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need a new range cooker


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sorry thom, had to avoid this thread as have justr moved and beloved smeg is now sat in the garage under a dust sheet rather than in the kitchen. :angry:

i now have a lovely white 4 burner aeg and electric oven, luckily i now live even closer to the pub so will just have to dine there more often!

gary

you don't win friends with salad

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Yes Gary, but man cannot live on Brewers Fayre alone...

It's all true... I admit to being the MD of Holden Media, organisers of the Northern Restaurant and Bar exhibition, the Northern Hospitality Awards and other Northern based events too numerous to mention.

I don't post here as frequently as I once did, but to hear me regularly rambling on about bollocks - much of it food and restaurant-related - in a bite-size fashion then add me on twitter as "thomhetheringto".

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Ok, I'm changing my story.

A couple of people have warned me off Baumatics, but I have now warmed to Rangemaster.

My local electrical place actually has them in stock, and having played with the Toledo and Elan I like them much more than I thought I would. They seem very sturdy and well thought out (extra grill plus two ovens is good), and the styling is much better than I thought.

The only one they didn't have was the Professional range, which in the catalogue looks quite nice (though never used by 'professionals' I'm sure - Ok, unless you count doctors and lawyers...).

All the models were competitively priced too, I can get a 6-burner, 2-oven, dual fuel 110cm range for around £1,300, against around £1,700 for a comparable 100cm Smeg model.

More questions then: Anyone regularly used Toledo, Elan or Professional Rangemasters? If so are they good?

Cheers

Thom

It's all true... I admit to being the MD of Holden Media, organisers of the Northern Restaurant and Bar exhibition, the Northern Hospitality Awards and other Northern based events too numerous to mention.

I don't post here as frequently as I once did, but to hear me regularly rambling on about bollocks - much of it food and restaurant-related - in a bite-size fashion then add me on twitter as "thomhetheringto".

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Hi thom

As mentioned we have a TOLEDO 90, dual fuel in silver. very happy with it, had it since february. We bought it at an independent shop in Molesey, Surrey for £1175.

http://www.moleseyrefrigeration.co.uk/

My boyfriend is a chef and thinks its great, we do dinner parties atleast once a month, normally multicourse affairs and the oven handles it fine

We chose it because it had 2 ovens and seperate grill, plus it looks good and neat., also alot of the ranges we saw had nasty "trying to look old buttons" and seems well made...

Any further questions then please ask

sarah x

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Sarah,

Thanks for that, that's just the sort of thing I was waiting to hear.

Like you I appreciate the convinience of having the separate grill and ovens and as I said I did think they actually looked pretty nice. I think our local guy had the 90cm version at about £1,150 too.

Although I was anti the 'traditional' styling of some of the models I must admit to also quite liking the Elan range with the coiled 'spring' style handles. My girlfriend likes the fact that the latter comes in cream as it will match the cream fridge, cream Dualit and cream blender she has carefully assembled.

So, I seriously think both the Toledo and the Elan have edged ahead of the Smeg in my wish-list (sorry Gary).

Oh, I have a general range question too (which may be momentously stupid): Do bigger/better ranges actually have more 'power' to create higher temperatures? Obviously domestic ovens don't hit the same heights as commercial models meaning things such as pizza bases can suffer; that said, do some domestic ovens do better than others?

Cheers

Thom

It's all true... I admit to being the MD of Holden Media, organisers of the Northern Restaurant and Bar exhibition, the Northern Hospitality Awards and other Northern based events too numerous to mention.

I don't post here as frequently as I once did, but to hear me regularly rambling on about bollocks - much of it food and restaurant-related - in a bite-size fashion then add me on twitter as "thomhetheringto".

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  • 6 months later...

[bump]

Idly leafing through the Review section of this morning's Independent and what do I see but an entire page devoted to the ten best range cookers.

Irritatingly the Review section isn't on-line so I can't do the link thing, but will keep article on my desk and run off copies if anyone's keen. Sorry for all you high-end junkies, though - nothing over £6,500 here.

Oh and I went for the Smeg in the end - had to buy a little 70cm one though, since it came down in the end to a straight choice between a fantastically giant cooker and actually being able to get into the kitchen...

Fi

Fi Kirkpatrick

tofu fi fie pho fum

"Your avatar shoes look like Marge Simpson's hair." - therese

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  • 1 year later...

Article from Matthew Fort in this month's Waitrose Food Illustrated about the shortcomings of AGA range cookers, which had me nodding + saying yes, yes, oh so true, etc.

I grew up with an Aga. I would like to say that I learnt to cook on an Aga but it simply wouldn't be true. As a cook, you learn survival techniques on an Aga; how to get by, how to rescue disaster, how to take pleasure in small triumphs. But you don't learn how to cook. We had central heating, too, so the argument about the Aga being the warm, beating heart of the kitchen never really washed. In particular, it never washed when temperatures rose during summer, because the kitchen would become a living hell.

You tell 'em, Matthew! Aga Khan't

Fi Kirkpatrick

tofu fi fie pho fum

"Your avatar shoes look like Marge Simpson's hair." - therese

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i've lived with an aga for two and a half years and i think i've nearly mastered it, it's in equal parts frustrating and satisfying. we're moving soon to a place with a giant modern range type cooker already in and i can't wait! it's going to be like being born again!

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What he says is absolutely true. I'd like an Aga, but I'd make sure I had a really good oven, grill & gas hob first, so the Aga would be an extravagence. I cook on an Aga for a fortnight a year oin the holiday cottage - I enjoy it, but I couldn't live with just an Aga day by day. Though I have friends who do - they just adapt their cooking, and I couldn't do that.

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I love my AGA. Wouldn't think of anything else, although I agree anout back-up.

Yes, it has its moods, and for cooking large amounts of foods needs a certain amount of foresight, or rather learnt technique - you tend to cook in the ovens rather than on the hot plates.

However the ovens are both hotter and cooler than convetional ranges - I have a 4 oven model and the hot oven is really hot, the coolest perfect for sous-vide, LTLT and drying. They are self cleaning and always ready as well.

Its also virtually indestructible, which suits me.

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I thought Matthew Fort's article was spleeny and more than a bit silly. Our Aga cooks far better than my parents' hypermodern GE electric range with "fingertip controls", temperature regulated to a tenth of a degree, and all sorts of gadgets and whizzbangs.

Spend some time in a restaurant kitchen. The burners and ovens go on, they stay on, and you adjust the heat not by fiddling with controls but by moving the pots pans around. The oven is hot if it feels that way to your hand. That's how you cook on an Aga. You become more confident as a cook, more in touch with the food, less dependent on thermostats and the like.

The Aga ovens are stable, and they heat from four sides. No convection nonsense. Roasts are better, and, as Jack says, you can do low-temperature long-time (LTLT) cooking with ease. It's always ready for you -- no pre-heating, no fiddling around.

With no disrespect to Matthew Fort's mother: if she couldn't make a decent Yorkshire pudding, I truly doubt that it was because of the Aga.

We didn't buy an Aga, but there it was when we bought the house, and it's stayed in place as we've rebuilt the kitchen around it. I'm not sure I'd go out and buy a new Aga -- I'd be more inclined to install fire protection and use a commercial cooker -- but it hasn't been a handicap at all.

Jonathan Day

"La cuisine, c'est quand les choses ont le go�t de ce qu'elles sont."

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Here's my toledo90 which I am very, very happy with.

gas oven on left, electric on right, gas grill, 5 burner hob

can't remember if it was £1150 or £1350

approx. 4 week delivery

check it'll fit into your house - they took a very large chunk out of the hall wall to get it 'round a tight corner

my previosu was a 6 burner smeg which was OK but I'm much happier with this - seems more substantial & easier to clean

gallery_1946_1763_57798.jpg

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that is lovely - what is the advantage of the gas oven *and* the electric oven?

I wanted both oven to be gas but it isn't possible in that size. For two gas ovens you need to go to 110cm wide model - and that wouldn't easily fit into my kitchen

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  • 4 months later...

I'm in the calm before the storm of selling my flat and (I hope) buying a rundown place with plenty of potential for a large dining-kitchen, so my mind is turning to all things kitchen, central to which is a range cooker.

Has anyone any experience of the Cannon 1000 Professional cooker?

At anything from £900, it seems to be remarkably good value, but I have no knowledge of Cannon at all. John Burton Race is fronting their campaign, claims to have one at home and has a suitably doesn't-suffer-fools-gladly image to suggest that he wouldn't put his name to any old piece of crap, but that'll be exactly what Cannon want you to think.

Any comments?

PS

Edinburgh

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