Recipe for success: Gaggenau

A deep-seated knowledge of professional chefs’ needs has allowed Gaggenau, Germany’s leading brand of high-quality, professional-grade domestic appliances, to transfer that expertise effortlessly to private homes everywhere.

In the 1930s, the company, then owned by Dr Otto von Blanquet, produced the world’s first electric oven, which made cooking safer and more convenient. When his son Georg took the helm in the 1950s, Gaggenau introduced the first eye-level wall oven and pull-out extraction hood. A keen cook himself, Georg was aware of professional chefs’ precise requirements. And so the brand soon asserted its pre-eminence as a maker of appliances that guaranteed domestic cooks all the advantages of a professional kitchen. What’s more, over the years, Gaggenau has worked extensively with professional chefs to ascertain precisely what delights and frustrates them.

Crucially, Gaggenau’s domestic appliances free both private cooks and professional chefs who own them at home from being conscious of how they operate, allowing its products to be used intuitively, effortlessly. Indeed, as soon as kitchen equipment distracts cooks from focusing on the delicious food they’re painstakingly creating, it ceases to be an effective tool, even becoming a hindrance. Gaggenau products are also coveted for their high precision craftsmanship and for being beautiful and durable. Aesthetically, they are supremely pared-down, sculptural and elegant.

Another breakthrough for the company came in the early 1970s, when it launched its first Vario modular cooktops incorporating such appliances as induction and gas cooktops, Teppan Yaki, electric grill and steamer. Gaggenau later created its modular Vario cooktops 400 series, two of whose key appliances are its steamer and deep-fryer.

Made of the highest quality stainless steel, the Vario cooktops 400 series represents the acme of professional standards available to private chefs, right down to the smallest detail. Tellingly, the Vario cooktops 400 series’ knobs are positioned not on top of the unit but at the front of it, just as they are in a professional kitchen.

Today, everyone likes healthy cooking and Gaggenau’s highly versatile steamer meets that need. Compact and so ideal for small kitchens, this steams food quickly, simmers, cooks, blanches, reheats, extracts juice and even makes yogurt, raises dough and disinfects. The food can be steamed on two levels without the flavour from one adulterating that of the other. The lower level has a perforated base that steams food faster than the upper one. The latter has an unperforated base that prevents steam from hitting the food directly.

The appliance’s glass cover is practical, allowing cooks to glance through it and instantly see how the steaming is progressing. Food can be steamed using water or other liquids, for example seasoned red wine or broth. The water temperature is precisely regulated, never dipping below 45°C, nor exceeding 95°C, and the electronic steam control saves energy as it only generates the steam required.

The deep-fryer is equally efficient. It comprises a frying basket that is plunged into a basin filled with oil or fat, which contains foaming, frying and cold-oil zones. The foaming zone prevents hot oil from frothing over the edge of the basin.

The fryer, which can fry fish, meat, vegetables, even delicate sage leaves or Neapolitan truffoli (deep-fried dough balls), also maintains a correct temperature (between 135°C and 190°C), allowing food to be cooked to professional standards with minimum fuss. At the right temperature, the food forms a crisp crust that prevents oil or fat penetrating it, ensuring that it’s not greasy or tough at its centre or burnt on the outside. The oil or fat can be reused since its flavour isn’t altered after being used to cook different foods.

With both appliances, cooking is done to perfection without any conscious intervention on the part of the private chef. There lies the central appeal of Gaggenau’s consistently progressive products.

© Architonic