You’re at Chez Frou Frou enjoying a delectable but complicated meal, and he says it again:
“Why can’t you make stuff like this at home?”
Because you don’t have $20,000 worth of fancy restaurant equipment. (He should be grateful you have an electric can opener.)
But these days, you can have a home kitchen filled with restaurant-style equipment. More and more home cooks are buying commercial-style ranges, cook tops and ovens for their kitchens.
Forget the Joneses. These folks are attempting to keep up with the (Wolfgang) Pucks.
It’s a trend that got cooking in Greenwood, Miss., where the Viking Range Corp. became the first manufacturer of commercial-type ranges designed specifically for home use.
It all started in 1980, when Greenwood resident Fred Carl Jr. began shopping for the heavy-duty range his wife wanted for the home they were building.
She wanted a cooker like those in restaurants, but commercial cookers are not considered safe for home use. They get too hot, use too much energy and generally are too big for domestic life.
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So Carl had a range designed that works safely in a home kitchen. It is well-insulated so that it can sit flush to cabinets and not set anything on fire. But it still has high-heat capability, large capacity, heavy-duty construction and an industrial look in stainless or enameled steel.
In a nutshell, these cookers were hot.
Trend is bubbling over
Now there are at least six companies offering similar products vying for the attention of status-conscious cooks. In addition to Viking Range Corp., there’s FiveStar made by Brown Stove Works Inc.; Garland Commercial Industries; Wolf Range Co.; Thermador; and Russell Range.
The products these companies make are similar, basically aimed at the same luxury kitchen market.
“There is an understanding among manufacturers that consumers are interested in features that’ll help them cook like the pros, and they’re willing to pay for it,” said Deborah Krasner, author of “Kitchens for Cooks” (Viking Studio Books, $24.95).
One would hope that people are buying these ranges for their high performance, durability, versatility and safety. But some kitchen designers say that isn’t the case.
Status stoves
“Most people who get interested in these say, `Oh, that looks cool.’ They don’t cook that much,” said Grace Watts, office manager at Kitchen Concepts in Memphis, Tenn.
Chuck Tracy, a certified kitchen designer for Kitchens Unlimited, also in Memphis, agreed. “It’s the look they want. It has to do with status.”
Tracy noted that Bill Clinton has a Viking stove in his personal White House kitchen (as if he cooks), as do many of Hollywood’s elite.
Real cooks, however, take offense at such comments.
“That’s always the first word out of the mouth of any kitchen designer, architect or builder who doesn’t know how to cook,” said Don Silvers, a certified kitchen designer and retired chef in Los Angeles who wrote “The Complete Guide to Kitchen Design with Cooking in Mind” (NMI Publishing, $24.95).
Silvers, who teaches cooking at the University of California, Los Angeles, swears by commercial-style cookers.
But, said Silvers, consider this first: They’re only worth it if your home has gas appliance capabilities for the cook top. The flame in gas burners is easier to control and offers instant action. Yet an electric oven is preferable.
Recipe for success
That said, what’s so great about these babies?
– Size. Most typical domestic stove tops have burners that will only accommodate an 8- or 9-inch pan.
On commercial-style stoves, the burners are bigger and spaced farther apart to handle big pots.
If you have enough room in your kitchen, you can get up to 12 burners, large and small, or a grill, griddle, built-in wok, cutting board, charbroiler or any combination of the above.
Instead of burner covers that look like spiders, you can get ones that look like zigzagging snakes, or the letter “V,” so you can slide heavy pots easily from burner to burner.
But, notes Silvers, these heavy-duty burners will hold heat for some time after the flame is off, so it’s best to move your pot to another area of the cook top.
Also, such burners can weigh up to 25 pounds each, so they’re difficult to clean.
Commercial-style cookers also offer huge ovens or double ovens. You can get a big one and a little one.
And by all means, get a convection oven, said Silvers. Convection is a heat-ventilation system that allows you to cram in three shelves of cookie sheets while ensuring that all those biscuits will bake evenly. It cooks quicker and seals in juices.
But “convection is not great for delicate doughs such as phyllo or pastry puffs,” Silvers said.
Temperature’s rising
– Heat. The range of heat output and your ability to control it is probably the most distinguishing feature of commercial-style cookers.
How many times have you asked for a recipe from a restaurant chef, but when you tried it at home, it failed? You accused the chef of forgetting an ingredient (didn’t you?) when the problem was probably your oven’s heat capability, Silvers said.
Commercial-style cook tops have burners that heat up to 17,500 BTUs. That compares with 6,000 to 10,000 BTUs with burners on regular domestic gas stoves.
What’s a BTU? That’s kitchen-engineer speak for the amount of heat a gas burner generates. One BTU equals the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 pound of water 1 degree. (In electric cook tops, energy is measured in watts. About 1,000 watts equals about 4,000 BTUs, but electric won’t offer the range of heat that you’ll find with gas, Silvers said.)
Higher BTU levels mean your pasta water will come to a boil even before you can open the Ragu jar. And once you put the pasta in the boiling water, it will “recover,” or come to a boil again, much faster.
At the other extreme, several commercial-style cooker manufacturers offer “epicure burners” that will keep things on an extremely low simmer so that cream sauce won’t burn.
Beyond these features, there are a dizzying array of additional options.
A la carte features
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Some ranges have warming drawers, but Silvers said they’re “garbage.” You’re better off getting a convection oven, which keeps food well at low temperatures, he said.
How about ceramic infrared broilers? They’re good to have because they’re much hotter than regular broilers, heating up almost instantly and more evenly.
But if you love to broil, get a charbroiler on your cook top instead, he suggested.
Of all the options with commercial-style cookers, one is highly recommended: a hood.
Because these cookers put out so much heat, the companies that make them recommend installing hoods (which range in price from about $413 to $1,280) with the ventilation capabilities to match.
The bottom line
So what’s this going to cost?
Like buying a car, it depends on what bells and whistles you get and from whom you’re buying it.
Ted and Julie Wilson of Memphis have a Viking range with eight burners and a double oven. They added it to a kitchen that already had a double electric wall oven (the regular domestic kind). Their Viking uses gas, but there’s no energy-wasting pilot light and no gas smell. It turns on instantly with “automatic ignition.”
Their Viking cost about $1,800, but “it’s really a $25,000 stove because we had to redo our kitchen to put it in,” he said.
WHAT’S ON THE MARKET
Here are a few examples of the types of commercial-style ranges on the market. Ask your local kitchen design shop about what’s offered by companies such as Jenn-Air, Gaggeneau, Dacor and Dynasty in the luxury kitchen equipment line.
– FiveStar, Brown Stove Works Inc., P.O. Box 2490, Cleveland, Tenn. 37320; 800-251-7485. Cook tops, ranges, hoods. FiveStar offers a dual-fuel range with gas cook top and electric oven. Burners ranging from 1,500 to 14,000 BTUs, extra-low “Vari-Flame” for simmering; automatic ignition; pull-out broiler tray and more.
Prices from $1,900 for 36-inch (four burners and griddle) cook top to $5,000 for two-oven, two-broiler 48-inch range.
– Garland Commercial Industries, 185 E. South St., Freeland, Pa. 18224; 717-636-1000. Ranges, cook tops and hoods, both gas and electric. Burners up to 14,000 BTUs; automatic ignition; waist-level rack broiler; infrared broiler and more.
Prices range from $2,500 for 36-inch cook top to $9,000 for 60-inch double-oven range with six burners and 24-inch griddle.
– Russell Range, 229 Ryan Way, South San Francisco, Calif. 94080; 415-873-0105. Mainly cook tops. Burners up to 15,000 BTU; ultra-low simmer flame; wok ring; griddle/grill and more.
Prices from $995 for 18-inch two-burner cook top to $2,995 for 36-inch six-burner cook top with polished brass front.
– Thermador, 5119 District Blvd., Los Angeles, Calif. 90040; 800-656-9226. Ranges, cook tops, hoods. Burners up to 15,000 BTU; dual-fuel ranges with gas cook top and electric self-cleaning ovens.
Prices from $2,100 for a 36-inch cook top to $7,500 for a 48-inch range.
– Viking Range Corp., 111 Front St., Greenwood, Miss. 38930; 601-455-1200. Viking offers a variety of ranges, cook tops and hoods featuring burners with a BTU range of 1,000 to 15,000; automatic ignition (no pilot light); infrared broilers; griddle/simmer plates; char-grill and more.
Prices range from $1,425 for built-in gas range tops to $6,700 for up to 60-inch gas ranges.
– Wolf Range Co., 19600 S. Alameda St., Compton, Calif. 90221; 800-366-9653. Cook tops and ranges with burners ranging from 1,200 to 17,500 BTUs; automatic ignition; wok ring; griddle with cover and more.
Prices from $2,025 for 36-inch, six-burner cook top to $8,710 for 48-inch, double-oven range with four burners, griddle and charbroiler.