The launch of the 14" prospector casserole completes the range.
The story of the Prospector Pans.
It all started in 2016, when Neil was chatting to Phil, a buyer in the catering world. Phil was looking for a versatile pan for frying that could also go into the oven or under the grill.
There were plenty of frying pans that would do the trick, but the long handle was the fly in the ointment. He wanted something more compact, easier to store.
Our first Prospector Pan And thus, the prospector pan was born, a range of oven proof pans that would fit snugly in a domestic oven as well as a commercial kitchen, that would store neatly and could be used for a multiplicity of dishes.
But at first they had no name, one sat on Neil’s desk while we wracked our brains for something more sexy than “double handled pan”. A photo was posted on to social media to gauge interest in the new pan……………
Someone commented on the post that it looked like you could pan for gold with them – hence the name “prospector pans”, in recognition of those that headed off in search of their fortunes during the 19th century California Gold Rush.
Sometime later, we received a call from food writer Diana Henry, asking if we made a shallow casserole dish, one of her most used kitchen items. She was writing a book at the time, wanted a Netherton styled version to feature in the photography.
So we added an oven proof lid to the prospector pans to create a range of prospector casseroles and Diana featured them extensively in her beautiful book, From The Oven To The Table.
But the 14” prospector was the Cinderella pan, left without a lid, as it seemed at the time that most people were using them for paella. Then slowly, but surely, the requests for a 14” lid drifted in to our in-box, until we had to admit that this was definitely “a thing”.
So Neil was back to the his drawing board, talking to the tool makers and creating what we had always referred to as the “dustbin lid” – a large lid to fit our largest pan.
And now, at last here it is – the 14” lid for the 14” pan and the largest of our prospector casseroles. This finally completes the Prospector range.
