Right out of left field, Electrolux has unveiled a new upcoming line this week titled “Electrolux Grand Cuisine”. It is to be their first “Professional” series of appliances and it’s obvious from the specs and pictures that Electrolux is targeting the highest end of consumers, or as they have put it: “designed for the most exclusive homes”. No prices have yet to be released, but we expect them to be shockingly un-Electrolux.
Some of the new products unveiled this week:
The Stand Mixer
Aptly titled “the” Stand Mixer, this impressive piece of hardware couldn’t come at a more opportune time with Viking’s legendary stand mixer now gone along with the rest of the Viking small appliance line. Electrolux bills this stand mixer as: “Restaurant-quality performance and durability: accurate speed, special planetary movement and a whisper-quiet motor.” If it works even half as good as they make it sound, it should have no problem taking over for long revered Viking stand mixer for baking moms everywhere.
The Combination Oven
Post-modern design, easy-wipe glass surface, curved metal handle, and an Apple-esque touch screen control panel. What we love about this combination steam oven is it’s sheer originality. Taking zero design cues from the top two steam ovens on the market – the Wolf Convection Steam Oven and the Miele Steam Oven – this new Electrolux Combi-Oven belongs more in 2030 than 2013. It is billed to feature a high performance steam generator, a Lambda sensor for precise temperature and humidity control, a Six-Sensor probe to ensure that even the lowest core temperature of the meat hits the target, and of course the option to use both convection heat and steam heat at the same time.
The Vacuum Sealer
The one outlier to the group, Electrolux has made a vacuum sealer and it does leave us scratching our heads. Who are these people who’ve been begging Electrolux for a built-in vacuum sealer? And what’s more – they didn’t announce a sous vide cooker. So we have a vacuum sealer for all your sous vide cooking needs, without a sous vide device to match. It’s a puzzling development that will hopefully be expounded upon before the retail launch. It features a very impressive flush mount build in and the same touch screen controls of the oven. Other than that, it’s a vacuum sealer – and may be quite an expensive one at that.
The Induction Cooktop
A 36″ Full-Zone Induction cooktop which looks suspiciously like the Thermador Freedom Induction Range we’ve reviewed before. Currently, the product rendering and spec write-up offer little in the way of information. The one stand-out feature they do mention is a French Range option which would set the induction zones from hot to cold across the surface of the cooktop, allowing one to just move the pan to adjust the cooking temperature rather than mess with the control panel. An interesting feature in concept. In practice though, who knows.
The Surround Induction Zone
An induction module built specifically for woks. Of course, you can’t use just any woks on an induction cooktop as they must be magnetic – but this is a welcome device for Asian chefs and works well. Miele has had one for a while, the CS1223 Induction Hob, but has yet to bring it to the states. My guess is they think they won’t sell enough of them to make it worth their while.
At this point, they are probably right.
The Sear Hob
A polished chrome cooktop, much like a habachi grill, gets hot enough to sear meat and fish with very little to no oil.
The Gas Hob
Our personal favorite, this new appliance from Electrolux Professional looks to be a new bar set for modern gas cooktops. Stylish, elegant, and built of the finest materials, this cooktop looks like piece of modern art. All brass burners with two different burner sizes and system to automatically adjust the flame size depending upon the size of the pan. We can’t wait to see that feature in action. Can use all 5 burners at the same time without any drop in heating power and Electrolux claims it’s large burner can boil a litre of water in 60 seconds. That last feature may be suspicious marketing speak, but we’ll let is slide for now.
The Molteni Range Cooker
The addition of a hyper-expensive, state-of-the-art, custom range series built by Molteni was perhaps the biggest surprise of all. These custom ranges are still made at the original Molteni factory is Saint Uze, France. Built to order, wait times counted by the months, and a price tag to rival some homes – we don’t see this being a big seller but it certainly elevates the Electrolux brand and we think that was the point.
It will be interesting to see what changes, if any, are made to the line-up before launch and what Electrolux will do with their Icon and regular line ups in 2013. Since opening their brand back up to North America in 2004, Electrolux has delivered consistently good appliances at hard to beat prices. In the process, climbing past American giants like GE and Whirlpool, and Korean behemoths like Samsung and LG. We are excited to see what they will do next.