What it's like to make cooking pans for Nigella

The blogger was enthusiastic about slow cooking and wanted to learn more about the Netherton Foundry slow cooker.

Husband and wife team Sue and Neil Currie, had designed their first slow cooker in 2011 and it had been a hit with discerning customers. Its beautiful aesthetics, first class provenance and ability to conduct heat evenly had dazzled people around the world.

The blogger was so impressed with the Netherton Foundry product that she included it in a book.

It just so happened that the blogger had the same publisher as Domestic Goddess Nigella Lawson, the TV presenter and food writer, who has sold more than three million cookery books.

Sue says: “When the book came out, her publisher contacted us and asked if we’d like to do a joint competition to promote the book: win a book, win a slow cooker. We said yes.

“Nigella personally retweeted the link to the competition then told her publishers that what she wanted for Christmas was a Netherton Foundry slow cooker.”

Santa didn’t disappoint and soon Sue and Neil found out what it was like to be making pots and pans for one of the world’s most popular celebrity chefs.

Dramatic

Nigella got back in touch, via her right-hand woman, Hettie, to ask for a set of loaf tins. She tried them out at home and was so impressed that she included those – and the slow cooker – in her 2015 book, Simply Nigella.

Sue says: “Then she got in touch with us and said she was starting to work on her new book, called At My Table, and could she please have some frying pans.” An order was dispatched. Nigella thought they were the coolest thing this side of ice cubes.

The effect of Nigella’s support has been dramatic. “It had a phenomenal effect when the Simply Nigella book came out. When she was doing book promotion tours, she did an interview with Good Housekeeping magazine. It was a five-page spread and taking up about a sixth of one page was a box that was called The New Obsessions of the Domestic Goddess. One of those obsessions was her Netherton Foundry slow cooker. People read it and placed orders and in three weeks, we sold out. We ended up with a waiting list.

“Having somebody like that just use them, rather than just have their name on the box – which looks like paid-for endorsement – makes a huge difference to people like us. It’s the kind of publicity that money can’t buy.”

Sue has met Nigella in recent times – and was bowled over by her generosity and charm.

“Sometimes, when you meet your heroes, you’re disappointed. But Nigella was incredible. We’d sent her one of our prospector pans, which has handles on both sides. And because she liked that, she asked for the frying pans.

“She has a real passion for supporting British businesses and she also likes the quality of the pans.

“She can use them on all of the different hobs, whether she’s at home or in the studio. And she likes the look of them. She says they just do what she wants them to do.

“I must be honest. She was fantastic. A really lovely woman. She was just so nice,” says Sue

Nigella’s endorsement was a fillip for Sue and Neil, who launched Netherton Foundry in 2011. Sue had previously worked in IT while Neil had spent more than 20 years designing domestic products for mega-companies like Russell Hobs. His designs had been made by the many million in China, then shipped around the world. Eventually, he got bored of making things for other firms and wanted to take control over his work by going it alone.

His art school background and design experience meant he was well-placed to design beautiful pans while Sue quickly learned the art of sales, marketing and social media.

Sue adds: “It’s been a steep learning curve but we are passionate about this. The first Netherton Foundy slow cooker went into a store in August 2011 and now we’re selling to stores in San Francisco, Dallas, across Holland and in China. We’ve got four pallets of goods waiting to go to China right now, in fact.”

The overseas market makes a significant difference to Sue and Neil’s business, though primarily it’s an exercise in building the brand and taking on bigger name rivals.

They’ve had lots of other people ask them to make bespoke products, including celebrity chefs, though frequently they turn down those requests because they want to focus on Netherton Foundry, which is based in Highley.

The products are advertised as being made in Shropshire and most materials and skills are sourced locally. A local potter makes tagines, local craftsmen turn oak handles, with the wood sourced from nearby suppliers.

Sue adds: “Just about the only thing that doesn’t come from nearby is flax oil, which we have to bring from Sussex. All the flax fields in Shropshire have been turned over to rape seed. Flax used to be a big thing in Shropshire but no longer is. Our supplier grows, harvests, presses and bottles.”

Neil is grateful to be making pans for Nigella and is working on prototypes for another big name chef. “We use oak, cast iron and black iron. We buy it all from British stock then design and manufacture here in Shropshire.

“I’m doing a new wok today for another big name TV chef who is a massive name in China and around the world. She wants something made specifically for her and so I’m drawing it now on paper. I work with tracing paper and lead pencils. We have CAD facilities, but drawing is nice. We’re still old school – I think that’s one of the reasons people trust us. They know we only give them the best.”

l Further details on Netherton Foundry – including the Nigella slow cooker, bread tins and frying pans – are available at www.netherton-foundry.co.uk.

Andy Richardson