Micaceous Cookware of Brian Grossnickle '05 Draws Newspaper's Attention

July 17, 2006

July 17, 2006, Greencastle, Ind. - "Both Brian Grossnickle and his micaceous clay pots glow with an inner light. Maybe that's because both have found their true calling in life," notes a story in Michigan's Traverse City Record-Eagle on the 2005 DePauw University graduate. "In college, Grossnickle majored in anthropology with a minor in ceramics." He spends part of the summer in Michigan, but lives in Tijeras, New Mexico, "where he produces his clay pots. 'I also built our own straw bale home, which is covered in, you guessed it, micaceous clay,' he says proudly."

Nancy Krcek writes, "A trip to New Mexico led to a fateful meeting with Felipe Ortega, a northern New Mexican Jicarilla Apache who had been making the traditional cooking pots with hand-dug local micaceous clay for almost 40 years." Grossnickle worked for Ortega for two years. "At Ortega's, all of Grossnickle's passions came together. He temporarily dropped out of DePauw University and went to apprentice with Ortega. He learned the traditional coil and scrape method of building the pots."

Grossnickle tells the newspaper, "Cooking in metal pots is totally different, you can taste the metal, especially when you cook foods like tomatoes. I don't want my family to ingest that. The micaceous pots actually absorb flavor, giving back an earthy richness to whatever you cook in them."

Access the article, which includes a photo of Brian Grossnickle performing a cooking demonstration as well as two of his recipes, at the newspaper's Web site. Learn more about Grossnickle's cookware at his personal Web site.

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