I was watching Jacques Pepin fix a soup on television and when I saw the finished product in the red bowl/tureen, I took a picture of it.  I’m not sure what caught my eye, but it was a deep rich red and the soup looked so good bubbling up in it.

I googled for red soup bowls, but didn’t find anything that looked like the picture I had.  Finally, I gravitated toward KQED and the web site that had hosted the Pepin cooking show.  I found what appeared to be the episode I had watched and entered a comment asking who might have made the soup bowl shown in the episode.  After posting the comment, I continued to look through the web site and found a Credits link that listed the various vendors that had supported the show.  When I clicked on the Emile Henry link, the first image that appeared was the bright red bowl.  Apparently, they have a line of this cookware (Flame Top) that combines a special clay with other secret ingredients to produce cookware that can go on the stove top, in the oven, and in the microwave & dishwasher and has a 10 year warranty.  They had red, black and blue versions, but, I liked the red.  *I visited Amazon.com and found that I could purchase the oven for about $20 less than buying it directly from the Emile Henry Company.  I ordered it with the free delivery option.  Instead of taking more than a week, I see that the item should be delivered today (only 3 days).  It may be Monday, if they do not leave the package on my doorstep.

ADDENDUM [04/03/12]:  UPS did try to deliver on Friday, but without a signature did not leave the package.  I signed the back of the delivery notice and left it on my door on Monday.  Monday afternoon when I arrived home from work, the box was sitting in front of my door.  It was a rather large box, and I first thought that maybe Amazon had sent me a larger sized pot than I ordered.  As I picked up the box, it was very light and I realized that there was probably packing material around the oven inside.

As I put the box down, I heard a sound that made me think, “Oh, the lid must be broken.”  I then thought, “No, it is probably just jostling around inside.”  As I peeled the flaps of the outer box, I saw the large pockets, bubble wrap which encased a smaller box.  The lid was intact.  As I removed the lid, I saw that the pot was broken… in several pieces.  “Damn, if it isn’t always something.”

I removed the inner box.  Strangely, the outer box had no signs of damage.  The inner box appeared to have been punctured from the inside out (although, I guess you could puncture from the outside and while removing the prod, the cardboard would be pulled outward.  Maybe the broken pot had pierced the inner box?

I went online and found the Amazon return policy pages.  I entered my reason for wanting a replacement pot and saw that I could print out return labels for UPS (no charge to me) to return the broken oven.  Amazon would also send out a replacement before actually receiving my return, but would charge my credit card if the return wasn’t received within 30 days.

I plan to package it up today, print out the labels, affix them and take the package to the UPS office (wherever that may be… Hope Mills?).

ADDENDUM:  The replacement package arrived on Thursday (following the Monday when the first package arrived) a little before 2pm.  I immediately opened the outer package and then noticed that the inner box (the first one was a solid dark green color), which had pictures of the red oven, was punctured as the first inner box had been.  When I opened the inner box, I saw that the lid and pot were both intact, although I gave them a close inspection to make sure there were no cracks or chips.  But, whatever had punctured the outside of the box had indented part of the inner cardboard.  *I left feedback on Amazon.com letting them know that they should check to see if they have something that is doing this during packaging.

ADDENDUM: I procrastinated for several days before packaging up the return, but got online and found that there was a UPS Store in the Westwood Shopping Center.  I planned on leaving for lunch early, as I didn’t know how long I would have to wait at UPS, and also wanted to go to Red Lobster (It has been many years since I went to one [in Jacksonville, NC, I think] for lunch.

So, I walk in the door at UPS and almost immediately a young man, behind the counter, was asking if he could help me.  I said, “Yes,” but there were a couple of people at the counter being helped by two other clerks, and I was a little quizzical about how I could be helped.  But, as I walked around to the end of the counter, the young man walked around from the back of the counter and took the package as I handed it to him.  He looked at the label and told me the time the package should leave that afternoon.  We both turned our backs to each other as I headed out the door dumbfounded.  I couldn’t believe that I had come in, did what was necessary, and was out the door in 30 seconds (or less).  Wow!  I wouldn’t have been surprised if I had waited 20 minutes or more.

I got an email notice today (04/13/12) that said my return had been received by Amazon.  *I haven’t cooked with the new pot yet.

ADDENDUM-ADDENDUM [02/24/14]:  It took me almost two years before I tried cooking something in this pot.  I went to Hubert/Jacksonville to celebrate Ray, Mary Ann and my birthdays and we went to Longhorn Restaurant on Sunday, January 19, 2014.  While there, I had a delicious French Onion Soup, and I decided to make more when I got home that night.  Coincidentally, I see that the soup that Pepin was fixing was “Onion Soup Lyonnaise-Style”.  Well, it turned out well, but one soup in almost two years seems somewhat underused for the $100+ pot.

ADDENDUM-ADDENDUM-ADDENDUM [06/24/21]: And now, almost ten years later and I don’t recall the last time I cooked anything in the pot. It is a beautifully made oven. I bought some dried beans yesterday at the WNC Farmer’s Market in Asheville. Speckled Butter, Yellow Eye and October beans all that I have never tried. I bought some pieces of ham hocks this morning at IGA, and some Andouille and Kielbasa sausages at Publix.

ADDENDUM ADINFINITUM [04/09/24]: I think it was last year that I gave the round, red oven to Jacquelin. Actually, I just left it, along with some other stuff, inside their new house they have been building. The beans I mentioned above, I cooked, and all three did not reach the level of flavor worth repeating. I have written about this bean cookery elsewhere. I came away thinking that these beans had not reached the level to compete with their more favorite counterparts, such as black-eyed peas or white limas.

I never did cook much in the red pot. I did cook on the stove top (surprising to me) and in the oven a few times, but it was a pretty pot. *I am now reading “The Black Box,” a Harry Bosch novel by Michael Connelly. I am just beginning the read, but there is a young woman, who was found, dead, in an alley during the 1992 race riots in L.A. I think this case wasn’t solved, and now in 2012, it may still go unsolved. So, the time of the story is also the actual time that I bought this little round, red oven.