Source: BUILDING PRODUCTS Magazine
Publication date: September 11, 2007
By Linda C. Lentz
Built-in ovens have been in operation for centuries. Think wood-fire brick hearths of ancient Rome.
However, it wasn't until 1947 that the folks at Thermador brought the concept into modern homes as the first built-in wall oven. Self-cleaning followed 16 years later, then black glass in 1965. It's been a steady progression ever since with microwave, convection, and combinations thereof hitting their stride in the 1980s and '90s.
Today, wall ovens continue to offer an ever-wider breadth of technological advances, from speed cooking to steam to colored, multilingual LCD displays that provide for tastier, often healthier cooking—often in far less time. But like the concurrent PC and consumer electronics industries, from which appliance manufacturers draw much of their inspiration and innovation, there are learning curves. So the latest units not only focus on the technology itself, but on making those features easier to understand and use.
BETTER, FASTER, COOKING Many of the features showing up in residential wall ovens are trickling down from the commercial sector, driven by demand from high-end home buyers who want the same functionality, quality, and style as the pros use.
For TurboChef's Speedcook , a proven microwave-assisted air-speed technology adopted by the likes of Charlie Trotter for his famed Chicago eatery, consumer interest preceded its development.
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