Despite our best intentions, there are few purchases that, to any lasting degree, ever really change our lives for the better. The latest phone, a newer television, the cutting edge fashion trend – all provide instantaneous gratification, but their usefullness is short lived, and within a relatively short time period they will all fade away, only to be replaced by a newer, better counterpart. It’s rare to find things that endure – things that have the power to improve our lives in a meaningful way on a continual, steadfast basis.

Ten years ago I wrote an article about the Capital Culinarian range, and at the time, I had no idea how I would feel about it a year later, or two, or three. I knew at the time I made the right choice selecting the Capital Culinarian for my home kitchen, but I’ve learned that it takes time to truly appreciate the value of an object. Love isn’t born in a day – it takes time to forge an enduring relationship with something. And I can tell you that looking back, I had no idea how much joy the Capital range would bring me over the next ten years.

The Capital Culinarian has become unequivocally one of the greatest purchases I have ever made, not just in terms of my kitchen, but of anything I’ve bought, period.

The Capital Culinarian has become unequivocally one of the greatest purchases I have ever made, not just in terms of my kitchen, but of anything I’ve bought, period. I’ve used it almost daily for what is now ten years, and despite a decade of cooking, it looks nearly new, it performs as perfectly as it did the day I first used it, and together with my family, the meals we have prepared with it have been absolutely magical. It has become not only the heart of the kitchen, but really the heart of the home.

But as with any good story, there needs to be a plot twist. This year has been a year of transition for me and my family, and we’ve decided to sell our home, and with it, my beloved Capital Culinarian. Not to sound overly dramatic, but I feel genuine sadness leaving my Capital range behind. It’s rare for me to form attachments to material possessions, but after countless morning breakfasts with the kids, family Thanksgivings spent around the stove with everyone preparing their favorite dishes, and date nights with my wife sharing a bottle of wine as we experiment with new recipes, I can tell you that of anything in my home, I will miss my Culinarian the most.

And while you may think that’s the end of the story and my love affair with Capital is over – that I’ve moved on to find a newer, better range manufacturer – the truth is, there isn’t one. Ten years later, Capital is the still the king of professional home ranges, which is precisely why after moving into my new home I immediately made the decision to purchase another Capital range – specifically, a 60″ Capital Connoisseurian. After taking delivery and firing it up for the first time, I can tell you Capital’s quality and performance hasn’t missed a beat. Fit and finish are perfect, performance is unrivaled, and build quality is exemplary. It’s precisely what I’ve come to know and love about the Capital brand.

Capital Connoisseurian Quick Look

So why did I choose the Capital Connoisseurian? I’m going to be writing a dedicated article highlighting all of the Capital Connoisseurian’s features in the coming weeks along with an in-depth review, but here’ a quick snapshot of why I chose it. For me, professional quality is the singular greatest attribute I look for in a home range. The ability to cook with the highest possible heat down to a gentle simmer is the key to prepare virtually any dish, and when it comes to heating, there’s no greater range on the planet than the Capital Culinarian and Connoisseurian. Both ranges feature open burners boasting an industry leading 25,000 BTU’s, but they’re also both capable of achieving a true simmer, meaning you can stir fry with a wok or sear the perfect steak, then turn down the burners to make a delicate French sauce, all from the same burners. After using them for the last 10 years, Capital’s open burners are simply incredible, and functionally they can rival the performance of any commercial range.

So why the Connoisseurian instead of the Culinarian? While the two share identical cooktops, including burners, griddle and grill, the difference between the two lies in the ovens. Whereas my former Culinarian was purely a gas range, meaning the cooktop and oven were all gas powered, the Connoisseurian is a dual fuel range, meaning the cooktop is powered by gas, but the two ovens are both electric. Gas ovens tend to produce a moister heat which favors dishes that you want to stay moist, like meats. Electric ovens produce a drier heat which tends to favor baked goods, like breads. As an avid home baker who enjoys baking bread on a regular basis, I decided to opt for the electric oven Connoisseurian model, but that being said, I loved my Culinarian’s gas oven – I very much could have purchased another Culinarian and been perfectly happy, and I’ve loved its results for conventional baked goods, including bread.

Capital’s open burners are simply incredible, and functionally they can rival the performance of any commercial range

Functionality aside, the second reason I chose Capital is because I absolutely love the design and engineering of Capital ranges. I’ve looked at Wolf, Bluestar, and Viking, to name a few, and the Capital Connoisseurian is unmatched in terms of build quality. Every part of it feels solid, like it’s built to last forever, and just like my Culinarian, my new Connoisseurian was engineered perfectly. Every weld, every piece of metal, is flawless. I’ve yet to find a range that rivals the quality of my Capital, and I’ve looked at all of them. Put it all together – performance, design, and engineering – and Capital has no rival.

Like I said, I’m going to be providing a follow up article providing an in-depth look at the Capital Connoisseurian and its many features in the near future, but if you’re in the market for a professional home range right now, put Capital at the top of your list, period. For anyone serious about cooking at the highest possible level, Capital is the foremost brand bringing commercial style cooking into the residential kitchen, and it looks superb doing it.

The Story of Capital and Superior Equipment Solutions

If you read my last article about the Capital Culinarian, you read the history of Capital ranges, and how industry veteran Surjit Kalsi helped launch the company after pioneering the first commercial style home range at Viking and later helping found DCS ranges. Much has changed since my first article, as Capital has since been acquired by Superior Equipment Solutions (SES), a world leader in both the residential and commercial appliance market. Led by Jeff Bernstein, SES owns numerous brands in the home and commercial appliance sector, starting with the Alfresco and Artisan line of residential outdoor kitchen appliances. Launched in 1999, Alfreso was started by Jeff along with Jeff Elliott and Edwin Hovsepian, who prior to starting Alfresco had more than 30 years of combined experience in the commercial appliance industry. Together, the trio envisioned bringing an entirely new level of quality, performance and luxury to outdoor kitchen appliances, and they’ve since grown to become a world leader in outdoor kitchen design and performance, working with world renowned chefs including Jean George, Wolfgang Puck, Emeril Lagasse and Mario Batali.

I’m a huge fan of Alfresco and their lineup of outdoor kitchen appliances, and I’ll be talking more about them in a separate article, but from there, the company expanded to become what is now SES brands, after acquiring numerous leaders in the commercial appliance market. Penguin Refrigeration, Adamation Innovative Warewashing Solutions and Acme Pizza and Baking Equipment are all under the SES brand family, and they all highlight the company’s skill in engineering equipment designed to excel in a commercial kitchen environment. In other words, despite being a residential kitchen brand, Capital is now backed by a world leading commercial appliance manufacturer, which only strengthenes its position at the top of the professional home range market.

It wasn’t until I decided to purchase the Capital Connoisseurian that I learned of SES’s acquisition of Capital. I had reached out to the company with some questions before making my purchase, and after speaking with the company, I felt even more confident in my purchase decsion. I learned that SES was keeping production entirely in the United States at its state-of-the-art production facility in California, and I learned that SES was founded on delivering the highest level of design, engineering and performance in everything they make, which is exactly what I expected in purchasing the Connoisseurian. I reached out SES CEO Jeff Bernstein before writing this article, and I asked him some questions about his company and his acquistion of Capital.

Here’s what he had to say.

Me: Tell us a bit about your background in the commercial kitchen sector and what led you to pioneer the concept of bringing restaurant quality kitchen appliances to outdoor spaces.

Jeff: The executives that make up the backbone of SES have all been in the business for over 30 years. All had previously worked with my father’s old company Jade Range (currently a Middleby Co.), which was a pioneer in the commercial exhibition kitchen concept – when the celebrity chef was just coming out of the kitchen.

Me: How has your prior experience in the commercial food service industry aided your ability to design and innovate products that are industry leaders in each of their market segments, and what are some of the key characteristics that both residential and commercial appliances should share?

Jeff: Whether it be commercial or residential, the kitchen is supposed to be designed for efficiency and flexibility. In the commercial environment space is always a premium, so function must prevail, and this is the concept we brought to the residential market. When we began people basically put freestanding grills on their patios, but originating from Southern California we began promoting the concept of an outdoor kitchen utilizing the premise of commercial kitchen as our guide. Many new and exciting products came out of this which have since become industry standards, i.e., the trash chute, dry storage pantry, drawers and bottle openers, just to name a few. A commercial kitchen is designed to take a veritable beating and our products are designed for the vigorous standard.

Me: After launching the Alfresco brand, you’ve since expanded into numerous other sectors with the Artisan, Penguin, Acme, Adamation and Capital brands, targeting both residential and commercial industries. Has this marriage of numerous companies under the SES brand made design and manufacturing easier (i.e., does it allow crossover among your R&D, manufacturing, technology, etc.), and has this positively impacted your residential brands?

Jeff: All of our knowledge helps us to be a better manufacturer and ACME & Adamation are companies with both over 80 years in the commercial industry. Penguin, which is our commercial refrigeration division, works with restaurant chains, and we also OEM for an established range manufacturer. This allows us to do some innovative products with our Alfresco line since we make it ourselves, like our 42” under grill refrigerator ARXE-42 with a door & 2 refrigerated drawers – this is the only one of its kind on the market.

Me: SES has chosen to invest substantially into advance automated technology and design programs, thus keeping manufacturing in the U.S.. Why was it important to you to keep design and manufacturing in the U.S. and what benefits does it provide to your customers?

Jeff: Automation allows us and the customer several benefits. First, there is a greater consistency in the accuracy of the parts produced. Human error is eliminated, thus reducing problems and also providing a higher quality. Our concept has always been to build quality in not inspect it as it goes out. We can also run a substantial part of the manufacturing process lights out which allows us to keep our lead times short and creates less of a panic so quality remains high.

Me: The founders of Alfresco have a background not only in commercial kitchen appliances but also in commercial kitchen design and space planning. How important is design in ensuring the most functional outdoor kitchen space possible and what are the benefits of having an outdoor kitchen space designed by your team of experts?

Jeff: Yes, we have always know that an efficient kitchen would be beneficial, so several years ago we started the process of offering a free 3D drawing and level out of a customers intended space – these have also become the standard in the industry.

Me: SES, through its Alfresco and Artisan brands, has been designing and manufacturing outdoor kitchen appliances that are the best in the industry, and you’ve also led the way in appliance innovations with numerous offerings that were firsts in the industry. With such success in the outdoor market, what made SES decide it was time to look to indoor appliances and why Capital Cooking?

Jeff: We have wanted to move back into the indoor market for a long time and had been working on designing a commercial style range under the Alfresco brand, but several years ago we started to have discussions with the Capital people, and finally the right opportunity arose.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks as I detail both my Capital Connoisseurian and the Alfresco lineup of outdoor kitchen appliances, and be sure to check out the official websites for both Capital Cooking and Alfresco while you wait. And a special thanks to Jeff for taking the time to answer my questions and giving us a deeper look at SES brands.

Imagine a world with no bread. Your favorite sandwiches, gone. Breakfasts, ruined. Pizza is no more. Even tortillas are a form of bread, thus eliminating Mexican cuisine as we know it.

Simply put, bread is the food equivalent of water, a nourishing staple that’s sustained civilizations for thousands of years. And the best part? It’s simplicity. At it’s core, bread is merely milled grain and water. Add yeast or other leavening agents and bread takes on thousands of new dimensions.

But there’s a problem. As food production has been industrialized and local bakeries have been replaced with large commercial bread producers, the quality of bread has deteriorated to a point that virtually all of its health benefits have evaporated. Look at the packaging of bread at your local grocery store, and you need a PhD in chemistry to understand the ingredient list.

Simply put, making bread is no longer about providing vital nourishment, it’s about creating something that has the longest possible shelf life.

The Commercial Bread Making Process

To understand commercial bread in America, you have to understand the basics of grain and how the commercial bread making process works.   In the U.S., where most bread is made from wheat, the process begins with fresh wheat being ground and sifted.  And it’s this initial step where the problem begins.  In sifting the flour, the wheat’s bran and germ are removed, but it’s these two elements that contain virtually all of the nutrients offered by the grain.

Due to their high nutritional value, the bran and germ are sold as feed for livestock and other animals.  What’s left is white flour, a highly starchy substance with little nutritional value, and it’s this white flour that’s the primary ingredient in so many breads.  From a statistical perspective, 95% of flour sold is of the white variety.  And if that isn’t bad enough, oftentimes the flour is bleached simply for the sake of making it whiter, which adds in a lovely dash of benzoyl peroxide or chlorine as well (despite the fact these substances are banned in the European Union).

“What about whole wheat?”, you ask.

Whole wheat is better, to be sure, but it’s an incremental improvement.  I told you how wheat is ground and sifted.  Whole wheat flour is still sifted, with the key difference being the bran is added back in.  What you’re missing, however, is the germ, which is a key component to wheat’s nutritional value.  The germ is the wheat’s embryo, and it’s the most vitamin and mineral rich part of the wheat kernel.  Without going to specifics, wheat germ is loaded with B vitamins, fiber, phytosterols, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E, and the list goes on.

So why is the germ left out?  Because the germ’s healthy oils go rancid quickly, making it more difficult to use because the wheat can’t be stored as long.  Difficult isn’t cost effective, so the germ is left out.  Even without the germ, however, store bought bread is still loaded with preservatives, many of which are banned in other countries and all of which negatively affect your health.

So what are your options?

You’ve got three.  If you’re completely opposed to baking yourself, you can find a bakery that uses freshly ground flour to produce their breads.  The second option is to find a source that freshly grinds their own wheat and purchase flour from them.  The third option, and the one I highly recommend, is that you purchase a grain mill and use your own freshly milled flour to create your own baking masterpieces.

Sound too difficult?  It isn’t.

As the owner of a Komo Duett 100 grain mill, I’m here to tell you that milling your own grain is about as simple as you can get.  Anyone with even the most basic baking skills can use a Komo grain mill to grind their own flour, and the result will be a bread that is simply astonishing compared to anything you’ll find in a grocery store.

Read on and I’ll tell you what makes Komo grain mills so great.

Who is Komo?

Based in Germany, Komo is a company founded by Peter Koidl of Austria and Wolfgang Mock of Germany, and they’ve been manufacturing grain mills for over 25 years.  Their grain mills come in a variety of designs and sizes, with the key differences being the style of the exterior housing as well as the speed of grinding.  All our housed in gorgeous furniture grade beechwood, and all are stunning in design.

To ensure consistent, low temperature grinding , Komo mills utilize a combination of corundum/ceramic stones.  Stones have been used for centuries as the optimal way to mill grain, but unlike other stones that have a tendency to wear out over time and require a relatively high amount of maintenance,  Komo’s proprietary stone grinders offer the benefits of stone milling with a material that’s self cleaning and virtually indestructible.  The result is years of hassle free grain milling with virtually no maintenance required.

Another engineering element unique to Komo is their patented spring tensioners for the millstones.  As opposed to fixed millstones that have a tendency to be very loud, Komo mills’s stones are spring tensioned, which not only signficantly cuts down the noise when grinding, it also helps preserve the millstones themselves.

The Komo Duett 100 Overview

Picking a Komo grain mill is a case of picking a design that fits your kitchen and picking a size that can handle the amount of grain you want to mill.  There’s a total of eight different Komo design configurations, six of which are strictly grain mills.  The other two, one of which is the Komo Duett 100, offers both a grain mill and a flaker in a single unit.  Highlights of the Duett 100 include two separate electric motors (360W for the mill and 140W for the flaker), 3.35 inch diameter mill stones and a 2 lb. 10 oz. hopper fill capacity.

So why did I pick the Komo Duett 100?  I picked it for a couple reasons.  Number one, I knew that I wanted both a grain mill and a flaker, which meant I could either buy both units separately or buy both in a single unit.  While there are advantages to both, for me, the advantages of the Duett 100 outweighed purchasing two separate units.  Cost wise, it’s cheaper to buy the Duett 100.  I’m a fan of saving money, so that’s a clear advantage for the Duett.  Secondly, because I planned on keeping the Komo on my counter as opposed to putting it away after every use, having both the mill and flaker in a single unit makes the design a little more streamlined (one unit on your counter instead of two).  If I was short on counter space or planned on putting the mill away when not in use, then I would have seriously considered splitting up the units.

The second reason I picked the Duett 100 is simply because I liked its design.   It’s simple, it’s rustic with a hint of elegance, and I like the sweeping curve over the flaker.  Because it’s going to be staying on my counter, I wanted a design I could look at everyday for years to come, and for me, the Duett 100 fit the bill perfectly.

As for what the Komo Duett 100 can mill, the list is extensive.  Hard and soft wheat, dehulled oats, rice, triticale, kamut, spelt, buckwheat, barley, rye, millet, teff, quinoa, amaranth, sorghum and dent (field) corn.  It will also grind spices, lentils and dry beans (pinto, red, garbanzo, kidney, etc.).  What you don’t want to use it for is herbs, oilseeds (flax, sesame), popcorn or fibrous materials.  As for the flaker, it’s ideal for rolling all softer grains.

The Komo Duett 100 in Use

So how does the Komo Duett 100 work?  It works fantastically well, and just as importantly, it’s fantastically easy to use.  If you’ve ever ground coffee, then you know exactly how the Komo mill works.  First, you fill the Komo’s hopper with your grain of choice.  We’ll use wheat as an example.  Once you’ve filled the wheat, you turn the mill on, and voila, the wheat is ground.  Depending on the type of flour you need, whether coarse or fine, you can rotate the adjustable grind setting, giving you a grind as fine as pastry flour up to a relatively coarse grind.  As a side note, for some grains, I’ve found it’s better to turn the Duett on first, then add the grain for milling.

Once the wheat is ground, you can then choose to use the flour as is, keeping all the bran and germ and their corresponding health benefits.  You can also choose to sift the flour, removing as much or as little bran and germ as you wish.

On the flaker side, it works exactly the same.  Add your wheat, turn the flaker on, and you’ve got an instant, incredibly healthy breakfast.

For me, the Komo translates into an on-demand mill.  It’s rare for me to grind anything in advance.  For example, if I’m making waffles or pancakes for breakfast, my first step is heading to the mill, grinding the exact amount of flour I need, and using this flour in the batter.  It adds maybe a minute to the breakfast making process, with the benefit being the flour is absolutely fresh and retains all of its nutritional benefits.

Baking for the most part is exactly the same.  If I’m baking a couple loaves of bread, I head to the Komo Duett, place a bowl on a scale to weigh the flour as it’s being ground, and grind exactly the amount of flour I need.  The exception is if I’m sifting the flour, in which case I have to account for the weight being removed.  It’s rare for me to grind flour in advance, simply because it’s such a simple task that it adds hardly any time to the baking process.

Taste wise, there’s absolutely no comparison between freshly ground flour and that of the store bought variety (whether you buy flour or already baked bread).  In milling it yourself, you understand what grains should taste like.  Whole wheat breads made from commercial flour taste are typically bland and dry, more reminiscent of cardboard than something you actually enjoy eating.  And for good reason.  Taking out the germ is taking out the healthy fats.

Imagine doing the same thing with meat (we’ll use steak as an example).  The beauty of a well marbled steak is the fat.  It’s what gives the steak it’s gorgeous texture and taste.  Take away the fat, and you’ve completely taken away what makes the steak great.  Wheat is no different.  Take away the germ, and you’re taking away the fats that give the wheat it’s taste and texture attributes.

Keeping the germ, freshly milled wheat takes on a completely different perspective.  Bread is so much more flavorful, with a distinctly nutty taste, and the bland, dry texture is gone.  The same is true for pancakes, waffles, or anything else you use flour in.  You’ll experience entirely new tastes in virtually everything that you eat, with the added benefit that it’s now loaded with additional vitamins and minerals.

The Komo Duett 100 Conclusion

If I have one regret about the Komo Duett 100, it’s that I didn’t purchase it sooner.  As an avid home chef with a growing family, I’ve come to analyze everything that I eat.  I want my food to taste as good as possible, but I also want it to be as healthy as possible.

You are what you eat, and for most, bread in one form or another is an integral part of daily life.  After learning more about the state of commercial bread making and flour processing, I decided the only way to truly gain the health benefits inherent to grain was to mill it myself.  I control the quality of wheat that I purchase, and I control it’s nutritional benefits.  And the best part?  How easy the Komo Duett 100 makes it to do so.

By adding a minute or two onto whatever it is I’m baking, I’m getting 100% of the grain’s nutrients.  Not only that, I’m opening up a world of new tastes in everything I prepare.  Bread tastes incredible, waffles and pancakes taste incredible… everything I make with flour takes on an entirely new dimension.

Do you want to know why grains have been the primary staple food for thousands of years?  Purchase a grain mill, grind your own grain, and you’ll find out.  It is, in no simpler terms, the perfect food – the basis for cuisines across the world.  With a Komo mill, you’re not just eating grains, you’re eating grains as they were meant to be eaten, with their full flavor and nutritional value in tact.

To learn more about Komo mill as well as the Komo Duett 100 in particular, head over to Pleasant Hill Grain, the U.S. distributor for Komo mills.  The current pricing for the Komo Duett 100 is $859, which includes shipping.  While you’re there, you can also see the full lineup of Komo mills along with the full specs of each, as well as various accessories that can accompany Komo mills.  Once you purchase a Komo mill, Pleasant Hill Grain also offers a huge variety of grains and other baking equipment, allowing you to experience a world of new baking without leaving the house.

In life, there are few things that bring me as much joy as a perfectly cooked meal.  It’s one of the main reasons I’ve amassed a larger grill collection than anyone I know.  Women have purse collections or shoe collections.  I have a grill collection.

I love cooking, and in the summer, I especially love grilling.

But there’s one area that up until a month ago, was notably absent from my quiver of cooking skills.  Smoking.  No, I’m not referring to smoking of the nicotine variety that ends in a bout of lung cancer, I’m talking about smoking of the hardwood variety, where you take a tough, typically undesirable piece of meat and cook it all day at extremely low temperatures.   It might be a pork shoulder, it might be a beef brisket.  But if you do it right, the result is always the same:  an absolutely gorgeous piece of smoke infused meat so tender you can quite literally cut it with a fork.

I don’t know why I never learned to smoke.  Part of it was probably because I’m from the Midwest, where smoking and barbecue are much lesser known than they are in the South.  And part of it was because of the difficulty I thought was inherently built into smoking.  Picking the right wood, keeping temperatures stable, etc. all seemed like an exceptionally difficult task for a home cook, not to mention the smokers themselves.  I’ve been to barbecue competitions and I’ve seen the smokers – these aren’t smokers you throw on your deck or in your outdoor kitchen.  These are huge smokers pulled behind pickup trucks.

Then something happened.  Call it fate, call it divine intervention or call it luck.  A new restaurant opened 10 minutes from my house.  The owner – a Tennessee native who recently relocated to the Midwest, opened a small restaurant with a cuisine focused on one thing and one thing alone:  barbecue.

Before I go any further, I should tell you that despite my lack of smoking experience, I love barbecue.  I lived in the South for a little less than 10 years and ate my fair share of barbecue, so when the new restaurant with actual southern barbecue opened, I was ecstatic, to say the least.

Needless to say, I became a regular at the restaurant and became great friends with the chef/owner.  One day, over a perfectly smoked brisket, I asked what his secret was for cooking the meat, and we began a long conversation on the fundamentals of smoking.

Long story short, he told me it came down to the heat.  For brisket, pork shoulder, etc., he explained that you need a method to sustain an extended cooking time – anywhere from 8 to 16 hours – at temps in the 200-240 degree Fahrenheit range.  He recommended lump hardwood charcoal to accomplish the aforementioned heat.  The smoke, he told me, was a separate entity.  Once you’ve got the temperature nailed down, which creates the tender, succulent meat, then you focus on the smoke flavor, by adding hardwood chunks that have been soaked to the already burning charcoal.  Because they’re soaked they don’t burn, so they don’t affect cooking temperature.  Their singular purpose is just to smoke and add flavor to the meat.

He noted there are variations to the formula, but this was one of the ways – and one of the most foolproof ways – to prepare great smoked meat.

And then, as if he was reading my mind, he told me I could do it at home.  He asked if I had ever heard of the Big Green Egg, to which I responded “the Big Green what?”

We talked for another 30 minutes, and by the end of the day, I was officially a member of the Big Green Egg family.

What is the Big Green Egg

So what exactly is the Big Green Egg?  From a classification standpoint, it’s what’s known as a kamado style cooker, one of the oldest cooking vessels in existence (some clay kamados dating back over 3,000 years have been discovered in Asia).  But in more modern terms, the Big Green Egg and it’s kamado heritage can really be summed up as three things in one:  it’s a smoker, it’s a grill, and it’s an oven.

Most importantly, however, isn’t just that it does all three – it’s that it does all three with an equal dose of perfection.

But before we get into the individual cooking elements, let’s talk briefly about it’s build.  Big Green Eggs are constructed from a remarkably robust ceramic that appears, as you may have guessed from the name, egg-like in shape.  The Big Green Egg’s ceramic is incredibly tough (so t0ugh, in fact, that they come with lifetime warranties), it’s impervious to weather (meaning you can use the Egg in the dead of winter without fear of cracking), and most importantly, it boasts amazing heat retention capabilities.

Fueling the Big Green Egg is accomplished with your choice of charcoal or hardwood, while precise temperature control is accomplished by adjusting either the lower flow draft door or the upper metal top control (we’ll talk more about temperature control in a second).  Other features of the Big Green Egg include spring assisted lids on the two largest models to make opening and closing the Egg easy for anyone, as well as a built-in thermometer to allow you to accurately view the Egg’s cooking temps.

Smoking on the Big Green Egg

Talking about construction features is one thing, but the true test of the Big Green Egg (and any cooking device for that matter) is how well it actually cooks.  I told you earlier that the Big Green Egg is a smoker, a grill and an oven all in one.  And it is.  But for me, the Big Green Egg is first and foremost a smoker.  When I purchased the Egg I already owned other grills that I was happy with, but talking to my friend/barbecue master, it was him extolling the smoking virtues of the Big Green Egg that sold me on it.  He told me it’s simply impossible to get the same results out of a standard grill.  And he was right.  Temperature control and ease-of-use and are absolutely impeccable.

There’s no better testament to this fact than in describing my first time smoking with the Big Green Egg (it’s a little long, but bear with me).

I’m always up for a challenge, so in setting out to smoke for the first time, I wanted to try something difficult.  My cut of choice:  beef brisket.  Widely regarded as one of the most difficult cuts of meat to get right, it was brisket that would be my first forray into the world of smoking.

Step one was prepping the meat.  The day prior to cooking, the brisket was given a spice rub, wrapped in plastic and placed in the fridge.  Total time:  10 minutes, at most.

Step two, the next morning, was filling the Big Green Egg with charcoal.  To do so, I used Big Green Egg’s own brand of hardwood lump charcoal, dumped straight from the bag into the Egg’s fire pit.  Unsure of how much to use, I completely filled the fire pit, and against the online advice of other Egg owners, I didn’t take the time to sort any of the charcoal by size.  Total time:  15 seconds.

Step three was lighting the fire.  I used a single Big Green Egg fire starter, placed in the center of the charcoal, slightly buried.  Total time:  10 seconds.

Step four was getting the temperature to optimal smoking range (remember, you want a temp consistently in the 200-240 degree Fahrenheit range).  To do so, I let the fire burn for roughly 10 minutes with the Egg’s lid open, then closed the lid to get a temperature reading from the thermometer.  As the needle rose at a relatively slow pace, I started closing the upper and lower draft doors.  Rather than letting it heat up too much, I let the temperature slowly creep up, closing the vents more and more as the the temp increased.  By the time the temperature reached 200 degrees, the lower vent was open about 1/8″, and the top vent was closed with the micro adjustment open a little less than half way.  The temperature rose to about 220 degrees and stopped.  Total time:  about 5 minutes.

Step five was adding the hardwood chunks and grate.  I had taken the brisket out about an hour prior to let it warm to room temperature, at which time I also began soaking two fist size chunks of hardwood for smoking.  Once I had the temperature stabilized on the Big Green Egg, I took the brisket, hardwood chunks, and an aluminum drip pan out to the Egg, along with what’s called a plate setter.  The plate setter is also sold by Big Green Egg, and it’s very similar to a pizza stone, except it has legs.  I placed the hardwood chunks on the burning charcoal, set the plate setter over the fire with legs facing up, and set the drip pan on the plate setter to catch grease from the brisket.  Lastly, the Egg’s grate was put in place, resting on the plate setter’s legs.  Total time:  1 minute.

Step 6 was adding the brisket.  Proper brisket includes a thick layer of fat on one side.   Some say cook with it down, some say cook with it up.  I recommend the latter.  With the fat up, as the brisket cooks, the juices flow into the meat, in essence basting the meat the entire time it’s cooking.  I placed my brisket fat side up, directly over the drip pan, and closed the lid.  Total time:  10 seconds.

Step 7 is waiting.  If you’ve been keeping track, actual time prepping and getting your meat smoking has taken less than 15 minutes.  And here’s where the true beauty of the Big Green Egg comes into play:  you’re virtually finished.  Once you have your temperature controlled and everything in place, the Big Green Egg goes into autopilot.  For the next 4 hours, I didn’t touch it.  The temperature sat between 210 and 230 degrees.  It was simply amazing.  At four hours, I opened the Egg, flipped the brisket, closed it and cooked it for another hour.

Step 8 (optional) is wrapping the brisket in foil.  At the recommendation of my friend, after a little more than five hours, I took the brisket (which was a gorgeous brown at this point) and wrapped it in aluminum foil.  I then placed it back in the Big Green Egg and cooked it for another 7 hours, which is the time it took for the brisket’s internal temp to hit 190 degrees.  And did I mention I never touched the fire?  For twelve hours straight, the Big Green Egg held its temperature steady at the perfect smoking range.

Step 9 is the joy of perfection.  Once the brisket hit 190 degrees, I took it out of the Egg and let it rest for an hour in a cooler (which in this case, the cooler helped keep the brisket warm).  After the rest period, I took the brisket out, unwrapped it, and the result was absolutely incredible.  A mouth-watering piece of brisket so perfectly tender I could cut it with a fork.  And this from someone who had never smoked anything in his life.

You may be wondering why I went into such detail about how I smoked my brisket, and the answer is simple.  I wanted to demonstrate how easy smoking with the Big Green Egg really is.  Prior to the Big Green Egg, I thought smoking was a craft that would take years to perfect, but in truth, the Big Green Egg makes it possible to get incredible results from day one.  No experience needed.  The way that it manages to maintain a stable temperature for such an extended period of time without the need to refuel can only be described as magic.  You can literally take 15 minutes to prep a piece of meat and fire up the Big Green Egg, and with a couple checks throughout the day, have an absolutely mouth watering piece of meat as the end result.

It’s simply astonishing.

Of course, smoking on the Big Green Egg isn’t relegated to brisket.  Since my brisket adventure, I’ve smoked salmon, pork butt and ribs, all have turned out beautifully.  In a word, the Big Green Egg is amazing.  From a recommendation standpoint, the smoking element in and of itself makes the Big Green Egg worth the price of admission, even if you already own another grill.

Grilling on the Big Green Egg

Speaking of grilling, if you’re familiar with grilling on other charcoal grills then you’re familiar with grilling on the Big Green Egg.  Fill with hardwood lump charcoal, light with either a fire starter or chimney, give the coals 10-15 minutes to get hot, and you’re good to go.

Grilling with charcoal is my preferred way of grilling, so it’s no surprise I love grilling on the Big Green Egg.  Lump hardwood charcoal burns incredibly hot if you allow it to, so for steaks or other foods that you want to sear, you can easily reach temperatures of 750 degrees with the Egg.  Best of all is that due to the Egg’s ceramic construction and its fantastic heat retention, you can sear your food, then dial down the temperature to finish off your meats at lower temperatures.  The Egg acts like a convection oven, so your meat stays juicier, more tender and more flavorful.

For more delicate foods, such as many seafood options, the temperature control is equally as superb for grilling as it is for smoking.  Adjust the upper and lower dampers and you have precise temperature control for any type of food you can grill, from supremely low to supremely high (and everything in between).

How good is the Big Green Egg as a grill?  It’s absolutely superb.  I could easily replace my other grills with the Big Green Egg and be perfectly content.  Coming from someone that loves grills and has amassed an impressive assortment of them, this is really one of the highest compliments I can give.

Baking with the Big Green Egg

Just when you thought the Big Green Egg couldn’t get any better, it does.  Yes it can smoke, yes it can grill, but if you (like me) share an unhealthy affection for pizza, there’s a third element of the Big Green Egg you’re going to absolutely love:  it can bake.

If you’ve been to Italy, you’ve no doubt tasted the joy that is pizza cooked from a wood-fired brick oven.  And that’s precisely what you can get from the Big Green Egg.  With the simple addition of a pizza stone (in addition to the plate setter), the Big Green Egg transforms into an oven capable of producing results virtually indistinguishable from those produced by an authentic Italian brick oven.

At high temperatures, pizzas are cooked in mere minutes, perfectly blackened with gorgeously puffy crusts.  Turn the temperature down, and anything you bake in a traditional oven (breads, cookies, etc.) can be baked with the Big Green Egg.  The versatility of the Egg is simply phenomenal.

While I wouldn’t forgo a traditional oven in favor of the Big Green Egg for everyday baking, I will say that for anyone wanting the results of a brick oven in a smaller package, the Big Green Egg is as close as you’re going to get.  Pizza lovers, rejoice.  Add in its smoking and grilling capabilities, and the Big Green Egg is easily one of the most versatile outdoor cooking devices on the planet.

Selecting a Big Green Egg Size

It’s only taken a month for me to fall in love with the Big Green Egg, and in retrospect, I’ve been ecstatic with how it performs.  Looking back, however, the one thing I’d change about my purchase is the size.

In picking an Egg, your options are the mini (10″ cooking diameter), the small (13″ cooking diameter), the medium (15″ cooking diameter), the large (18.25″ cooking diameter) and the x-large (24″ cooking diameter).

I opted for the large, but the more I’ve gotten to know the Big Green Egg, the more I’ve found myself using it not just for meats but for entire family meals (meats, veggies, sides, everything).  As a result, my Egg can get pretty crowded at times cooking for four people.  Add in the fact I entertain on a regular basis, and the x-large probably would have been a better fit.

My advice:  buy a size bigger than you think you need.  The beauty of the Big Green Egg is that it burns fuel extremely efficiently, so by moving up a size, charcoal consumption is only minimally increased.  Once you start using the Egg and see how versatile it is, you’ll find yourself cooking more and more on it, and the extra space will come in handy.

Big Green Egg Conclusion

The Big Green Egg is one of those rare things that makes a wealth of promises as to how it performs, then actually delivers on the promises.  I bought the Big Green Egg to use as a smoker, and if that’s all it did, I’d still be ecstatic with my purchase.  But seeing how well the Big Green Egg can grill and replicate the results offered by a brick oven, you have an outdoor cooking device that is without equal.   It’s three incredibly great things in one, and in my opinion, it’s an absolute must for anyone that wants to take their outdoor cooking to the next level.

Pricing for the Big Green Egg ranges from a little under $400 for the mini up to about $1,200 for the x-large.  I’d also recommend a nest for the larger models, which is basically a table with a space that the Big Green Egg rests in.  For the full details of the Big Green Egg family as well as the lengthy list of additions you can add to fine-tune your cooking experience, head over to the official Big Green Egg website.

If you’re a regular reader of eMercedesBenz, you already know that I’m in love with Capital Cooking’s incredibly great Culinarian Series of ranges (and if you’re not a regular reader of eMercedesBenz, you can check out my original review of the Capital Culinarian here to see exactly what I’m talking about).  Simply put, it’s the best professional home range on the planet, offering more power and more precise temperature control than any other range on the market.

There is, however, one caveat to the Capital Culinarian:  if you’re dead set on having a dual fuel range (i.e., a gas cooktop with electric oven/ovens), you were, up until now, out of luck.  At present, Capital’s  Culinarian is only available as a single fuel model, as is the case with their sealed burner Precision Series of ranges.

For me, it’s not an issue, as my kitchen design includes the 60″ Culinarian range with gas ovens as well as separate dual electric ovens (thus offering the best of both worlds).  But for those of you wanting an integrated electric oven(s) directly with your Capital’s gas cooktop, your wish will soon be granted, as Capital recently debuted their latest innovation at the Architectural Digest Home Design Show:  the Connoisseurian Series.

Building on the success of both the Culinarian and Precision Series, the Connoisseurian Series is the first Capital Series to offer dual fuel functionality.  Available in either an open burner configuration (like the Culinarian Series) or a sealed burner configuration (like the Precision Series), the Connoisseurian adds in newly designed electric ovens in 30″, 36″, 48″ and 60″ sizes.  Not only are they larger than other electric ovens, ranking them among the highest in terms of usable space when compared to other dual fuel ranges, they also feature Capital’s unique rotisserie and MoistRoast systems, ensuring optimum cooking for a wide assortment of meats and baked goods.

As someone that’s extensively used the Culinarian Series’ rotisseries system firsthand, I can tell you that it’s an innovation you’ll wonder how you ever lived without.  It adds such a unique element to in-home cooking, as it allows you to perfectly prepare meat in a way that only a rotisserie can.  I have no doubt that the Connoisseurian Series’ rotisserie and MoistRoast systems work equally as well.

While the Capital Connoisseurian Series is at present a prototype, I spoke with Capital and they said it will be coming to the market very soon.  While you’re waiting, I’ve attached the official details of the Capital Connoisseurian Series below, all of which serve to better highlight exactly what to expect when the Capital Connoisseurian Series goes on sale.

Capital Connoisseurian Series prototype on display at Architectural Digest Home Design Show 2012

Surjit Kalsi, chairman of Capital Cooking Equipment Inc., prides himself on listening and responding to his customers. Capital customers, distributors and its dealer network began asking for a dual fuel range last year after the successful launch of the open burner Culinarian range. This spring, the company debuted its extensive dual fuel cooking series at the Architectural Digest Home Design Show.  The new dual fuel Connoisseurian Series incorporates the best technology from both its electric ovens and gas ranges, offering both open and sealed burner versions, all self clean in 30″, 36″, 48″ and 60″ configurations.

“The Connoisseurian definitely fills out our product line,” states Joey Kitabayashi, Vice President of Engineering at Capital. “We’ve been known for all-gas ranges but dual fuel is also a popular choice in the marketplace. We’ve worked to take the best attributes of our built-in electric wall ovens and match that with styles of gas cooktops that we have had great success with. Our dealers are excited to offer a Capital product in dual fuel that contains so many other Capital features that customers appreciate such as moist cooking and rotisserie.”

Capital has made important advancements with the new Connoisseurian line-up. The oven sizes have been increased, ranking Connoisseurian ovens amongst the top usable capacity of all dual fuel ranges on the market. All primary ovens have Capital’s exclusive MoistRoast cooking feature that uses moisture, not steam, to produce perfect, moist roasting and baking, and also features Capital’s popular motorized rotisserie system. The secondary ovens in the 48″ and 60″ sizes are fully functioning with bake, broil, convection, roast and self clean. And for safety, the engineering staff tested the external temperature of a fully operational baking oven and found it to be up to 30°F cooler-to-the-touch than many competitive models.

Another important feature doesn’t involve cooking, but listening. Capital engineers incorporated a two-speed cooling fan system in the oven. The high, noisier speed is only triggered when the oven is at extreme high temperatures over a long period of time, such as operating the self cleaning mode. What is considered “normal” oven use, i.e. temperatures under 400°F for under two hours triggers only the low speed cooling fan that is very quiet and not noticeable in a busy kitchen environment.

Offering both open burner and sealed burner system options in the Connoisseurian line will appeal to all cooking styles and preferences. The open burner system developed for Capital’s Culinarian line is ideal for the home chef looking for restaurant power and advanced cooking functionality made possible by the open flame. The sealed burner system that Capital uses in its Precision Series is the most common gas cooktop system where the flame is controlled by burner caps of different sizes. Customers can choose which style of Connoisseurian is appropriate for their own lifestyle.

CONNOISSEURIAN SERIES FEATURES

Color Options

• Available in 10 standard colors (door and kick plate). Custom colors can also be ordered.

PRIMARY ovens have:

• MOISTROAST – Moisture-based cooking function preventing food from drying out when cooking
• ROTISSERIE – Built-in, motorized

ALL ovens have the following features:

• BAKE, BROIL, ROAST, DELICATE BAKE
• SELF CLEAN
• MEAT PROBE cooking
• Convection Fan cooking for BAKE, BROIL, ROAST
• Hidden Bake Element under glass
• Ribbon Broil Element under glass
• Dual Kitchen Timers (5 seconds to 11 hour 55 minutes)
• TIMED COOK – You can set the oven to turn itself OFF after a set amount of time
• DELAY COOK – You can set the oven to start cooking at a set time of day
• Clock – Displays the time of day when range is not in use
• Dual Halogen lights in each oven
• FlexRoll Racking system
• Sabbath mode

CONNOISSEURIAN SERIES SIZING

30″ Oven size:

• 25-1/8″ Wide X 16-1/2″ High X 21″ Deep (19″ usable)
• Overall capacity – 5.0 cubic feet; Usable capacity = 4.56 cubic feet

36″, 48″ & 60″ Primary Oven Size:

• 27″ Wide X 16-1/2″ High X 21″ Deep (19″ Usable)
• Overall Capacity – 5.4 cubic feet; Usable Capacity = 4.88 cubic feet

48″ Secondary Oven Size:

• 12″ Wide X 16-1/2″ High X 21″ Deep (19″ Usable)
• Overall Capacity – 2.4 cubic feet; Usable Capacity = 2.18 cubic feet

60″ Secondary Oven Size:

• 18″ Wide X 16-1/2″ High X 21″ Deep (19″ Usable)
• Overall Capacity – 3.6 cubic feet; Usable Capacity = 3.27 cubic feet

Since the beginning of time, man has been dedicated to the art of creating culinary masterpieces.  What exactly those culinary masterpieces are varies from culture to culture, whether it’s a beautifully prepared Pad Thai from Thailand, a slow-cooked Rendang from Indonesia or a mouth watering burger from your favorite burger joint right down the street.   No matter what your cuisine of choice, the common thread among a vast majority of them is that they rely on power.  They rely on a method that effectively delivers heat, whether its copious amounts of high heat or a gentle simmer of low heat.

Step into the kitchen of virtually any restaurant, and the range is the absolute single most important element, aside from the food itself and the one preparing it.  The range is the backbone of the kitchen, allowing chefs to take what was once ordinary food and transform it into something magical… something extraordinary.  I vehemently believe that food is the key to the soul, and it is, quite possibly, the true secret to happiness.  There is simply nothing that creates a greater sense of fulfillment – a greater sense of joy – than a perfectly cooked meal.

It’s a truth that has, in many ways, governed my choices in the kitchen.  In my never ending quest for culinary nirvana, I have analyzed and assessed absolutely every item I use with excruciating detail.  But when it came time to select a new range, there was no other item in my kitchen that I devoted more time to studying and researching.  Creating heat, and having the ability to control heat down to the finest detail, is, in my opinion, the single most important ability when cooking in the kitchen.

Studying ranges, I learned a tremendous amount about the principles of heat delivery –gas vs. electric, sealed vs. open burners, BTU ratings, etc. – and what I learned is that there is one range that has absolutely no equal in the home culinary world.  That range is the Capital Culinarian, and it is without question the most ingeniously designed, superbly performing home range on the planet.  Whether from a heat delivery standpoint, a design standpoint, a feature standpoint – there simply isn’t anything that begins to rival the brilliance of the Capital Culinarian.

You may be questioning my strong opinion of the Capital Culinarian so early on in the article, and rightly so.  Granting title as the best home range on the planet is a bold claim, and for owners of Wolf, Viking, Bluestar, or any of the other professional home range manufacturers, one that’s immediately going to be brought into question.  But the truth is what it is.  Forget everything you’ve heard from your local appliance salesmen; forget the marketing claims made by other professional range manufacturers.  I’m going to tell you point blank why the Capital Culinarian has no equal, and I’m going to tell you why from a purely objective standpoint.  No agendas; no ulterior motives; just from someone that absolutely loves to cook, and wants the highest degree of performance and flexibility while doing so.

Range Basics

Before I go in-depth about the Capital Culinarian in particular, I wanted to mention briefly some of the key elements of ranges in general.  When considering ranges, you’ll immediately be inundated with a variety of choices, with three of the most important being whether or not to opt for a gas range, whether or not to opt for sealed burners or open burners, and how many BTUs you’ll need.

For the first question, as to whether or not to opt for a gas range, the answer is unequivocally yes.  The majority of professional chefs use gas ranges, with the key reason being that gas offers an exemplary level of heat control.  Adjustments to the temperature are immediately transmitted to the cooking surface – something vital when cooking delicate food items – while gas is also significantly more effective at allowing fine tuning of low heat.

As to the second question – whether to opt for sealed burners or open burners – this is where you’ll note a significant amount of opinion, depending on the source.  Look at the majority of professional home ranges, such as Wolf, Viking, etc. and talk to their corresponding sales associates, and you’ll be extolled with the virtues of a sealed burner system.  In truth, sealed burners are inferior to open burners.  Sealed burners were developed to make cleaning easier in the event of spills, but the trade-offs are uneven heat distribution and wasted heat being released into the kitchen.  Because a range’s sole purpose is to deliver even heat distribution and allow fine tuning of the heat delivered, it’s a trade that anyone seeking a truly professional home range should be unwilling to make.  That’s why virtually all commercial kitchens use ranges equipped with open burners.  Open burners note significantly more even heat distribution, significantly less heat waste, and in truth, they’re still remarkably easy to clean and maintain in the event of spills (we’ll talk more about cleaning open burners later).

Lastly, as to how many BTUs to opt for, the answer is the more BTUs, the better.  BTU, short for British Thermal Units, refers to the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 pound of water 1 degree Fahrenheit.  In the real world, this simply means the higher your range’s BTUs, the hotter your range can get.  This is vital with any cooking methods requiring high heat, such as searing, wok cooking and blanching, and it also helps reduce cooking time across a variety of tasks.  I’ll talk more about BTUs later, but if you’re worried you can have too many BTUs, don’t.  It’s easy to turn down the heat on a burner when necessary, but adding BTUs is an impossible feat.

All of this leads to a singular conclusion:  for those that demand the absolute highest level of performance in the kitchen, a gas range featuring open burners has no equal.  Furthermore, the more power (BTUs) at your disposal, the better.  Interestingly enough, this eliminates virtually all of the professional, commercial style home range manufacturers, save for two:  Capital and Bluestar.  And as you’re about to learn, when comparing Capital to Bluestar, Capital absolutely decimates Bluestar in every way, shape and form.  Read on, and you’ll learn precisely why the Capital Culinarian has no equal.

Capital Culinarian Overview

There are some products that are difficult to define in terms of exactly how they fit into the market.  Are they the best from a performance standpoint, are they the best from a design standpoint, are they the best at their price point, etc.  Defining the Capital Culinarian range lineup is exactly the opposite.  It’s the best.  Period.  It doesn’t matter what the question is, it is the best.  Heat delivery and power, function, design – the Capital Culinarian simply has no equal.

Let’s talk heat delivery.  From a performance standpoint, it’s the best professional home range on the market.  Every burner on the Capital Culinarian boasts a searing 23,000 BTU open flame.  Whether it’s the four burners on the smallest 30″ Culinarian all the way up to the maximum of eight burners on the 60″ Culinarian, every burner notes the same incredible heat output of 23,000 BTUs – higher than any other home range available.  Even more impressive, however, is that every burner, despite being the highest powered home burners on the market, also features the ability to simmer down to 138 degrees – low enough to simmer chocolate directly in the pan, without a double boiler.  They’re quite simply the most advanced burners you’ll find, anywhere, on any home range.

From a functionality standpoint, the Capital Culinarian again has no equal, offering an incredible range of options for the home chef.  On the top cooking surface, options available (starting with the 36″ model) include the aforementioned high powered burners, the industry’s highest powered range-top grill, and the industry’s highest powered thermostatically controlled range-top griddle.  There’s also an optional wok ring, making cooking with a wok an absolute joy.  Matching the Culinarian range top’s incredible functionality, the Culinarian self-clean oven models note an equally impressive feature range, with oven options available including bake, broil, convection bake, convection broil, open-door broil and self-clean.  Better still, all self-clean Culinarian ranges include a motorized rotisserie, offering both standard rotisserie and convection rotisserie options.  Quite simply, there are virtually no methods of cooking the Capital Culinarian isn’t capable of performing with pure brilliance.

Lastly, and just as importantly, there’s the design.  The Capital Culinarian is, in no simpler terms, a masterpiece of engineering.  Every weld, every contour, every detail is absolutely flawless.  Burner grates are perfectly flush, allowing easy movement of pans throughout the cooking area.  Knob markings are etched, meaning they won’t fade over time.  Easy glide rip trays make cleanup a breeze.  Oven racks are on rollers, offering significantly easier movement of heavy items.  It’s clear that Capital’s engineers have paid meticulous attention to absolutely every element of the Culinarian down to the most minute detail, both from a style and usability standpoint.  I’ve analyzed every element of my own Culinarian, and to be honest, I’ve yet to find fault with it.  It’s absolutely fantastic.

You may be wondering which Capital Culinarian I opted for, and as you’ll see in the photo gallery, I splurged, opting for the largest range available:  the 60″ Capital Culinarian CGSR604GB2, which features six burners, a grill and a griddle option.  From here, I’m going to take a slightly more in-depth look at the Capital Culinarian’s features, and compare it to some of the other professional style ranges on the market.

Capital Culinarian Burners

If there is one singular element that sold me on the Capital Culinarian, it would have to be the burners.  The Culinarian’s burners, whether from a power, versatility and heat distribution standpoint, are unmatched by anything else available, bar none.  Firstly, they’re the most powerful, with every burner on every Capital Culinarian rated at 23,000 BTUs/hr.  But just as importantly, they offer absolutely precise fine-tuning, with every burner also boasting true simmering functionality, down to 138 degrees – low enough for the most delicate sauces, and low enough to melt chocolate directly in the pan, without a double boiler.  In terms of heat distribution, the Culinarian’s open burner design does an incredibly good job at distributing heat evenly across the bottom of the entire pan, with no hot spots around the edges, as is typical with all sealed burners.  Simply put, they’re best residential range burners, anywhere.

For the sake of comparison, BlueStar ranges are the only competition that comes close, offering 22,000 BTUs/hr in their RNB models, but there are two key, monumental differences.  Number one, BlueStar ranges offer only two 22,000 BTU burners, irregardless of range size.  All other burners are rated at 15,000 BTUs – equivalent to that of virtually all other standard ranges.  Secondly, and even more detrimental to the BlueStar, in order to achieve a true simmer, you have to use a dedicated simmer burner.  Not only do you need to give up space for the simmer burner, you’re also limited to one simmer burner per range.  From here, competition drops off significantly, with Viking offering one optional 18,500 BTU burner on select ranges (the rest are 15,000 BTUs), Wolf offering exclusively 16,000 BTU burners, and other range manufactures all coming in well below the 20,000 BTU mark.  You simply won’t find anything that can come close to the performance and flexibility offered by the Capital Culinarian.

As much as I love the power of the Culinarian’s burners, I’m equally enamored with the burners’ construction.  The burner grates and the burners themselves are solid cast iron – heavy enough to withstand the Apocalypse – and incredibly easy to clean when necessary.  Simply scrub with soap and warm water, turn on the burner for about 10 minutes to dry, and you’re done.  And while we’re on the topic of cleaning, each burner features a stainless steel drip tray that’s easily removable (and cleanable), whereas additional EZ-Glide slide-out drip trays (that are both fully extendable and removable) offer a secondary level of protection from spills and make cleanup a breeze.

There’s simply no other range that offers the performance and capability of the Culinarian’s 23,000 BTUs – it’s truly in a league of its own.

Another element I love is the perfectly flat cooking area created by the Culinarian’s cast iron grates, meaning it’s simple to slide pots and pans from one burner to another.  For wok cooking, an optional wok ring is available, allowing you to replace any of the individual burner grates with the wok ring.  When in place, the wok ring not only holds your wok with remarkable security, it also channels the heat directly to the bottom of the wok, eliminating hot handles and wasted heat.  Lastly, other features worth noting include individual point ignition (so if one ignitor fails, other burners aren’t affected) as well as auto ignition and re-ignition.

As I already noted, if you have to pick one reason the Capital Culinarian supersedes all others, it’s the burners.  There’s simply no other range that offers the performance and capability of the Culinarian’s 23,000 BTUs – it’s truly in a league of its own.

Capital Culinarian Grill and Griddle

When selecting a Capital Culinarian, your range-top options vary based on the size of the range you select.  On the 36″ Culinarian model, you can opt for either a 12″ grill or 12″ griddle, whereas the 48″ and 60″ ranges offers the ability to add either a 12″ grill or 12″ griddle, a 24″ grill or 24″ griddle, or a 12″ grill and 12″ gridlle combo.  On my 60″ Culinarian range, I opted for a six-burner, 12″ grill and 12″ griddle combination, and I’ve been ecstatic with my choice.  The flexibility of both the grill and griddle allows me to cook virtually everything, and for anyone considering either a 48″ or 60″ Culinarian, I highly recommend both.

Looking at the grill and griddle independently, the Culinarian’s 12″ grill notes a remarkable 18,000 BTUs, outperforming every other range on the planet and rivaling the performance of many outdoor grills.  To create even heat distribution across the entire grill surface, Capital utilized hybrid radiants with ceramic rods encased in stainless steel, topped off with incredibly heavy duty cast iron grill grates that are reversible.  On one side, grooves in the cast iron funnel drippings into the grill’s drip tray and disposal area, whereas the other side offers wider, non-grooved grates, perfect for more delicate items such as seafood.  The end result is indoor grilling that can by all standards replace traditional outdoor grilling, and makes grilling meats, vegetables, or anything else you enjoy grilling possible from the comfort of your own kitchen.

As for the 12″ griddle, it shares the same 18,000 BTU output found in the grill, and is thermostatically adjustable from 150 – 550 degrees.  Constructed from 3/8″ thick stainless steel, the Culinarian’s griddle has too many uses to list.  Breakfast, of course is a given:  eggs, pancakes, bacon… you get the idea.  For lunch and dinner, I love it for cheese steaks; I love it to fry mushrooms and onions to pair with grilled items; and something I’ve come to learn quickly, at its lowest setting, you can use it as a warming surface, keeping pots and pans warm as you prepare other dishes.  If you, like me, love breakfast in a cozy diner, you’ll love the griddle, and using it as a warming plate just adds to its functionality. Not surprisingly, the 24″ grill and griddle share virtually all the same attributes as their 12″ counterparts, save for the fact they each note 30,000 BTU gas burners in addition to their wider size.

And on a design note, another fantastic feature that relates to both the grill and griddle is the fact that Capital includes a beautifully designed cover for both, so in the event you want to cover either when not in use, you can do so in a way that blends gorgeously with the rest of the Culinarian’s already stunning design.  The handles match perfectly to those found on the EZ-Glide slide-out drip tray, and the overall look is perfectly seamless and gorgeous when in place.

Capital Culinarian Oven

As is the case with the rest of the Capital Culinarian, the oven again sets a new precedent in terms of the capabilities it offers for home use.  Ingeniously, Capital chose to include the oven size found on their 36″ range (4.6 Cu Ft.) in the 48″ and 60″ ranges as well, with the main oven noting 30,000 BTUs of heating power along with an 18,000 BTU infrared broiler.  On the 48″ Culinarian, the secondary oven is 2.1 Cu Ft. and 15,000 BTUs, and on the 60″ Culinarian, the secondary oven is 3.1 Cu Ft. and 22,000 BTUs.

There are two key reasons Capital’s uniform main oven size and variable secondary oven sizes works so well.  Firstly, by offering a larger primary oven, there’s a tremendous amount of space available when cooking larger items, including the ability to use full size baking sheets.  Ask my wife, and she’ll tell you the same thing:  it really is a baker’s dream.  On the other end of the spectrum, in the event you need to bake smaller items or side dishes, the smaller secondary oven is a superb benefit, as it heats up more quickly, thus reducing the time you spend in the kitchen.  In my opinion, Capital’s choice of variable oven sizing, especially on the 60″ Culinarian, is far superior to conventional split oven designs where both ovens are equally sized (i.e., BlueStar, Wolf, Viking, etc.).

From a functional standpoint, the Culinarian oven notes bake, broil, convection bake, convection broil, open-door broil and self-clean options, as well as both rotisserie and convection rotisserie modes.  Part of the benefit of the larger oven size was that it gave Capital the ability to incorporate a motorized rotisserie system, allowing perfectly prepared whole chickens and turkeys, rack of lamb, cuts of pork and beef, or any other meats you can think of, all of which taste absolutely perfect and are superbly simple to create.   A whole chicken takes quite literally an hour, and it’s ready to serve.  It’s incredible how good meat prepared on the rotisserie tastes, and no other professional home ranges have one.  Another much welcomed feature is the addition of Flex-Roll oven racks, which creates a tremendously smooth sliding action when moving the oven racks in and out, especially with heavier items.  There’s a total of five oven rack positions for the Flex-Roll system, and three racks per oven.

Performance wise, I’ve just taken delivery of my Capital Culinarian, so I’m going to save a detailed look at using the Capital Culinarian for another article, but I will say the main oven heats up remarkably fast – it takes less than 10 minutes to reach 350 degrees.  While I haven’t tested other manufacturers myself, online figures note the oven in the 60″ BlueStar takes over 16 minutes to reach 350 degrees, despite its smaller size.  It’s just another testament to the incredible performance prowess of the Capital Culinarian, and one of the many reasons the Culinarian is unrivaled by anyone in the industry.

Capital Culinarian Design

It’s a masterpiece of engineering, down to the finest detail.

You’d think that in a range that absolutely redefines the standards of professional cooking in the home, there has to be at least one flaw in its armor.  Considering its incredible performance, surely Capital must have overlooked some element of its design.  But they haven’t. It’s a masterpiece of engineering, down to the finest detail.  There’s a quote by Walt Disney, where he stated:  “You don’t build it for yourself.  You know what the people want, and you build it for them.”  And that’s exactly what Capital has done.  They understand the fact that people want the absolute highest level of performance – performance capable of rivaling that of a commercial range – but they don’t actually want a commercial range.  Commercial ranges are ugly and their fit and finish are terrible, neither of which is surprising, really, considering they’re not meant to be looked at, they’re meant to be used.

A professional home range, however, is an entirely different animal.  They’re meant to be used, but they also serve as the focal point of a kitchen.  So as much as people want commercial level performance from a professional home range, they also want an equal amount of attention paid to its design.  In this regard, it’s clear (yet again) the Culinarian sets a new benchmark for design.

The Capital Culinarian is, in no simpler terms, stunning.  Every detail, every weld, is absolutely flawless.  I don’t want to say the Culinarian looks residential, because I don’t want to diminish its beauty and imply that it looks like other lesser ranges.  But at the same time, it’s not commercial either.  There are no sharp edges, there are no elements that appear unfinished, there are no pieces that fit poorly.  Instead, it manages to find the perfect balance between residential and commercial.  It’s a design that doesn’t hide the incredible amount of performance at your disposal, but at the same time it’s a design that still perfectly exemplifies what the focal point of your kitchen should look like.

On the top of the range, for example, the stainless area that surrounds the burners, including the edges, is welded and polished, creating a completely uniform surface area with no seams or gaps.  The same is true on the oven doors, and even on the lower kick plate – everything looks like a singular, sculpted block of stainless steel.  Throughout the Culinarian, chrome accents on the control knobs, drip tray handles, grill/griddle covers and the edges of the oven handles provide beautiful contrast to the stainless steel construction.  Large oven windows with a bevelled surround not only look gorgeous, they give an enhanced view inside the oven while baking.  As I already noted, you can quite literally go over every piece of the Culinarian, and you’ll immediately see that each part has been thought out and beautifully finished.

Compared to other professional home ranges, I can say without question the Capital Culinarian notes an attention to detail unrivaled by anyone.  And as I learned when researching ranges in person, when you compare it to BlueStar, the design gap is even greater.  The BlueStar is, quite literally, the polar opposite of the Culinarian.  Whereas everything on the Culinarian is precise, everything on the BlueStar looks unfinished.  Sharp edges, uneven finishes, poorly fitting grates and uneven gaps in the panels were some of the problems plaguing the BlueStar, none of which are present on the Culinarian.  Going back to what I said earlier, I think that’s the key difference between Capital and BlueStar (as well as every other range manufacturer):  they know what customers want, and they build it.  Customers don’t want to have to choose between performance or design, they want both.  And that’s precisely what the Capital Culinarian gives them:  the absolute highest level of performance, wrapped in a gorgeously designed, exquisitely crafted design.

The History of Capital

In understanding what makes the Capital Culinarian so remarkable, one look at the history of Capital, and you’ll immediately understand why the Culinarian sets such a precedent in the professional home range market.  In, truth, the story of Capital begins not with the history of a company, but rather the history of a single individual.  His name is Surjit Kalsi, and he is to home cooking what Michael Jordan was to the NBA; what Michael Jackson was to music; or what Steve Jobs was to the tech industry.  He’s a legend, a revolutionary, an innovator.  In no simpler terms, he’s taken the idea of cooking at home, and he’s elevated it to another stratosphere.

Surjit’s incredible journey began over 50 years ago, and it reads like the script from a Hollywood movie.

The story begins in 1956, following Surjit’s graduation from Bombay University in India.  After moving to London and working as a lab technician in the R&D department of Main Gas Appliance Company, Surjit created the world’s first dual flow gas burner, self-cleaning gas oven, universal burner, and electric ignition system – helping catapult him up the corporate ladder and become member of the Board in record time.  From there, Surjit followed his dreams of making his own mark on the cooking world, moving back to India to launch his own gas appliance company.  Ultimately, the timing was off, as shortages of raw materials and economic instability plagued the company, leading Surjit to make the decision to move to the U.S. after a decade of running his own company in India.

Surjit moved himself and his family to Baltimore, where he took a job as a design engineer for a commercial appliance manufacturer for a mere $20,000 a year.  Knowing he couldn’t bring his dreams of changing the cooking world in his current position, Surjit continued to stay focused on his ultimate goal, working his way to Los Angeles in just under five years, where he became Vice President of Engineering & Research & Development for U.S. Range.  It was this move that would play an integral role in shaping Surjit’s future, as it was here Surjit met an individual by the name of Fred Carl.  Carl came to Surjit seeking someone to help him create a commercial style range for home use – a goal that up until now, no other manufacturers had been able to accomplish – and Surjit immediately jumped at the chance.  In 1986, Surjit’s work was completed, and Viking Ranges was born.

Not content merely creating the world’s first commercial style home range, Surjit again branched out, leaving U.S. Range in 1988 and taking several other employees with him – specifically, Roberto Bernal, an engineer; Raul Chita, purchasing manager; Porfirio Guzman, production scheduler; Rafael Romero, a project engineer; and Alejandro Bernal, a plant and production engineer.  Together, they formed Dynamic Cooking Systems (more commonly known as DCS), a company that would become not only one of the world’s leading manufacturer’s of professional quality gas ranges for the home, but also the world’s first company to create an all stainless steel barbecue.  Needless to say, DCS noted tremendous success, becoming the preferred original equipment manufacturer for numerous private labeled industry leaders including GE, Jennair, Thermador, William Sonoma and racking up over $100 million in sales over the next 12 years.

It was during this time that Surjit’s son, Rich Kalsi, joined DCS, and it was also this time during which Surjit made Roberto Bernal and another engineer his equal partners, with each owning 1/3rd of DCS shares.  As with all good stories, however, things took a twist for Surjit, as during the peak of DCS’s success, his partners voted to sell the company without his consent, not only forcing him to give up the company, but also forcing him to sign a non-compete agreement for the next five years.  Following the conclusion of the DCS sale, Surjit’s partner Roberto was let go, and Surjit was forced out soon after.

Out of fear of losing their jobs as well, the key employees that helped found DCS – Raul Chita, Rafael Romero, Porfirio Guzman and Alejandro Bernal – along with Surjit’s son Rich, all decided to leave DCS, creating Capital Cooking Equipment Inc. in 2001.  With Surjit and Roberto sidelined due to their non-compete agreement, Capital Cooking was led by Rich Kalsi, until in 2004 DCS was again sold, freeing Surjit and Roberto from their non-compete agreement and allowing them to join Capital.  Capital’s Board of Directors immediately moved to invite Surjit and Roberto to become partners in Capital, and after doing so, Surjit was elected Chairman/CEO and President of Capital Cooking while Roberto was elected Co-Chairman.

Going back to his engineering roots, Surjit immediately began redesigning the off-the-shelf sealed burner system that Capital was buying from Germany at the time, creating a new sealed burner system significantly better than any other sealed burner on the market – the burners that power Capital’s Precision line.  From there, Capital has continued revolutionizing the home cooking world, creating the open burner Culinarian series of ranges – ranges that, as I’ve already detailed, absolutely redefine the idea of performance in the kitchen.  Of course, it’s not really surprising considering they’re created by the same individual responsible for bringing the concept of professional cooking in the home to reality more than 20 years ago.

But as impressive as the story is, what makes the story so great is the man himself.

Despite his numerous successes, despite his innovations, despite his accolades, Surjit Kalsi is without question the most passionate man in the home culinary world.  I can tell you this because I’ve spoken to him, not for the sake of this article, but as a customer.  I spent a tremendous amount of time researching ranges in search of the one that best exemplified professional cooking in the home, and surprisingly, when I went to Capital with my questions, it was Surjit himself that answered my questions.  It was Surjit that detailed the history of Capital, the intricacies of the Culinarian, and what sets Capital apart from every other range manufacturer on the planet.  It’s a a level of passion unlike any I’ve witnessed from a company’s CEO, and I truly believe it is Surjit’s passion that’s the key reason Capital leads the professional home cooking market.

Capital Culinarian Conclusion

If you haven’t already guessed, I’m in love with my new Capital Culinarian.  Simply put, it redefines what’s possible in home cooking, bringing a level of performance rivaling that of a commercial range to the home chef.  Not only is there not a better professional home range on the market, there’s not a professional home range that comes anywhere close to matching the Capital Culinarian’s performance, functionality or design.  If you’re even remotely considering a new range, you absolutely have to put the Capital Culinarian at the top of your list.  It is, for all intents and purposes, the perfect home range.

You can learn more about the Capital Culinarian at the official Capital Cooking website, including a detailed look at the available sizes and cooktop configurations.  There’s also a color chart available showing the numerous color choices available, should you wish to depart from the more traditional all stainless steel design.  And finally, for an in-depth at my personal 60″ Capital Culinarian CGSR604GB2, check out the huge photo gallery below to see what makes the Culinarian so special.

With 2011 officially upon us, it’s time to kick off another round of new-year resolutions, and if you’re anything like me, being a little healthier is always on the list.  And while there’s certainly no shortage of ways to get healthy, changing your diet to include healthy options is probably the easiest, best thing you can do for yourself.  Last year, one of my key resolutions was to compete in a triathlon, and while training, changing the way I ate was one of the key elements to helping me complete my goal.  I found myself depending on a variety of blended foods – fruits, vegetables, protein powders, etc. – and quickly realized that I needed a blender that could handle the variety of things I was consuming on a daily basis.  My wife’s $100 KitchenAid just wasn’t cutting it, as I ended up chewing half the items I was blending.  Seeking out the ultimate home blender, I settled on the Vitamix Professional Series 500, and the rest, as they say, is blending history.

Firstly, let’s talk a bit about build quality.  The Vitamix Professional Series 500 is, quite simply, a tank.  A blender serves a single purpose… to blend… so the most important factor when choosing a blender is finding a high horsepower motor that can blend anything you can throw at it.  Thanks to its commercial grade 2+ peak horsepower motor along with the highest RPM’s in the industry, the Professional Series 500 does exactly that, churning out smoothies, soups, and sauces with no (and I mean no) chunks.  With most blenders, you blend ice and end up with a collection of granular chunks, but with the Vitamix, smoothies and drinks involving ice come out completely smooth.  It’s like having the ability to make ice cream in any flavor in 30 seconds.  Just add ice, milk, berries (or whatever other flavor you prefer), blend, and you have instant ice cream – it’s incredible.  In addition to its high powered motor, the Vitamix Professional Series 500 also boasts a huge 64-ounce BPA free Eastman Tritan copolyester container along with an included tamper and no-spill lid.  During operation, the container serves to create a vortex in the center of the container, pushing ingredients that have been blended up from the blades and then down the center back to the blades – with this constant circulation being one of the key reasons the Vitamix is able to perform so well.  When mixing something thicker, the included tamper offers convenient access to the blender, allowing you to move your mixture quickly and easily during operation (as opposed to having to turn the blender off and making adjustments).

In purchasing the Vitamix Professional Series 500, I originally planned on using it simply for smoothies.  During my triathlon training, I found myself drinking at least two a day, so I wanted something that would hold up to daily use day-in and day-out.  But when the Vitamix arrived, it came with a roughly 350-page recipe book demonstrating the plethora of ways the Vitamix could be used in the kitchen – drinks, milk substitutes (soy milk, almond milk, etc.), soups, dips, sauces, dressings, even breakfast recipes (pancakes, waffles, quiche, breads, etc.).  The sheer number of uses for the Vitamix was overwhelming, and to be honest, I had no idea how much it was capable of before I purchased it.  It didn’t take long for the Professional Series 500 to go to work in my kitchen, churning out restaurant quality sauces on a nightly basis.  With lesser blenders, a strainer is required for many sauces, but with the Vitamix, everything (including seeds and skin on fruits/vegetables) is blended completely smooth.  Ever want to try making your own peanut butter?  How about grinding your own spices and/or coffee?  New parent?  The Vitamix is absolutely perfect for baby food.  And for soups, the Vitamix’s blade rotation is so fast (240 mph), it actually heats soup to serving temperature.  Simply add your fresh ingredients, blend for a few minutes, and serve.  If you spend any amount of time in the kitchen, the Vitamix Professional Series 500 is simply phenomenal.

As for operating the Vitamix, the Professional Series 500 has almost no learning curve.  Built into the Vitamix are three pre-programmed settings for smoothies, hot soups and frozen deserts, meaning operation is as simple as selecting the right option.  In addition, there’s a variable speed setting that allows you to vary blending speed smoothly during use to fine-tune your desired results, along with a pulse function to further enhance blending control.  Making operation even easier, the included Vitamix recipe book specifies precisely which settings and speeds to blend at to achieve your desired results, so if you want to make chunky salsa, for instance, the book describes precisely how to avoid turning your tomato chunks into tomato soup.  Having used the Vitamix Professional Series 500 extensively, I have to say, operation really couldn’t be any easier.  Once you follow a few recipes in the recipe book, operation becomes almost second nature, and you can churn out restaurant quality results pretty much immediately.

Do I love the Vitamix Professional Series 500?  Absolutely, I adore it.  If I could think of a higher praise, I would bestow it with that as well.  It’s one of those rare things that before you own it, you don’t realize you need it, but once you have it, you don’t know how you ever lived without it.  With a street price of $600, the Vitamix Professional Series 500 does cost more than many of the other blenders on the market, but the results it produces are simply in a league of their own.  In addition, with its impressively robust build quality and 7-year warranty, this is likely the last blender you’re going to be buying for a very, very long time.  The Vitamix Professional Series 500 is hands down the best consumer blender on the market, period.  Buy one, and you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.

To learn more about the Vitamix Professional Series 500 and the full lineup of Vitamix products, you can do so at the official Vitamix website or buy now from Amazon.com
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If you’re looking for the ultimate gift for the foodie in your life, there is nothing greater than a glistening new set of cookware.  And if that foodie is serious about cooking, you really only have two cookware options:  stainless steel or copper.  Both have their advantages, but today we’re going to be bringing you the best of the stainless steel variety.

While I’ve used my fair share of stainless steel cookware, there’s none that’s been able to rival All-Clad’s Copper-Core.  Featuring an exceptionally unique five-ply construction, All-Clad’s Copper-Core feature… you guessed it… a layer of copper in the center, followed by an inner and outer layer of aluminum, and finally, an inner and outer layer of stainless steel.  Why the copper core you ask?  Because copper offers quite simply the best heat conductivity and responsiveness of any material during cooking.  In the real world, this means that hotspots in your cookware are eliminated, and furthermore, any adjustments you make to the cooking temperature translate to your food much, much quicker.

Thanks to All-Clad Copper-Core’s unique design, however, you gain many of the advantages of copper, without having to spend the extra amount for all copper construction.  In addition, All-Clad’s stainless steel exterior has two key advantages over traditional copper cookware.  First, the highly polished stainless steel exterior is signficantly easier to take care of than a copper exterior, and secondly, if you cook using induction technology, All-Clad’s new Copper-Core line is fully compatible with induction heating.

Having used All-Clad Copper Core for the past several months, I have to tell you, if you’re considering new stainless steel cookware, you won’t find any better.  I personally own four pieces:  the 6-quart saute pan, the 12-inch fry pan, the 7-quart stock pot and the 3-quart sauce pan, and all vastly outperform any stainless steel cookware I’ve used previously.  The heating is incredibly uniform, with hotspots completely eliminated, and variations to cooking temperatures occur significantly quicker with the All-Clad than any other stainless I’ve used.  In other words, the copper core lives up to its stated benefits, and it does so exceptionally well.  As for the subject of food sticking, with proper knowledge of using stainless steel cookware (proper temperature, use of oil, etc.), sticking is nonexistent.  I’ve made a wide assortment of foods with my All-Clad, including eggs and omelets, and the All-Clad perform as well as any non-stock products I’ve used.  When deglazing, the All-Clad’s again excel, with fond being removed easily to the point the cookware virtually cleans itself.  Another design element that I absolutely love are the rolled edges, which in addition to ensuring tight-fitting lids, also make pouring remarkably easy.

In terms of price, All-Clad Copper Core costs more than traditional stainless steel cookware but less than traditional copper cookware, with a seven-piece set currently selling on Amazon for about $750.  It’s the perfect price point, really, as All-Clad’s Copper Core are the perfect mix between stainless steel and full copper cookware.  If you’re looking for the best stainless steel cookware on the planet – cookware that will last a lifetime – this is it… it really is fantastic.  To learn more about All-Clad Copper Core’s features and to see the full list of available pieces, you can learn more at the official All-Clad website or buy now from Amazon.com
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If you spend any amount of time in the kitchen, you know what a chore it can be when you need to grate something. Graters and zesters come in all shapes and sizes, but most perform poorly and end up being more trouble than they’re worth.  Enter Microplane.  Borrowing a design taken from their own woodworking tools, Microplane graters slice through virtually any food you put in front of them like a hot knife through butter.

At their core, Microplane graters are designed like a rasp, with an easy to hold handle and a long, surgical grade steel body.  Best of all, they’re razor sharp.  Thanks to a unique process called photo-etching where the holes in the blade are created from a chemical process rather than being stamped, Microplane blades are capable of creating incredibly fine slices rather than tearing or shredding.  They’re by far the sharpest graters that I’ve ever used, and they make the process of grating or zesting an incredibly simple task.

In total, there’s four different Microplane Premium designs:

• Microplane Premium Classic Series Zester/Grater
  The Microplane Zester/Grater allows you the ability to grate the hardest Parmesan Reggiano as well as other hard cheeses into fine lacy wisps. Ideal for topping your favorite spaghetti and meatballs or a Caesar salad, it’s also fantastic for citrus zesting to add natural flavors to a lemon crème brulee or a basic vinaigrette.

• Microplane Premium Medium Ribbon Grater
  The Microplane Medium Ribbon Grater grates ingredients in both directions, saving time and effort, and it is also one of the coarsest of Microplane’s blade styles. It’s perfect for chocolate, soft cheese and carrots.

• Microplane Classic Series Premium Extra Coarse Grater
  The Microplane Extra Coarse Grater features a premium soft-touch handle and non-scratch end tabs. Use with softer cheeses like cheddar and this grater will make chunky slivers for tacos and salads. It also works extremely well with potatos for making hashbrowns.

• Microplane Classic Series Premium Spice Grater
  The Microplane spice grater tackles even the hardest spices like nutmeg with ease, making it ideal for grating a touch of fresh cinnamon or chocolate over the top of your hot drink.

Despite their ingenious design and incredibly effective results, Microplane graters are cheap.  At $15 a piece or $50 for all 4, Microplane graters are perfect stocking stuffers for yourself or for the food lovers in your life.  To read more about Microplane graters or to order your own set, you can learn more at the Microplane website or buy now from Amazon.com
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