360 Cookware: No Cooking Oil, Energy Efficient, Healthy Meal Solution

Want to lose weight and therefore ditch the vegetable cooking oil?   Or maybe you want to throw out the Teflon pans  since they contain dangerous polytetrafluoroetheylene (PTFE.) 360 Cookware,  a stainless steel cookware, allow you to cook without oil and is Teflon free.  I couldn’t believe it until I tried one myself!

How Can You Cook without Oil?

Honestly, this was my questions.  It seems no matter what I do, my food somehow sticks to the pan.  Cleaning burnt food is one annoying choir.  But can 360 Cookware’s live up to its claim of cooking without oil?  Craig Weinand, Vice President of Sales demonstrated how the pots work as I interviewed him at a green expo.  Read the ensuing interview or listen to the below podcast. The podcast is only 7 minutes long.

[podcast]http://www.green-talk.com/podcasts/greencookware2wintro.mp3[/podcast]

The Interview

Anna Hackman: Hi. I’m here at the Green Expo and this Anna Hackman from Green Talk. I’m here with Craig Weinand. He’s the Vice President of sales and we’re going to talk about his Americraft Cookware. And what makes it so green? So Craig, tell me what makes it so green?

Craig Weinand: The first aspect about our cookware is that its designed such that it takes heat very quickly and takes that up the sides and around the piece of cookware. What that allows you to do is cook food without adding any water, any grease, any fat, any olive oil of any kind. (emphasis added.)

So you’re able to cook all your food in its natural moisture just by rinsing in the sink, placing in a pan, putting it at a medium temperature to start for about four minutes and on low for about a 10 to 12 minute cycle and you have a delicious meal made without ever going to the drain and pouring off that extra nutrition and flavor that we so love to enjoy ourselves.
AH: Now, tell me how that all works, it seems too good to be true.
CW: It does sound complicated because this cookware has been evolved over about a hundred years. It has a special lip on the top side of the cookware which is a vapor locking device. So, the moisture that’s in your food comes rising out of the food, hits this vapor lock, locks back in the cookware and allows you to cook your food naturally.

AH: When I was looking at it before, it kind of resembles to me like a pressure cooker.

CW: It works very much like a pressure cooker, but you don’t have any safety concerns. You don’t have anything to lock down. It’s all done in the design of the pot.

AH: So I guess it doesn’t rock.

GW: [chuckle] Yes, it does.

AH: Oh, it does rock? No, rock in a sense like a pressure cooker.

CW: No, it does, it does. The cover will rock but nothing else.

AH:  Yeah, because with the pressure cooker it rocks back and forth.

GW:  The cover will rock back and forth as the moisture’s trying to push out. And then you turn the heat down and it finishes cooking.   It’s hot enough.

AH: So it’s there a time like if you forget about it, what will happen?
CW: As long as you’ve turned the temperature down low, it will just hold itself with a nice low even temperature and you’re good for 20 minutes or so. So there’s a safety time factor built in it. If you let it dry out, naturally you’ll burn your food.

AH: Now, how long does it take to heat up?

CW: Four minutes typically and then you turn it down low. So, medium and low never high.

AH: And what is it made out of?

CW: Stainless steel, aluminum, a little iron and stainless steel. So your food only touches surgical stainless steel.

AH: Oh, it’s surgical?

CW: It’s a surgical grade stainless steel, yes.

AH: Is that different than regular stainless pots and pans?

CW: Most pans are made out of T-304 stainless, so it’s very similar.

AH: What does very similar mean?

CW: It means T-304 stainless steel which are used in surgical things. In many cases, some use higher grades.

AH: Now, I have in front of me one of your pots that you’re going to actually put on for me so you can show us, right?

CW: Yes. Okay, so this pot has been on medium for a little while. I just have water in to show how the vapor seal works. So, when the moisture comes up to the top, see how that spins so freely? And I have it on as low as the heat source will go. When it’s extremely hot and it will cook your food at 165 to 185 degrees where you want food to cook.

AH: I noticed that the handle is stainless steel as well, does that get hot?
CW: The stick handle is a hollow core handle, so no, it does not. You can feel it; it’s been on all day. It’s not hot, is it?

AH: No, not at all.

CW: The cover is slightly warm but, again, this will be hot but the handle itself is not hot.

AH: Oh, you’re right.

CW: We’re cooking on medium and low temperatures.

AH: So, if you want to use this cookware for let’s say sautéing, how would you do that?

CW: Sautéing, this won’t do anything special for you, cook traditional. And we have open sauté pans, cook like you would do normally. There’s nothing special.

AH: What I notice because I can’t see this pot, there’s no Teflon or there’s no silicon, there’s nothing like that?

CW: There’re no chemicals whatsoever. Teflon, we call Tefloff because it doesn’t stay on. This has a lifetime warranty. And you’re always going to be cooking on a clean natural surface. No chemicals whatsoever.

AH: Now, I also see that it says, it’s green manufactured. What does that mean?

CW: Our factory is in West Bend, Wisconsin, so it’s made in America. We have no chemicals in the plant. We have no permits of any kind from any government agency to produce a product. So we’ve worked hard at perfecting the manufacturing process. And in the final cleaning, we have a neutral cleaner, a pH 7 which stands for itself if anybody that understands manufacturing.

AH: Is this an ISO factory?

CW: We’re not ISO certified because our customers are really home chefs and that doesn’t really mean that much to them. We don’t sell to other manufacturers or other companies.

AH: So, is there any green certification?

CW: We are part of the USBC Green Council and we have… Our energy is part of the windmill program in Wisconsin and the energy program all are corrugated stainless. Everything is recycled. So, we follow everything that we can through the manufacturing plant.

AH: When you mentioned wind, are you buying wind credits?

CW: Wisconsin Electric has a program where you sign up and pay a premium and they just built a big wind electro or wind power plant within about an hour of our facilities so we’re part of that program.

AH: Now, if someone wants to buy this, do they buy a whole a set, do they buy pieces, how does that work?

CW: We sell our cookware by a piece stock because every chef might be cooking for one person or family of ten and we can accommodate them all. We have a brand new website called 360cookware.com and you can see the cookware in action with some live video or some great recipes and you can buy pieces or sets, there’s combinations available online.

AH: Now, tell me about the price.

GW: Not all cookware is created equal. There are very low cost aluminum cookware, there’s non-stick coated cookware, painted cookware, cast iron cookware, ours is the best combination of all those metals with stainless steel, so our price is on the high end. Our typical pans are $150 to $225.
AH: But if you buy a set is it more economical?

CW: Yes, it is more economical, the more pieces you buy we naturally have deals. We also have a fantastic slow cooker for those of you that work during the day. Our slow cooker is specially designed and it’s another piece of your set but it also fits a slow cooker base, so you can cook a meal in four hours if you work part time or you can cook a meal in eight hours so you come home it’s all ready for you and done the waterless way.

AH: So that means you can use that pot for other things too?

CW: You can use it for parties, you can put it on the stove, you can put it in the oven or you can make it a slow cooker. It’s a great feature.

AH: That is a great feature! How much does that cost?

CW: The slow cooker is... I believe $269. (Editor Note:  It is $145 for the base.)

AH: Oh! I like that.

CW: It is sitting right in front of us, isn’t it great?

AH: It’s, it’s great. Well, thank you so much for your time.

CW: You’re welcome. Thank you for stopping at the Green Expo.

My review  of the 360 Cookware?

I was so intrigued by the cookware, the Company offered to let me try a large skillet to use.  I swear they heard about the cavemens’ appetites.  My thoughts?  Well you are going to have to find out tomorrow.

Join the Conversation

• Have you tried these pans?
• Do you think it is possible to cook with steam?
• How do you feel about adding vegetable oil in cooking?  Healthy or not so healthy?
• Are you trying to lose weight and if so, do you think these type of pans could help?

Note, the Company supplied the skillet to me to try for free.  They did not pay for this review.

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