Episode One: Borough Furnace

Anthony Bourdain and The Balvenie visit Borough Furnace in Syracuse, New York, a metal casting workshop founded and operated by couple John Truex and Liz Seru in 2011. The skillets are handcrafted individually in small batches, using a traditional casting process that has been updated for environmental responsibility. One skillet takes approximately 6 to 7 hours from start to finish. John makes all of his own equipment. Each skillet is cast in a "skilletron," a barrel-sized metal melting furnace that burns Waste Vegetable Oil at 2700°F to melt scrap iron. By using old fryer grease to fuel their furnace, they eliminate the massive energy consumption of a typical metal casting operation. They also only use recycled iron as source material.