The two rooms in every home that are the most popular targets for

Copper Double Vanity (courtesy of Frigo Design)

makeovers are the kitchen and bathroom. These are also the rooms in which copper and copper alloys, like brass and bronze, can make a big difference in both the décor and cleanliness.  Copper brass and bronze can not only add a warm aesthetic to a room, but they are also antimicrobial and have been found to effectively kill bacteria*.

Alfredo Cortes, president of Fine Crafts & Imports, says that in the eight years the company has been in business, he has noticed an increase in both the demand for copper products and in the number of companies that supply copper products to customers.

“Copper is a very beautiful metal,” Cortes said. “It adds a lot of style to kitchens, especially those in Spanish-mission style houses.”

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This metal shines when it comes to cooking, cleanliness and class.

While studying at Le Cordon Bleu, the world’s premiere culinary school, and later working at some of the finest restaurants in France, Eric Eisenberg learned to appreciate the copper cookware top chefs use to prepare exquisite gourmet dishes.

“I used a lot of copper during my training in France,” said Eisenberg, now executive chef at the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, WA. “And we used a lot of copper cookware at the different restaurants I worked at, including Michel Rostang in Paris and Chateau D’Artigny in the Loire Valley. I later bought a huge set of copper cookware for my own restaurant.” That establishment, Relais, was a French restaurant with a Northwest flair in Bothell, WA.

While many American cooks and kitchens have copper cookware, it is often hung on the wall and used for display rather than for cooking. Eisenberg’s training taught him a valuable lesson about this cookware’s unique attributes beyond its elegance and durability. The copper cookware he used played an important role in how meals were prepared.

“Those pots were pretty old but they held up very well,” Eisenberg recalled. “They didn’t warp or bend and they kept a nice, flat even bottom. What’s more, the copper conducted heat well and distributed it evenly throughout the pot.”

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