KITCHEN STOVES
1 August 2008
“The Duke of Cook”
I really don’t know what to do with this particular blog, because I’m not really sure what it’s about! Well, OK, I guess I do know what it’s about—another kitchen stove, but a stove quite unlike anything I have ever seen, although it certainly fits in well with what I frequently find myself discussing on these blogs, namely, the power of imagination to completely transform everything we thought we knew.
Believe it or not, I actually found myself thinking about that sort of thing last night when I was dishing up some ice cream. Over the years (we’ve been married almost 32 years), we have had any number of ice cream scoops, none of which really did much of a job on hard-frozen ice cream, all of which eventually broke because of the pressures exerted while attempting it anyway. Then 
we came across an ice cream scoop (the Twister) that abandoned the traditional half-hemisphere for a quarter section with an “auger-shaped” spiral that cuts through the hardest ice cream with ease. What they did was both simple and enormously difficult at times. They looked at a very old product with new eyes.
And that, in a round about sort of way, brings us to the stove du jour. Not having tested the stove, I certainly cannot comment on how well or poorly it accomplishes its goals, but it is certainly fair to say that it breaks new ground. So, what is it, exactly? Well, to quote from their website, “the Arcus is a freestanding stove designed by Manuel Perez Prada to ease the stress of chefs in a busy kitchen and built by Miele.”
And how does a stove go about relieving “the stress of chefs in a busy kitchen?” Funny you should ask! Well, to begin with, it is more than a stove. It is actually a cooking island, as it incorporates a refrigerator, thereby eliminating, say the manufacturers, leaving the station unattended while one obtains more i
ngredients for one’s culinary masterpiece. And, given the unusual shape of the unit, I think we have to assume that it will end up in a futuristic kitchen of some sort that is at the end of one of those large living spaces that I often find myself falling in love with in these blogs. And that, in turn, means that those cooks who like company while they cook are bound to have plenty of it. Actually, I think you could put this stove in a shed at the back of your house and draw a crowd! But I digress.
The two most innovative items on the stove—apart from its shape—are knobs and a vent, because it has neither. The stove is off until you set a pot on it. Then you simply twist the pot to raise or lower the temperature. And the plastic at the back raises and creates a waterfall, which is not just a Zen-like appurtenance. It is actually a recirculating flow of water that is there to take away the heat and cooking steam, thereby eliminating the need for a vent.
Again, I have no idea of how well it works, but what it is, is a stove that all but screams, watch me now! It starts when you plop a pot, stops when you opt to, heats to a twister, cools with a mister and looks hot all the time!
Joseph
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