Last week I flew to Louisville, Kentucky (earlier post is here) to attend a 2-day seminar on GE Monogram’s product line along with a group of designers from all over the States who were specifically invited to attend. The evening we arrived, we were greeted by our hard-working hosts, and got a chance to get to know one another before the next day.
One of the perks: the get-together was in the penthouse suite of Hotel 21C with views of downtown Louisville. The penguins are part of the hotel’s contemporary art display – a bit far from home, poor dears, and sunburned to a crisp….
What I was looking forward to was the promise of cooking – not only on the induction, but also with the Advantium, and Monogram gas range – as well as some product knowledge on everything from refrigeration to microwaves. One of the things I’ve heard both in the industry and in consumer forums was the expectation that one could simply buy the latest appliances and sail forth in the new kitchen.
It’s not true.
Impressions of Louisville: plenty of positive downtown restoration, a baseball walk of fame, and my unexpected shower guest.
The new appliances are so much faster that they take a while to get used to. Certainly my own clients have reported burning food on their new inductions, and how their typical cooking times and menus were thrown off until they got used to the new speeds. I wanted to see it for myself.
One of the interesting bits of trivia that stuck with me is that the GE facilities are so large they have their own zip code, 40225. Certainly, the center isn’t tiny – it’s 9,000 square feet alone, with a culinary studio, a showcase gallery where we had most of our training, and a wine-tasting room where we ate our final meal we prepared ourselves.
Our first morning at the Center in the greeting area, and then to our work stations where we would spend a satisfying amount of time cooking. We divided into groups of 4 in as many stations. Our experienced chefs, Brian Logsdon and Chef Joe Castro, made it too easy for us.
First off, induction is fast. The GE induction has a touch-pad system. Turning an element up to 9, the highest, can have your oil smoking in less than 30 seconds. Fast, fast, fast. It wasn’t an issue at all when I was working on the induction alone. It was when we had a “friendly” Iron Chef competition the next day (friendly, hah), that the scheduling went right out the window. I kept having to adjust the controls and removing the pan from the heat.
Yes, you heard right. We had to prepare our lunch the next day and the chefs awarded the winners. No pressure.
The lovely and talented interior designer, Andie Day and myself. Andie made a killer no-flour chocolate cake with a raspberry pure, but we still lost out to the winners, including one of our other Blogger19 family on the far right, the equally lovely and talented Sabrina Velandry.
I have to say I was most impressed with the new Advantium speedcook. It’s now speedcook, warming oven, true European convection and 950w microwave. The 120 volt cooks 4 times as fast as a regular oven and the 240 cooks 8 times as fast. To you, that means a 4 lb. chicken which would normally take about 1 hour 20 minutes takes about 25 minutes -- no pre-heating. And that's where it can throw your cooking times off when you’re preparing a meal (but your ravenous family will be happy...)
Andie tweets while our other team members talk to GE co-ordination guru, Nancy Pollock. The Advantium oven is behind her at the top.
And it worked great – there was no difference in taste at all. We had grilled ham and cheese sandwiches which were perfectly toasted, and our asparagus was just right. There’s an intuitive dial for selecting the times for what you need to cook, and enough room on the interior to rotate a 9x13 casserole pan.
I didn’t get to use the 48” gas range as much as I wanted, but one of the positive things I’ll note for those of you interested – it’s the only one of the pro-ranges that an 18x26 caterer’s tray will fit in. What I especially liked was that the grates were not only individual units for easy lifting and cleaning, but each one was designed with a reversible scooped design for woks. No extra attachment, no need for flat-bottom woks. So you could have 4 woks going at the same time, if needed -- and since all 4 burners pack a whopping 18,000 BTUs per burner, imagine all the stir frying going on. (If you need eaters, call me.)
I’d like to thank the hardworking staff at the GE Monogram Experience Center, as well as the team and product managers, who not only kept us informed but sat with us during their lunches to discover our likes and dislikes.
And I forgot to mention that the clients who have mastered the faster cooking times are very, very smug indeed. I bet with another week, I'd have figured it out too.
