A Wider Range of Ovens, Cookers

A new range or oven may be just what’s needed to give your kitchen that needed boost. There’s nothing as frustrating or uninspiring as cooking with poorly working equipment. Motivations to create new dishes for the family--not to mention entertaining--go up in smoke.

After a long wait, the Paul Bocuse Cooker by Rosieres of France has finally arrived in this country. Serious cooks will be interested to hear about this $3,500-double range that offers just about every mode of cooking. It provides the best of both worlds from two power sources: gas burners and electric ovens. Combining commercial elements with domestic styling, this equipment is finished in graphite enamel and brushed stainless steel.

It’s 46 1/2-inch width--encompassing two side by side ovens and two types of burners--may present a space drawback for a small kitchen. The left oven is a convection-type while the right, which is conventional, features a built-in-rotisserie as well as a glide-out drawer cavity, designed for easy accessibility. Rarely found in American-made electric ovens, closed-door broiling is possible in both ovens. Oven doors are also easily removable for cleaning in the sink.

What’s really unique about the Paul Bocuse Double Cooker is the top left section. It consists of a flat, 2-inch square cast-iron hot plate powered by a 15,600 BTU gas burner. This is ideal for accommodating extra large cooking vessels or several pots side by side. The heat can be controlled to extremely low temperatures needed for warming, melting chocolate or cooking delicate sauces without using a double boiler.

Another bonus feature in the center of the left rangetop is the high speed burner. A round section of the hot plate can be be lifted off to expose strong flames needed for wok cooking and steak grilling. Standard accessories include a wok ring and steak griddle. On the right side of the range is a set of four gas burners consisting of two 11,000 BTU fast burners and two 5,000 BTU medium burners.

Aside from fine workmanship, other desirable details in this heavy-duty unit are old-fashioned but convenient bottom drawers for storage and plate warming, a stainless-steel burner back splash and commercial-type heat control levers.

The kitchen’s role as a mileau for entertaining has encouraged builders, architects and designers to convert this important room into a cook’s culinary dream, making it as functional and as well equipped as possible. Melissa Love, a young television actress who has launched a second career as interior and structural designer (she owns Alco West Designs) fulfills a gourmet’s fantasy by bringing the kitchen back in time with a French wood-burning oven.

Delighted by the way it looked and cooked after she first installed it in a rustic brick housing in her outdoor entertainment and catering center overlooking the ocean in the Pacific Palisades, Love has now made it a trademark of her signature kitchens. “I use it literally like every four days; it’s absolutely the greatest thing,” she said, “you could cook anything in it, from pizza, to roast chicken and beef, to barbecue; I just love the way my meat loaf comes out.” For firewood, she recommends using aromatic fruit woods such as mesquite and hickory.

True enough, after savoring grilled lamb chop, chicken kebab and three kinds of delicious crusty pizzas--seafood, vegetable and sausage--I realized what the designer meant by “extraordinary flavors that you don’t get with common gas, electric or even convection ovens.” The superb taste sampling was cooked quickly in the Earthstone Wood-Fire Oven-Barbecue by the French importer himself, Maurice Sabbagh, at his Los Angeles showroom.

According to Sabbagh, the intense heat created by the fire sears the flavors and the juices in. He explained that the modular oven holds heat in for a long time, so that you can cook all day, if desired, starting with steaks, burgers and pizzas using high fueled fire, then roasts, breads and pies with lower heat. Energy efficient because of low-fuel consumption, the ovens are ideally fueled by hard woods such as white oak, almond and pecan, he said.

Earthstone is available in three sizes ($1,500 to $1,800) ranging from the smallest family model, through the mid-size gourmet model, to the largest commercial model. This restaurant-style oven is constructed of pulverized volcanic pumice; it comes with a cast iron door and hood designed to efficiently remove smoke and odors. Also included are a grill unit and a large cast iron roasting pan.

“Cleaning is magic,” Sabbagh said. One of his satisfied customers, Dr. Neil Willenski, a dentist, said, “It cleans very easily, with hardly any residue left the following morning. I just brush the small amount of ash left inside.”

Available with complete instructions, the unit is easy to install. Love, who has installed the unit in several celebrities’ homes, complements the oven with her own design by incorporating wood storage bins, wood-shingled roofs and brick chimney stacks.

The Paul Bocuse Double Cooker is available at California Kitchens (Burbank) , A-1 Appliances (Long Beach and Santa Ana) and Familian Pipe & Supply (Van Nuys).

The Earthstone Wood-Fire Oven showroom is located at 237 S. La Brea, Los Angeles. For information call 656-5926. For custom installation and information call Alco West Designs, 212 Vance St., Pacific Palisades 90272, or call 454-0098.