Frances Ro: Housewares Hunter

These 40 up-and-comers—all 40 years old or younger—are changing the way Americans eat and drink, from a vodka distiller who rewrote Nebraska's Prohibition-era laws to a White House chef who's fiercely fighting to improve school-lunch programs.

Frances Ro: Housewares Hunter

Photo © Lisa Boyle Photography/Fissler USA.

Since taking over her father's Los Angeles–based importing business and department store a few years ago, the 34-year-old Frances Ro has brought incredible new kitchenwares to the US—everything from stellar pressure cookers and pots made by 165-year-old German company Fissler to ingenious soap-conserving sponges from the Japanese company Goodbye Detergent! "I get excited about things that are innovative, design-driven and, most importantly, things that solve a common problem," Ro says.

Plus Go to the Fissler USA website