Social Togetherness: Inga Sempé

With many still working from home, we are doing much more preparation of food and drinks. We asked designer, Inga Sempé, to share her experiences, with reference to her design for Crane Cookware.

Social Togetherness: Inga Sempé

What was your philosophy and objective when creating the cast iron pan?

I wanted to create an object that doesn’t look directly drawn from the most basic tools from the computer programmes. I mean a curve doesn’t have to be always half a circle or a quarter of a circle. Curves can have some other rules. An oval is not obliged to be made by two parallel lines joined with a half-circle either.

I looked a lot on eBay on all the cast irons pan that are available, from the most recent to the oldest from the 19th century.


I wanted it to look visually light and not aggressive, more technical. Just friendly, and recognizable with the distinctive stripes in a herringbone pattern. I wanted it to be easy to use with the double pouring spouts for left and right-handed people.

Have you been using it recently and if so, do you have a simple recipe you would share?

Yes, I have used it for fish with fennel, that I grow every year on my windows. I also use it with zucchinis and eggplants. The herringbone pattern that appears is very nice.

Thoughts on the pandemic?

The pandemic was not a hard time for us as we are living in a nice and light place. But I was thinking a lot about the people living in tiny and dark places. The positive side of it is that all wild herbs have grown on the streets of Paris, every seed had time to grow in the tiny holes of the macadam and walls. It shows that the way we treat vegetables is stupid, as is the way we treat animals and hair on women's bodies.

Any new designs you would like to share?


In Milan, I was supposed to present a new sofa system and a castiron candleholder with Hay, some glass containers with Glas Italia, a collection of ceramic tiles with Mutina, a wooden stool with small Swedish company Articles. My thoughts for the future is that cast iron is a very old material which still has a great future.



Many thanks to Inga for taking the time to talk to us, we can’t wait to see her new designs.

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