The typical Australian lifestyle is changing. No longer are we happy to "throw another snag on the barbie" – these days, we want our snags cooked in the healthiest way possible and served with professional restaurant-style presentation.
 |
| The Gaggenau VP421 Teppan Yaki |
The latest fittings and appliances for kitchens reflect that trend. Our appliances also have to be convenient and easy to use, and have the stylish looks we've come to expect as well.
The popularity of celebrity chefs – Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson, Donna Hay and others – has led us to see ourselves more as entertainers; even performers, if you like. Thus recipes not only need to be easy, but presentation must be attractive as well. Open-plan living is the key trend right now, so our kitchens have become more of a large entertaining space, spilling over into other living areas of our home. Your guests might move around the kitchen as you prepare food, so naturally you want all your fittings and appliances to be as attractive as possible. Stainless steel is still popular, as it looks up-to-the-minute and is fairly easy to keep clean.
And anything you don't want out on display, you might want to conceal. Built-in sliding panels are perfect if you don't want your dishwasher or bar fridge out in full view all the time. If you're renovating your kitchen, sliding panels are something you should consider when you're drawing up plans.
This is all part of a trend towards flushline technology, which is a seamless, integrated approach to kitchen design. Cooktops and sinks meld with benchtops, while bigger appliances such as fridges and dishwashers are concealed behind matching cabinet doors.
But the good news is that many appliances these days are attractive enough to have as showpieces – you may even find yourself reluctant to hide them away.
Manufacturers have kept all these considerations well and truly in mind when developing the current crop of products available to us. So let us give you a glimpse inside today's smart kitchen – the latest in high-tech products will have you ready to update right now.
EASY LIVING
Today, the appliances you have in your kitchen speak volumes about your lifestyle.
"People are looking for appliances that are showpieces, trophy-style," says Breville's Marketing Manager, Peter Brewer.
What you have on display in your kitchen can speak volumes about your personality. For example, a professional coffee machine might say you enjoy long, lazy afternoons sipping cappuccinos al fresco, café society-style, while a juicer says you're health-conscious but busy, and find it easy to get your vitamin hit while on-the-go.
Sunbeam has several products for the health-conscious among us – SmartHouse loves its new Café Series, particularly the Juice Extractor (RRP$229.95) for professional juicing results, Blender (RRP$199.95) for preparing smoothies and soups and the Food Slicer (RRP$159.95) for salads and cold meats.
Not only do the Café Series products have a bent towards healthy foods, they'll also give you a professional shop-style presentation, such as the Breville HealthSmart Grill (RRP$129.95). Not only will you achieve the grill pattern you find in restaurants on your meat, but you'll also grill it in the healthiest way possible. You should also look for drip trays and other fat-collection methods when buying a grill, to ensure your meat is as lean and healthy as possible.
Steam cooking is also a key ingredient in today's healthy kitchen. Gaggenau's multi-function steam cooker (RRP$3799) is perfect for cooking a large variety of foods; including vegetables, fish, rice, meat and pasta. This type of pressureless steam cooking preserves the taste, aroma and the colourful appearance of your food.
The ultimate health-conscious kitchen of today should also include some sort of water-filtering device, to ensure your water supply is pure and clean. Many models today dispense both ice cold and boiling hot water. SmartHouse recommends the Zip HydroTap (RRP$2499, $799 for boiling-only model), which can be installed anywhere and boasts a minimalist design to fit in with the look of the rest of your kitchen.
If you are looking for perfect coffee, you'll need a coffee machine. Coffee connoisseurs will love the new Built-In Miele/ Nespresso model, the CVA 2000. The $2799 (stainless steel) and $2899 (aluminium) recommended retail prices might seem hefty, but it may well be the most professional coffee machine you can have outside your local café. The design seamlessly integrates into your kitchen's surroundings, and features include automatic capsule selection, digital programming and a milk-frothing device for cappuccino.
Click to enlarge |
| The Miele Nespresso CVA 2000 |
If you don't want to spend that much getting your coffee hit each day, many manufacturers make less expensive models with fewer functions, right down to the likes of the Breville Café Cordfree Percolator (RRP$109.95), which keeps your coffee hot when left on its stainless steel cord-free base.
Experts tell us Asian-style cooking will help us stay healthy and live longer, and Gaggenau has several products for enthusiasts of this low-fat style of cooking.
The VP421-110 Teppan Yaki (RRP$4499) allows you to cook food in the traditional Japanese manner by griddling it on the smooth hard-chromium metal surface, while the VI411 Vario Induction Wok (RRP$6999) allows fast cooking on your benchtop surface. It can even be used as a single-zone induction hob, which recognises the size of the pan, and heats that area only. Because a small area is heated, burnt-on food spillages are minimised, making this unit much easier to clean than gas glass ceramic cooktops.
TRUE HOTTIE
Many manufacturers have just released new oven ranges, cooktops and other "winter" appliances, just in time for the cooler months of the year. Winter is the perfect time to update the look of your kitchen and its fittings and appliances – we all tend to spend more time indoors during winter, and feel the urge to prepare more hot food and beverages.
Much sought-after luxury European brands Omega and Smeg have both recently released a range of products, suited for anyone looking for both good looks and ease-of-use in their kitchen fittings.
Take for example the Omega OA29X cooktop (RRP$1190), which epitomises flushline technology. It's one sheer, uninterrupted sheet of black glass; with no ridges, lips or controls anywhere within the stainless steel perimeter trim. The four cooking zones are operated by a fingertip touch to the sensor area, and microtherm insulation has been installed beneath the cooking zones to conserve heat and energy.
Meanwhile, Smeg has the PGFA95F gas cooktop (RRP$2350), a five burner, semi-industrial style gas cooktop, which once again uses flushline technology to seamlessly integrate into your kitchen. Smeg has also incorporated energy saving and noise control measures into its new line of semi-commercial rangehoods, which have been designed for use in homes. Dubbed the ENC range, these chimneyhoods have been specifically designed to eliminate grease-laden vapour from high-performance cooktops, thus ensuring the atmosphere in your kitchen is fresh and healthy at all times.
The new range from Omega also includes a microwave, the OA138X (RRP$450). Omega claims this 34-litre oven takes the guess work out of cooking, making it easier than ever before to whip up a healthy meal, and quickly. The plate-warming mode heats a pre-cooked meal without overcooking or leaving a cold spot in the middle, and frozen food can be thawed automatically by weight and consistency, using pre-determined settings stored in the microwave. If you've got young children in the house, there's even a safety lock included, which shuts down the control pad.
Or if you don't have much space, consider the Smeg SA987CX (RRP$850). It's one of the smallest ovens available, and yet can roast, grill, bake and microwave. It incorporates something Smeg has dubbed "3D" technology – the interior of the oven has a pattern of indentations, which increase the number of surfaces for electromagnetic waves to bounce off, improving efficiency and creating evenness of both cooking and defrosting.
