DE SILVA S.R.L.

From the earth of the region of Umbria, so rich in silica and iron, the DE SILVA terracotta is born. This exceptional instrument of kitchen ware used for genuine and natural cooking enhances the taste of food cooked both in the oven and on the hob. The inestimable value of cooking in terracotta has been known for centuries. In fact heat is diffused in a uniform way from the base of the pan up the walls so that food is cooked through in a more gradual and genuine way compared to other types of material such as stainless steel where cooking takes place mostly on the bottom of the pan. Another important aspect of this type of cooking is that heat is maintained for longer, so food does not cool down too rapidly. Furthermore terracotta allows foodstuffs to maintain their own genuine flavours and is particularly indicated for all food requiring long, slow, uniform cooking. Precisely because of its porous nature, terracotta allows food to maintain its flavour and thus must be washed after use with hot soapy water (best of all in a dishwasher) and allowed to dry normally upside down in the open air before being completely dried and put away. It is important to follow this procedure in order to avoid a bild-up of food odours from previous use. The fine veining in the ceramic coating which appears on the inside of the pan is entirely natural and to both the porous and genuine nature of the material it is in fact an essential condition of flame resistance and the capacity of the item to withstand temperature change. Terracotta dishes have a certain degree of porosity and therefore tend to exude the liquid content, especially when they are used for the first time. This feature is not a defect, because the porosity (and the consequent veining-cracking that appears in the ceramic coating) is a necessary condition for the resistance of this kind of tableware to temperature changes. The DE SILVA enterprise activity starts off in 1973 in an over 600 sm. warehouse.In 1976 DE SILVA buys another estate where it builds his own plant and at the end of 1977 the enterprise starts working in the new general office.In the north industrial area of Gualdo Tadino (PG) the company has a 15000 sm. total surface estate.The industrial complex is equipped to produce and pack terracotta and pottery in continuous process methane furnaces. It consists of a sole ground floor, built with bearing vertical reinforced concrete structures, for a 4200 sm. total cover surface. Further DE SILVA owns two over ground floors building for offices and exposition halls.The plant includes two mono-channel methane furnaces, special equipment and machinery to process pottery.Its productive capacity is 6.500 pieces daily.For the covering of the the articles are used enamels and crystalline without lead use to feed in conformity to the directive EEC 84/500 151084.