The Internet’s Favourite Kitchenware Brand, Our Place, Launches in Australia

Our social feeds are often awash with images of the same thing. Whether it’s fruity candles being lit on spectacularly styled dinner tables, endless idyllic European vistas, or golden olive oil being squirted out of nicely branded squeezy bottles (just my algorithm?), it can be inescapable. The trends come thick and fast – we like what we like. The pastel-hued collection of pans from Our Place shot to virality in 2019, with many famous folk overseas – Oprah, for one – gushing about their ease (both of use and on the eye). Now, they’ve made the trip Down Under, so get set for them to hit the Aussie psyche.

“When we founded Our Place, no one was creating cookware in colour,” co-owner Shiza Shahid tells Broadsheet. “It was a sea of black and stainless steel.” The range of pans comes in a collection of imaginatively named colours, like ‘spice’, ‘sage’, ‘blue salt’ and ‘turmeric’. And though the sight of a pair sitting atop your stove is reason enough to add to cart, there’s thought behind the function, too.

Take the leader of the pack, the Always Pan. Made with 100 per cent recycled aluminium, it’s named for when you can use it (always), and boasts being able to replace 10 kitchen functions. Sauteeing and shallow frying, roasting, baking and braising, it’s the aesthetically pleasing pot that can. There’s a removable steaming basket nestled inside, and an easy-to-swivel lid that – with a twist – will keep the steam in or let it out. Low on cupboard space? The pan’s a winner.

The best-selling duo of the Always Pan and the Perfect Pot – a stove-to-oven beauty with a handy strainer and spout – has popped up in the Aussie kitchens Broadsheet longs to be in (and those racking up our screen-time minutes). Jessica Nguyen ’s making shakshuka and Food For Everyone founder
Gem Leslie is making stock for mushroom risotto. Sydney recipe developer and bona fide yum-things expert
Gemma Plunkett has pork ribs slow-cooking in her tierra-coloured Always Pan, primed for a ragu to dress up homemade cavatelli. And, honestly, when Julia Busuttil Nishimura gets behind something, it’s a good sign that we all should too.

Shahid, who now lives in Los Angeles with her Persian-American husband, was raised in Pakistan and studied and lived in the Middle East and the UK. She started Our Place to reflect the power of food, cooking and shared meals – a common language shared across the planet. “Cooking, for me, has been a source of connection and empowerment. As immigrants, my partner and I built our community by cooking food and inviting new friends to our dinner table. There’s something deeply intimate about having people over to your home and feeding them.”

Along with its prettiness, the Our Place range utilises a non-stick coating – Thermakind, said to be toxin-free and 50 per cent longer-lasting than other non-stick products – which Shahid and the team have patented. For every Our Place order, a donation will be made to Oz Harvest.

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