In 45 years of existence, the chicken brick has become an icon of delicious and healthy cuisine, and of handmade and timeless design. The secret of its longevity? Not only does it deliver perfectly cooked meals, its authentic and always modern look hasn’t changed since 1971, when it was first introduced in our catalog. 

This year, the chicken brick is joined by another line of terracotta pieces: the Fatima handmade dishware line with its graphic patterns, is also about to become a classic. 

 

What else do they have in common? Both are handcrafted in Portugal, in the village of Perdreiras in the heart of the city of Leira, renowned throughout the country for its fine white and light clay, and their many pottery workshops that the village hosts since 1886.

Raw material

Practiced since prehistoric times, the "art of fire" or the art of making ceramics, was born from the transformation (under the action of firing at a temperature ranging from 600 to over 1300 degrees) of the universal material that gave it its name: clay, “keramos” in Greek, meaning "potter's clay." It covers four main families: terracotta, earthenware, stoneware and porcelain; that distinguish themselves by the implementation of the clay, its firing and the choice of coating that makes them waterproof. 

Made of silica, alumina and water, clay, when pure, is white.

 

Depending on its environment, clay can also naturally contain other materials that give it different colors such as gray, red or ochre.