An enterprising Italian family created one of the first integrated appliances, turning their humble weighing scale store into an eponymous brand that's now backed by over a century of history
Founded in 1882 in Guastalla, a town in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, Bertazzoni has made a name for itself with quality engineering and a passion for food, while being true to its Italian roots. Its singular goal is to help avid cooks everywhere craft dishes with precision, flair and flavour with its products. The firm is looking to acquaint home cooks in Asia with its new range of built-in appliances, which includes an induction cooktop with an integrated hood, appliance layouts for Asian-style cooking, and a line of kitchen hobs.
We speak to Nicola Bertazzoni, Bertazzoni’s vice-president of sales, on what makes the brand tick.
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How did the brand get started?
Nicola Bertazzoni (NB) In 1882, father-and-son (duo) Francesco and Antonio set up a factory making weighing scales, which was situated right in front of a train station. They saw the first steam trains, which was a big innovation for the time. In homes then, there were mostly fireplaces, and they were used to heat the house and cook.
If you’ve managed an open fire, you’ll know how difficult it is to cook on it, and how much heat escapes through the chimney. So they came up with this idea of a wood-burning stove, which was the first integrated appliance. You could do surface cooking and oven cooking, and you could heat the home, because it was filled with liners inside which absorbed the heat and released it slowly. A water reserve produced and stored hot water. The ashes, the by-product of the burning wood, were mixed with water to create lye—which is the base ingredient of detergents even today—to wash clothes with.
It was a very successful product because it made the lives of homeowners so much easier. Sales were very good, and the company won several awards for it at the Milan Expo 1906.
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