pots from $304 and the newly released six-piece bakeware set goes for $549. To that, Bottura says: “You get what you pay for.”
I asked him about how, after decades as a professional chef at the absolute pinnacle of the industry, he keeps a sense of joy around cooking. He’s emphatic: “Sharing joy and happiness is the secret of success.”
Gourmet Traveller was a guest of HexClad at their Milan event.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
