Caraway Home Is Transforming The Kitchen With Nontoxic Cookware

Say goodbye to Teflon. Health-conscious consumers, you are going to want to pull up a seat. Siffat Haider, host of The Dream Bigger Podcast recently sat down with Jordan Nathan, founder of Caraway Home, to dive into the world of nontoxic cookware. Whether you love to cook or you prefer to have someone do it for you, we all want appliances and cookware that leave us feeling confident and safe in the kitchen.

Caraway Home has taken off in recent years, specifically on social media thanks to content creators and wellness influencers sharing their products. The aesthetically pleasing, ceramic-coated, non-toxic cookware is not only sleek and modern; it’s good for you. Unlike its Teflon counterparts, Caraway cookware is nontoxic.

Here’s what Nathan has to say about what sparked his vision to create safer kitchen products and how he scaled the business during the pandemic.

The dangers of Teflon

“Clean living” social media trends will have you throwing away everything in your home these days. But should you be switching to nontoxic cookware?

Teflon, aka forever chemicals, is in 95% of all nonstick cookware. If your cookware has a black surface, Nathan says it is Teflon. “It’s a remarkable material. It’s super nonstick and impenetrable. It was created during the Manhattan Project to create a nonstick, resistant coating for the atomic bomb. It was later leveraged for aerospace crafts, and it ended up being commercialized,” Nathan explains.

Today, Teflon is a lot of everyday products, specifically items that are water-resistant or repellant. This includes raincoats, rugs, carpets, beauty products, cookware, and kitchen products. The results of Teflon use are hard to grasp—it is now in our waterways, our soil, and in 98% of people’s blood.

“They are called forever chemicals for a reason. Once they are created, they can’t be broken down,” Nathan says. “It is so well commercialized and integrated into everyday products that it’s difficult for the government to step in and ban it.”

Why Caraway Home specializes in non-toxic cookware

Nathan and his team launched Caraway Home in 2019, just a couple months before the COVID-19 pandemic. Before launching Caraway, Nathan worked for a home and kitchen brand and eventually grew to the CEO position. As he continued in his tenure, his conscience caught up with him and he started to question the materials and manufacturing processes.

“In my time there, we were selling cheap stuff on Amazon. Philosophically, I had an issue with selling plastic stuff without a bigger reason or mission behind,” Nathan says. “I had a feeling things could be done in a better way.”

Nathan’s desire to build a better home and kitchen brand is what sparked the idea for Caraway Home. He started doing research and looking at cookware material alternatives—stainless steel, cast iron, and ceramic. Stainless is more for a professional chef. Cast iron is great, but super heavy. Nathan ended up landing on ceramic as the material for his new cookware brand.

“The development phase took 18 months before we launched the brand,” Nathan says. “We did a lot of formulation and testing to make sure that we had, not just the safest product, but one that would be high performing.”

Scaling the business during the pandemic

Prior to the company’s launch, Nathan and his team started fundraising right away. They didn’t have any product at the time, only a simple pitch deck that Nathan downloaded from Google. For 10 months, Nathan talked to about 10 investors every day.

“It was a super long process, and no one really wanted to invest in another cookware brand. We used that time to see what others were doing, react, and adapt,” he says. “One of the biggest challenges was balancing a product that was nontoxic and aesthetically beautiful. Those two goals are normally at odds.”

Caraway Home has taken off since its inception in 2019. Because of a strategic social media marketing plan, when Caraway first launched its cookware set, the reaction from consumers was huge, with waitlists reaching over 150,000 people. The pandemic also ended up working in the company’s favor—with everyone trapped at home and cooking at home. Remember the sourdough trend?

“We were on the positive side of the pandemic. Materials aside, everyone just wanted cookware,” Nathan says. “The business really took off. For the next two years, every item we sold was on backorder.”

Nathan says the brand has leaned into the increasing trend of people becoming more aware of their health and what they are putting into their bodies. The results prove it. If you click on their website, you’ll find more than 98,000 customer reviews with a 4.8 star rating. Additionally, the company reported an annual revenue increase of more than 500% in its first four years. It’s clear that consumers have bought into the story that Caraway Home is selling.