My New Kitchen: Cooking area

Here's a photo of the whole cooking area, except for the two wall ovens, which are out of the picture, to the right. I don't really like stainless, but wanted a surface on which I could put hot (like really HOT) things without having to worry about damage, or bother with trivets, and stainless seemed to best fit the bill. I'm pleasantly surprised that it's quite easy to keep clean: a barely moist microfiber cloth, followed by a dry one, does the job. Click on an appliance to read more about it.

The SMALL SINK on the left of this area has an instant hot water faucet (the smaller one, an EverHot LVH480) and the larger Grohe Ladylux Plus. For boiling, smaller pans are filled from the instant dispenser (190°F), and large pots get filled with the pull-out from the Grohe faucet, while they sit on the cooktop. At first, I had considered putting in a regular pot filler, but this does the job and gives me a handy faucet as well. Having a sink near the cooktop does away with lugging steaming hot pots to the main sink for straining; I keep a set of colanders right in the cabinet above the sink.

This sink measures approximately 16" x 13" x6½"d; I found it on eBay for a very reasonable price, and the countertop fabricator was able to weld it in, which I much prefer to a drop-in installation --- no seams!

The COOKTOP, below, is a Windcrest 36", fueled by propane. This was another eBay purchase, and when it arrived I discovered it was adjusted for natural gas, so I had to get a conversion kit (inexpensive) and have it changed to propane. I'd heard that this change could reduce the BTUs put out by the burners, but the Windcrest technician assured me this wasn't so, and I'm not at all disappointed with the heat the burners generate. The central burner is rated at 18,500 BTU, two others are 15,000, one is 12,000, and the smallest one (lower right) is 9,000. The central burner is great for stir-frying with my carbon steel wok, and with only the inner ring burning, it's useful for simmering. The volume of liquid in the pan, however, makes a difference so I still need to use a simmer plate occasionally.

I'm satisfied with this cooktop's performance in general, but I'm disappointed with sealed burners, and I won't have them on my next cooktop. The major drawback I find is that the flames come out of the side of the burner, not the top, so you have a circle of flames with nothing in the middle. This means that only the largest pans get heat on their bottoms, and most get heated on their sides. Yes, you can reduce the size of the flame, but that, of course, reduces the heat level....

My second beef with sealed burners is the cleaning problem: I thought sealed burners were a great idea, until I realized that all the stuff that falls into the space around an open burner now collects on the surface around the burner, in full view... so you have to clean after every use, otherwise it will burn on. And cleaning right around the burners and igniters isn't exactly easy.

The mirror backsplash is temporary, until I decide what I want and can afford back there. I just happened to have a mirror left over from the bathroom remodel, and it fit perfectly, so.... One thing I do like about the mirror is that I can see the size of the flame in it, without having to bend over and peer under the pan.

And then, a year later, this happened!

Backsplash

The Windcrest cooktop was replaced with a 36" BlueStar rangetop, and a granite backsplash was installed. Now the remodel is truly finished, and am I ever happy!

I had ruled out a tiled backsplash because I really, really dislike having to deal with grout; I know there's epoxy grout, but I just don't like grout, period. So I decided to bite the financial bullet (yet again) and see what I could find in a stone slab that I liked. To my surprise, I found a fantastic stone yard within a 90-minute drive, and went there several times, agonizing over having to choose something so very permanent. I kept coming back to this granite, however. It's called "Blue Luis" (also Luise, Louise, Louisa, and even Van Gogh), and I believe it's a quartzite from Brazil but wouldn't swear to it. I like the many different shades of blue in it, and the bold, swirling venation. (As a biologist, I spent many, many years studying slides of tissue under the microscope, and this looks just like dense irregular connective tissue stained with Mallory's.... but I digress.)

The rangetop doesn't move me aesthetically one little bit, but then, that's not what I bought it for. I bought it for the following features: It has star-shaped, open burners, avoiding the disadvantages I found with sealed burners on the Windcrest; two of these burners are powerful 22,000 BTU blast furnaces for stir-frying and for boiling water rapidly (but no, not as rapidly as induction); all the burners can be turned waaaay down, to just little blue buttons of flames; and each burner can be leveled separately, a true boon for the cook in an old house where nothing is level or plumb. Furthermore, the creature is quite simple, a little more complicated than an outdoor gas grill really, allaying my worries of finding service for it. It's so simple, in fact, that I was able, with a helper, to reposition four of the burners, which would have cost me $400 if done at the factory. The air/gas mixture is easily adjusted (especially if you've used Bunsen burners in a lab!), as is the height of the flame at its lowest setting. The drawbacks include the clunky look (no, I'm not a fan of commercial appliances), and the appalling lack of "finish" on the insides: all the metal edges are very sharp, some of the burner brackets had to be slightly readjusted, and there were several extra, loose screws rolling around inside (made me think of the extra buttons you get with a new shirt). However, someone once called this a "cooking machine," and I completely agree.

The HOOD is a Vent-A-Hood SLX-236, in the "Emerald" style, with two 300 cfm blowers. It's usually recommended to size the hood 6" wider than the cooktop, but I didn't have room for this, so I got the extra deep model (27" instead of 24") to compensate for having the hood the same width as the cooktop.

My decision to get the Vent-A-Hood rather than a Broan or other top brand was based on its unique "Magic Lung" design, which doesn't use the baffles or mesh filters other hoods have. In theory, this should significantly reduce the noise caused by the hood when it's on, since it's thought that most of that noise is generated by the air swooshing through baffles/filters. Although I haven't been able to compare the noise level of my hood with that of other brands, I don't find the Vent-A-Hood to be particularly quiet. There's not much difference in noise between having a single blower or both blowers on, and when working at

the cooktop, I have to turn the volume of the radio or TV way up if I want to hear it over the noise of the hood; however, a couple of steps away from the hood the decibel level decreases dramatically.

My major gripe about this hood is the difficulty of cleaning it. The mechanism is located way up at the very top of the hood, and while disassembling it is no big deal, the problem is getting up to it. For someone 6' tall, it would be a breeze, but at 5'3", I find it a royal pain in the back and shoulders. Also, the housing that catches the grease is quite large, and not easy to fit in a dishwasher, although it can be done. On the plus side, this hood is good at what it's supposed to do --- get rid of steam and greasy vapors from cooking, and I do think its technology minimizes the risks of a grease fire, so all told, I'm not too unhappy with my choice.

One of my favorite new appliances is the ADVANTIUM SPEEDCOOK OVEN 240 (right) , mounted under the cabinet to the right of the hood. The Advantium is essentially a microwave with an upper and lower halogen lamp. The unit can be used as a straightforward microwave, either manually or using one of the preprogrammed settings. For speedcooking, the upper and lower halogen lamps are activated, and together with the microwave, they can cook food very quickly indeed: Perfect lamb loin chops in seven minutes; two Rock Cornish Game Hens in 15 minutes (and they were slightly overdone!); and although I haven't tried it yet, you can supposedly roast a frozen chicken in 30 minutes. (Addendum: Yes, I tried it and by Jove, it's true!) I've had very good results using the preprogrammed settings, but I've also learned to tweak them for some dishes.

This model is designed for over-the-range use, doubling as a ventilation hood. Since I was installing the VAH, I didn't need it for that purpose but got it instead of the built-in wall model for two reasons. First, this one cost less, and secondly, it can be vented externally, whereas the wall model cannot. The rectangular vent comes out of the top back of the oven and the duct runs through the cabinet above (covered by a false back), through the soffit, then in the attic it turns left and opens into the duct coming from the hood.

The WARMING DRAWER (left) , a 30 " GE Profile, is a nice little luxury, but I'm not sure I would have installed one if I hadn't found this one on eBay. I enjoy entertaining, and the warming drawer allows me to prepare most dishes in advance so I can spend time with my guests before serving dinner. It took a bit of experimentation to find a temperature that would keep the food hot without further cooking it; in general, I've found a setting just below "Medium" to work well.

I don't usually plate for serving, but on one occasion I did, and found that four 11" dinner plates fit comfortably in the bottom of the drawer, and two more can be placed on the rack. One annoyance is that the drawer isn't tall enough to accommodate covered pots, so I have to replace the covers with foil. There's a sliding vent cover in the face of the drawer that can be set to keep the inside "moist" or "crisp," but I generally leave it on "crisp" and simply cover anything that needs to be kept moist.

The undercounter storage in the cooking area includes several specialized drawers:

		The two drawers under the wall ovens both have diagonal grooves in the sides, for ¼" dividers. I had thought to store pot covers here, but the drawers aren't deep enough for the larger covers. They serve well, though, for trivets, cooling racks, and serving boards. And the cat wants to know when the heck she's going to get fed. . . .
To the left of the warming drawer is a tall, narrow drawer with a ¼" divider, for storing cookie sheets and other flat pans.	Just under the counter, to the right of the cooktop, is a narrow drawer for storing cooking oils. I cut down plastic cereal containers to line the drawer and keep it from getting grungy with oil drips.


Pots and pans are either stored in an extra-large drawer (left) just below the warming drawer, or hung from the soffit (right). I hadn't planned on hanging storage until I realized how much drawer space it would save, and how easy it was. Once I put up the pot rack and discovered how convenient it was to just reach up and pick a pan, I put up individual hooks along the rest of the soffit edge for the smaller utensils and haven't had a moment's regret.

Last updated on 01/26/2007

Site created and maintained by Margaret Simpson

Visit my other Web sites