How the HexClad Team Cooked Their Way Through Summer Vacation
Summer is a time for day trips, lazy afternoons by the pool, and quietly nursing sunburns on those long days when the sun never seems to set. And cooking. Lots of cooking.
So we polled the team at HexClad to see how everyone spent their summer vacations cooking, from a post-midnight grilled cheese snack for 100 to the best-ever ribs to come off a grill.
“I’m currently renovating an apartment in Florence. They call the building “new construction” because it was built in the 1860s, so that should give you an idea of what that project has been l—Danny Winer, CEO and Co-Founder
“I went on a big camping trip with over 100 people in a bunch of cabins in Central California. I needed to feed what was essentially a small army of people at 1:30am, so I made a couple hundred grilled cheese sandwiches. When it comes to the perfect grilled cheese, you gotta use salted butter, at least 3 different types of cheese (I go with white cheddar, yellow cheddar, gruyere), and, ideally, a nice soughdough. I was in the middle of nowhere, so I had to settle with plain white bread. But there’s nothing like cooking for a crowd and saving the day when you’re not in your home kitchen. —Rajan Saravanan, Designer
“I love grocery shopping on vacation and really taking the time to do something I wouldn’t do otherwise. You actually have time to do something like go to the fish market and buy fresh cod or squid. One of my go-to project dishes is something called cacciucco — it’s an Italian fish stew with octopus, squid, mussels, clams and langoustines as well as whatever fish is available on the day It takes like 6 hours to make, but it's absolutely worth it.
—Aaron Gaffey, General Manager of Canada and Mexico
“I took a quick trip out to the desert at Indian Wells with a few friends and stopped into one of my favorite spots, The Pink Cabana. I try to mostly go to local spots and eat things I wouldn’t normally eat. I wouldn’t ever order eggs Benedict in my life. It all starts with a good runny egg. Having it topped with some fresh ingredients — this one had chives and some paprika on top, and perfectly sliced avocado underneath it — makes the whole thing a bit lighter . Would I recommend eating eggs Benedict in 100*F weather? Not necessarily. But if you’re sitting in a really cute and well air conditioned restaurant, you’re good to go.”
—Brenna Enos, Social Media Manager
“I’d say holidays off the coast of Ibiza in a little area called Cala Jondal is really my happy place. Head down to the beach early and buy local ingredients from the fishermen to come back to the house an prepare a big paella with crisp white wine in the sun post-siesta in the afternoon. Perfect dish to cook in a HexClad pan — nonstick and easy to clean, easy to serve family style right out of the pan.”
—Lily Holden, UK/EU Marketing Manager
“I’ve got a house in Carmel Valley where I try to spend as much time as possible during the summer—we call it Vlla Lucia. After living in cities for years, I finally have a real garden to grow vegetables. I’ve always been more of a meat and potatoes guy and I’m moving away from that — not being entirely plant-based, but working more vegetables my diet — which has been really positive. My wife Lexi makes a really nice summer pasta primavera and we’re famous for our world record zucchini. But the thing we eat almost every day we’re up there is a super simple salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley, red wine vinegar, and olive oil.”
—Jason Panzer, President
“I love nothing more than grilling outdoors while in a place that’s not my house in the summertime. My go-to is always ribs, but because I don’t typically have a full-scale smoker on the road, I use the oven-to-grill method: Cook foil wrapped ribs in the oven at 300*F for about 3 hours until they’re tender, heat up your favorite bbq sauce in a small saucepan on the stove, slather the ribs with the sauce, and finish them off on a piping hot charcoal or gas grill. The sugar in the sauce caramelizes and gives you those crispy, craggly bits (known as bark in bbq parlance) and you can’t believe you mostly cooked ribs this good in the oven.”
—Matt Duckor, Head of Content
“On my last day in London we still hadn't checked off the final item on the To-Eat list — a classic Sunday Roast. We settled on The Guinea Grill, a quiet pub in a Mayfair alley, as it had a rich history in the world of Sunday Roasts and was only 3 stops on the subway from our hotel. The roast itself was incredibly delicious and exactly what we had hoped for, hype and all. We even made an audible and decided to burn our "buffer" time to both savor the meal and order a dessert, sticky toffee pudding. Unfortunately, that sticky toffee pudding ended up not being just the culinary highlight, but also the logistical low-point of our trip. In short, after having to bail on the train due to a sudden fire on the tracks, and then being stuck in traffic due to a world championship cycling race, we arrived 15 minutes past closing of check-in forcing us to reschedule to the next morning, and book an airport hotel for the night. The funny part is we still have no regrets!”—Justin Kim, Online Marketplace Manager
