Cooking Up A Good Idea

Have you been waiting to remodel your old avocado and gold 70s kitchen until 1) the retro craze passed into merciful oblivion, or 2) someone finally came up with something really new in a stove design? If the answer is #1, I can't help you, and not to be too harsh on you here, but I actually have my doubts that anyone can. I can only recommend that when you wake up every morning you repeat to yourself, "I will not be a slave to fads today. I will not be a slave to fads today." This may have no effect at all, but at least you will be starting your day sensibly, no matter what the rest of it holds. If the answer is #2, the folks at Yanko Design may have just the thing to jump-start your kitchen's entry into the twenty-first century--the Simmer Stove.

The new stove concept is based on the notion that existing stove design is unsafe and lacking in energy efficiency. In myriad kitchens throughout the world plentiful pots possessing piping hot potions perch precariously atop open elements. (I have now reached my alliteration quota for the day.) The new design involves lowering the cooking element into the counter, so that the top of the pot is flush with the counter-top. This makes it impossible to knock a pot off the stove, and when the pot is removed, the element is still tucked safely below the surface where hands can't accidentally land on a hot burner. It also makes for much more efficient cooking, since the pot inserted into the opening encloses and traps the heat, a nice feature on a hot day, (It would at least slow the process of heating up your kitchen down a good deal.) Another nice feature is that the elements are separate units, so the kitchen design can be very flexible. If you want two burners on one side of the room, and three more on another, you can make it so. Cool.

I do have a question or two about the stove's functionality. The blurb I read wasn't long, just a brief description, and a couple of photos to illustrate the idea. I get the concept of a pot of soup, or boiling potatoes, or what have you, sitting below the surface, for all the above mentioned reasons. I'm not as clear on how that would work, however, for frying things, or making omelets, for example. When I'm frying splattery chicken, I don't particularly want to reach my hand inside a several inches deep pot to turn the pieces over. Call me crazy. I assume there must be some sort of adapter for shallower pans where they're required. Perhaps you simply use the shallow pan and wait longer for the heat to rise up and reach the bottom of it. That sounds simple enough, if a bit irritating. I also assume there must be some possibility of pulling out portions of each unit for cleaning, since trying to reach down into a burner well just out of one's easy reach could be a pain in various places. I'm sure these are things the designers have all figured out already; I just didn't see the answers spelled out in writing, and would need them before plunking my money down. Otherwise, I think below-the-counter is a great idea. The main problem being that my husband and I did not wait to get rid of our 70's kitchen, ditching it at the first opportunity, in fact, so we'll have to wait a while before the next remodel. I'm going to be keeping this idea on the back burner though--so to speak.

Hat tip: Futurismic