Just as you would use the utmost care to pick the finest ingredients to cook a dish with love for family and friends, what you cook it in is just as important -- just ask Mike Whitehead, founder and chief creative officer of FINEX Cast Iron Cookware.
Southern-inspired, American-made
Growing up in Florida, Whitehead’s inspiration in founding FINEX came from a childhood spent in the Sunshine State amongst alligators, orange groves and bass fishing, and tinkering in his dad’s welding and metal fabrication shop. “You could say I have iron in my blood,” he joked.
“I’ve spent many hours air boating on Lake Okeechobee, canoeing the Suwannee River down from Georgia and hiking the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina and Tennessee. I believe I’ve cooked and eaten almost everything in the South. My stomach just seems to have more room when I’m down there.”
Whitehead said he’s also deeply inspired by the creative people he’s surrounded by in Portland “who take do-it-yourself to the extreme,” as well as vintage American cookware, old tools, lighting, automotive design, mid-century appliances, fine carpentry, leather boots and watches.
Read the full story American perfectionism: The story of FINEX premium American cast iron cookware