Meet The Women Behind One Of Italy’s Most Iconic Artisanal Cookware Brands That Stands The Test Of Time

“It did my heart good to see rows of gleaming knives and copper pots at the ready” Julia Child wrote in her autobiography about her time cooking in Europe. Like many people well trained in cookery, Child knew the importance of specific tools for specific tasks. 

Giulia Ruffoni, President of Ruffoni United States agrees, “copper is my favorite material to cook with, and it’s been used for hundreds of years around the world. It’s easy to mold and shape, beautiful, and an exceptional conductor of heat,” and this translates perfectly to pots and pans “with food, it is important to transfer heat efficiently, conductivity means control in the kitchen” says Giulia.

The Ruffoni brand is one of Italy’s most iconic artisanal cookware companies that was able to maintain its old-world ethos while entering the foreign market. The inception of the company began in 1931 with Giulia’s great-grandfather, Antonio Ruffoni, a craftsman and lover of good food, who made his first copper pot to celebrate his son’s birth. From then, the next Ruffoni generations would help expand the brand’s presence. Walter Ruffoni, Giulia’s father, brought it to the United States and introduced the handmade products to Chuck Williams. From that moment, Williams Sonoma became Ruffoni’s most important customer. Together, they designed the iconic Historia stockpot which continues to be sold across America. This past December, the Martha Stewart Magazine editorial team selected the Ruffoni pots as some of the best cookware sets to have when building a collection.

Now, Giulia Ruffoni, President of Ruffoni US and daughter of Walter who, “really developed the foreign growth of Ruffoni, an important step that happened before I was even born,” is working to bring the brand to the next generation, despite at first not being certain she wanted to work in the family business at all. “I went abroad and worked in other sectors, but then I missed food, cookware, and family so I returned to my roots and now, I’m working to develop Ruffoni in the US.”

Giulia manages the US side of the company in her role as the President of Ruffoni US where she plans to share the Italian brand with the next generation of cooks. A demographic who tend to seek out companies that support small artisans that are rooted in sustainability and produce handmade products that last a lifetime. “For a period, convenience and speed were wanted above anything else, which is why people weren’t using copper as much, but rather non-stick and other synthetic materials. There was an idea, that if you are not very good in the kitchen, you need a pot that isn’t going to stick and doesn’t caramelize.” The Ruffoni company also makes clad stainless steel, and stainless steel lined copper pots along with their famed tin-lined copper pots and pans.

This notion, that the novice home cook needs a pan that is not precious, that may not last, is part in parcel of a throw-away culture that seems to be tied with a distancing past, “with copper it’s the opposite, it’s impossible to make a cheap copper pot, if it’s real copper, it’s expensive so it’s a significant investment. But you have them forever.” says Giulia. 

The artisans who work exclusively with Ruffoni are treasured. Like Nerio, who has worked for 50 years as a blacksmith, still singing as he moulds, cuts, and twists copper into shapes for the pots and pans. There are other craft workers and artisans based in the Italian Alps near the Ruffoni factory that are specialized in fabricating specific components of the pots and pans, like the handles and the intricate knobs.

In old Italian tradition, Giulia explains that when a couple gets married, a typical gift given is cookware that can last for generations. “Now there is a rediscovery, there was a period where ready-made food was very in, now we are returning to slow food, taking the time to know the producers and try more elaborate cooking methods. The pandemic has actually helped to take the time to do this.” 

During the height of the pandemic in 2020, chef Andrea Aprea owner of his Milanese restaurant VUN, spoke on time while cooking spaghetti al pomodoro in copper pots, “The most precious external ingredient that is absent in recipes, is time”.

Rita Ruffoni, mother to Giulia and wife to Walter, has had a crucial role in perfecting the new pot and pan models the Ruffoni brand created throughout the years. “The pot isn’t just a pot, it’s a tool to entertain, our customers who come here to our workshop and museum, and they know they can come here and eat, we have the habit to cook for our guests, we all eat as a family. It’s better than seeing the pots and pans in exposition,” for Rita, the pots and pans are living, breathing fixtures in her version of entertainment. “They love to see the pots at work, and they drink their wine as I mix risotto and they love to learn through that.”

Caring for copper has been a task people in recent years opted to avoid thinking it was overwhelming, preferring the ease of synthetic cookware. But Rita explains it’s a misconception that copper is hard to take care of. She says that hand washing copper with soap and water and drying well is all it takes. For polishing, an eco-friendly mix of lemon and salt will easily remove the tarnish on darkened areas of copper cookware.

Rita is passionate about cooking, and over the years, when her husband Walter would come home with prototypes, she would test drive the pots and pans. “My father has the creative vision and technical understanding, but my mother is the one who cooks in the home and she gives critiques because she uses them, she tries the samples, testing the different uses and that is an important role in creating a new product,” says Giulia about her mother. 

In the current era of food reawakening, knowing where ingredients come from, how and where they were grown or raised, and whether products are sustainable are now part of mainstream awareness. Yet, what we cook on, should also be part of this conversation.