Lagostina pots from Piedmont!!

The Italian pleasure of cooking well

As Easter is quickly coming by and traditionally Italians spend it at home, eating with their families delicious traditional foods, it comes to our minds that another famous Italian brand related to cooking and food is actually from Piedmont!!
Lagostina is def the top Italian epicurean cookware brand from the same steel area around our beautiful Lake Orta, just like Alessi and the Bialetti coffee pot.



Like many Italian brands, Lagostina is another family business that with the years has conquered the world wide chefs and foodies' hearts thanks to its innovative and high quality products.
Originally from Liguria, the Lagostina family moved to a small town in Northern Piedmont in 1815. After directing the company that supplied cookware and silverware to the Savoy Royal House, in 1901 Carlo Lagostina (born in 1852) decided to buy a small workshop near Omegna, on Lake Orta.

Pandora cookware set

With his 24 year-old son Emilio, they started to produce steel silverware. Unfortunately, Carlo died just six months after, so Emilio had to hire somebody else to manage the sales and the production in order to devote himself to design new products.

Emilio had the idea to recycle the metal wires used to keep rough cotton together and the trenches posts to make tin plated iron silverware. Quickly his silverware invaded all Italian homes because they were inexpensive, very well crafted and decorated with the images of the patron Saints of the Italian regions!!
Between 1901 and 1956 Lagostina produced over 100 millions pieces!!

Pastaiola by Lagostina

Even though Emilio never had kids, his nephews Massimo and Adriano and his niece, Luisanna were soon involved in the family business. In 1935 Luisanna married Gino Moroni and one of their their kids, Vitaliano Moroni carried on the company till 2005.
In 1929, Emilio's nephew, Massimo started working for Lagostina; first in the workshops, then at the administration and finally, at the sales.. At the beginning of the 1930s, he thought of using stainless steel to make household products. After designing new equipment, in 1933 he launched the Casa Mia line, the 18/8 stainless steel cookware set on the market till 1955.
Besides silverware and cookware products, Lagostina also built an hydroelectric central to become a fully independent and self-sufficient company, before WWII; all its industrial equipment thus creating a full engineering division in the 1970s.

In 1930s, Lagostina started selling its products in Northern Europe and by 1986, 50% of its revenue is made out of Italy! For many years, this family company from romantic Lake Orta was the cookware leader in 4 continents.

1950s marked a big turning point thanks to the introduction of Thermoplan a new material that allowed an equal distribution of the heath at the bottom of the pots. Many new lines were produced in the following year with more and more innovative materials till getting Lagoseal that works on all cooking surfaces.

Always Massimo Lagostina believed that the best promotional strategy was irony. so in 1969, he chose Mister Linea by Italian cartoonist Osvaldo Cavandoli as the company testimonial.

Domina Vitamin pressure cooker by Lagostina

1960 marked the invention of the pressure cooker: the magic pot that "zipped" the cooking times of the Italian cuisine, allowing many Italian women to enjoy more free time outside the kitchen. In all its models, more than 20 million pieces have been sold to our days!

The end of 1980s saw the launch of Pastaiola the pot with the colander incorporated designed by famous Italian car designer Giorgetto Giugiaro and it collaborated with Alessi for a short time.

In 2005, Lagostina was bought by the French group Seb who kept the production in Omegna, on the Lake Orta shores and in 2014, it invested to increase its production. This is no surprise as the Lagostina know-how has always been on top for over 100 years!


In fact, besides the many lines and designs, Pastaiola, the historical pressure cooker, Lagostina came up also with a special pot for minestrone, polenta and stews and even one to make the perfect risotto: risottiera with a special wooden lid!!

Risottiera the risotto casserole by Lagostina

Considering Piedmont's rice paddies, royal culinary tradition and strong philosophy about original foods, it sounds pretty natural that Lagostina is right from the true epicurean region of Italy ;)