The kitchen that really cooks
By: Beverly Allen - February 6th, 2007
Double-income families, fast foods, and increasingly hectic lifestyles; all have threatened the kitchen’s central role in the home. But you can’t, it appears, keep the family out of the kitchen for long, especially one that includes a convection oven, built-in wok, fridge with ice maker and wine-cellar, appliances that are becoming more common kitchen features.
The trend toward specialized kitchen gear is fueled by two factors, says Fiona Lucas, founder of the Culinary Historians of Ontario — an organization that researches and preserves the roles First Nations peoples and immigrants have had on Ontario’s culinary heritage—and a spokesperson for KitchenAid.
“People are interested in having equipment that makes it easy to cook, and they want appliances that allow them to accomplish new and different things,” she says. “But they also want appliances and cookware that look great.
“What I really love is that we’ve gone full circle,” says Lucas. “If you look at kitchen of early settlers in Ontario, it was the main part of the house and was often used as the parlor as well.” As specialized rooms were added to homes, the kitchen lost some of its focus. But the room has regained its primacy in the home, and contemporary kitchen design increasingly includes other functions, such as entertaining and homework.
If the kitchen is the heart of the home, then the oven is the heart of the kitchen. Today, there are lots of model to choose from. GE’s new Advantium oven is designed to roast, grill, broil, bake and grill up to four times faster than a conventional oven—without pre-heating. You can also program cooking instructions for up to 30 recipes. The Advantium sells for about $3,000 and is available in 68.5-or 76-centimetre widths.
Convection ovens, which circulate air faster than conventional ovens and maintains a constant, even heat, are becoming very popular. For really serious cooks, KitchenAid now has Dual Fuel Range with Steam-Assist Technology, which offers a gas cook-top combined with an electric convection oven.
This oven also releases steam throughout the
cooking process, which keeps meat and poultry tender, fish moist and gives bread a lovely crisp crust. It also prevents the surface of items like cheesecake from cracking during baking.
There’s no hook-up to household plumbing required for the steam feature. A two-litre reservoir is filled by hand, and a light and buzzer indicate when it’s empty. There are two models to choose from; a 76-centimetre range with four burners that sells for about $5,800 and a 92-centimetre range with six burners that sells for about $8,000.
Another big trend is the inclusion of wine storage systems in the kitchen. GE has introduced the Wine Captain, a handsome new cabinet that can be installed as a
built-in or freestanding unit. It has five slide-out racks with beech wood fronts that hold up to 57 bottles at an ideal temperature, assisted by an automatic defrost feature. Interior lighting makes picking a bottle easier, while tinted glass doors protect the wine from exterior light. The Wine Captain sells for about $1410.
It’s not just the big-ticket items that are bringing a new level of professionalism to the contemporary kitchen. Counters are also being graced with pricey coffee makers, juicers and mixers. New on the scene is the Foodsaver, a vacuum food packager that helps keep frozen meat free of freezer burn for up to three years, cheese fresh up to eight months and pantry goods dry for up to two years.
The appliance uses a two-step process; first removing
oxygen and moisture from packaging and then creating an airtight seal to keep contents fresh. Outside the kitchen, it can be used to prevent the rusting of silver or the yellowing and deterioration of valuable paper documents and collectibles. It also has other handy uses, such as waterproofing a first-aid kit for camping trips.
The basic Foodsaver model costs about $130 and is available at Wal-Mart stores. An advanced model that has two speed settings sells for about $160 and is available at Costco stores.