Sixteen years old, and iron soldiers

Raul Mejia was sixteen when he took what Victoria calls a bold step into the foundry trade in Medellin in 1939, making iron soldiers by hand. What turned a foundry into a cookware company was his own cooking: the grain mill he designed is, in the company's words, the foundation of what would become Victoria.

Pans came later, in 1974, and for an unglamorous reason. A customer in the United States wanted good cast iron cookware and Victoria already knew how to pour iron.

Three generations on it is still a family company, and still pouring in the same place. Their own answer to where it is made is worth quoting whole: the cast iron and the handle inserts are made in Medellin, in the same neighbourhood where the story started, and they cast all of their iron in house.

Flaxseed, and what they tell you to do next

Almost every cast iron maker seasons with something and declines to say what. Victoria says. Every pan leaves the factory seasoned with one hundred per cent flaxseed oil, kosher certified and non GMO, because their own lab testing found it laid down the toughest base coat.

Then they say the useful half, which most brands leave out: do not keep using it. Too many layers of flaxseed can peel. For ordinary upkeep they point you at filtered coconut oil, vegetable oils, or shortening. A hard base from one oil, maintained with another.

On the iron itself they are equally specific. It starts as virgin cold rolled steel, supplemented with reclaimed virgin steel, and everything left over inside the plant is remelted and reused rather than sold on, which keeps impurities out of the pour. Victoria's own name for the alloy is spherrous iron.

What we carry

The skillets first, from 6.5 inch through 8, 10 and 12, plus mini skillets and a fajita skillet with its own wooden base.

Then the flat things, which is where a Colombian foundry differs from an American one: the comal, a thin flat griddle for tortillas and arepas and crepes, the reversible griddles in two sizes, a 15 inch pizza pan, and the cast iron tortilla press that also flattens plantains for patacones.

Dutch ovens at 3.8L and 6.6L and a 5.7L combo cooker whose lid is a skillet. A 14 inch wok, a square grill pan, saucepans, mini bakers and cocottes, bacon presses in wire and wood handled versions, a panini press, and a chainmail scrubber and silicone handle covers for looking after all of it.