Industry News--China Gourmet kitchenwares

Expensive kitchenware hits British markets

The newest items on bridal gift registries in Britain are diamond encrusted cutlery sets and pots ranging from $200,000 to $400,000. Two retailers, Selfridges and Harrods, are tapping into the newly discovered high-end market -- Selfridges with a diamond-encrusted cutlery set priced at $411,872.58 and Harrods with a "show-stopping" gold and diamond-studded cooking pan costing $205,924.29, The Scotsman reported Monday.

Harrods department store said their pot, which contains 200 diamonds of various sizes, is "probably the most precious pot in the world."Selfridges' 144-piece solid-silver cutlery set was made with 4,000 diamonds weighing 74 carats and is made-to-order. "This wonderful cutlery set is catering to customers who have a passion for craftsmanship of the highest order where money is no object," said Kit Li-Perry, the head of Selfridges' home department. "We know this is exactly what some of our customers want from Selfridges and we are delighted to be able to satisfy their expectations."
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Kitchenware bargains at the fair

LOOKING for some assistance in the kitchen? Come to The Star Property & Home Fair 2008 where Sterling Store Sdn Bhd might be able to provide just what you need.It is offering among others a multi-functional mixer, the Kitchen Aid Artisan KSM150 stand mixer, dishwashers, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, hobhood ovens, microwave ovens and gas stoves from various brands at the fair.

Store manager Ong Seok Heng said the company would be selling the mixer at a pro-motional price of RM2,488 in-stead of its normal price of RM2,690.“It comes with all the acces-sories. We’ll also be demons- trating its use at the fair,” she said.The store will be giving away free gifts along with every purchase. It will also provide free deliver. Customers on the first day are entitled to free installation of the kitchenware. Check out also the refrigerators at the RiTech Audio and Electronic Sdn Bhd’s booths at the fair where newly released re-frigerators by Mitsubishi Electric, called Folio, would be showcased.Mitsubishi Electric’s Ivan Teoh said the refrigerators came with attractive features like soft free-zing, auto shelf and the paten-ted technology — Vitamin Factory.
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Kitchenware retained as Natural World goes into administration

Handling of the Rachel Allen kitchenware and textiles collection is being transferred to a new division of the Lambert Howarth Group after it put its Natural World business into administration last month.The group had been trying to find a buyer for Natural World but appointed Manchester-based administrator BDO Stoy Hayward after concluding that it could no longer support the business's trading losses.

Lambert Howarth says its brand development team is being extended to support its new, London-based Lifestyle division, which will be retaining some elements of the LHG homewares business. The Lifestyle team will continue to look after the Rachel Allen licensed products, which will be available throughout the UK and Ireland from the end of September. Natural World showed the Rachel Allen collection at June's Exclusively Housewares exhibition. The TV chef's products include oven-to-tableware, ceramics, chopping boards, utensils and textiles such as aprons and placemats.
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The point of knives

One idea, first proposed in 2005, is a response to a grisly mundane truth expressed by Met chief Ian Blair this week - that "the most common knife involved in these deaths is a knife from a kitchen". The proposal came from three emergency medicine specialists, and it's a simple one: getting rid of the points on the ends of longer kitchen knives. Drs Emma Hern, Will Glazebrook and Mike Beckett wrote an editorial in the British Medical Journal, suggesting that since "many assaults are impulsive", government action could "drastically reduce the availability" of a "potentially lethal weapon". So what would the effect have been if, in 2003, the government had persuaded knife manufacturers to offer a greater range of styles, with the pointed-end, long-blade design no longer the default?

Dr Beckett puts it simply: if long pointed knives had become less available, we would have seen fewer deaths from knife injuries. Of course, there would have been other effects. Other readers of the BMJ were quick to list dishes which need a pointed knife during preparation: butterflying a leg of lamb, carving a forerib of beef, and so on. The self-styled maverick American chef Anthony Bourdain went further, saying that for chefs, knives "are extensions of our arms, and in many ways, our personalities", adding "where there is no risk, there is no pleasure".
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Kitchenware retained as Natural World goes into administration

Handling of the Rachel Allen kitchenware and textiles collection is being transferred to a new division of the Lambert Howarth Group after it put its Natural World business into administration last month.The group had been trying to find a buyer for Natural World but appointed Manchester-based administrator BDO Stoy Hayward after concluding that it could no longer support the business's trading losses.