Cook like a pro

Cook like a pro

Cooking like a pro in your own new lifestyle kitchen-living room has never been so easy, convenient, enjoyable and with excellent results guaranteed, thanks to the latest domestic appliances. “And that doesn’t just apply for experienced or discerning ’chefs’, but also particularly for amateur cooks as well as anyone who, up until now, concerned themselves little or rarely with preparing meals for themselves”, confirms Kirk Mangels, Managing Director of Arbeitsgemeinschaft Die Moderne Küche e.V. (AMK).

Cooking like a professional and surprising your partner, family, friends and colleagues with delicious and enjoyable end results, is fun and inspires everybody involved. Everything you need is already to hand because the appropriate domestic appliances for cooking, baking, simmering, ventilating, cleaning and cooling are all ready and waiting to be used in one of the sought-after lifestyle kitchen-living rooms.

The starting point is market-fresh groceries: by the way, these stay crispy and appetising when stored in a fridge that has chilling compartments around 0°C and manually adjustable humidity control. Cooking is fast, versatile, free from obstructions, intuitive and interactive thanks to ceramic glass hobs with flexible induction. “A technology fully on trend and increasingly in demand among consumers”, says AMK’s Managing Director, Kirk Mangels. Highly sensitive sensor technology and intelligent, professional features take care of a lot of the work and make sure that food is never again overcooked or burned. The diameter of the pot or pan is automatically detected and as soon as it exceeds the limits of the cooking zone, the neighbouring zones automatically switch on. The cooking field also remembers the temperature that had been set using the TFT touchscreen display, for example, for the pot or pan: in this way, the roasting pan can simply be moved elsewhere on the hob and the temperature selection will be automatically adopted at the new position. Three different temperature zones also lend cooking a professional feel – from searing and stewing through to keeping food warm. And with the right accessories (e.g. griddle plate, paella dish) you can have even more fun and flexibility in the kitchen.

For perfect results from cooking and frying that are child’s play to achieve, and in order to avoid burnt food or constantly having to adjust the cooking temperature, there are induction cooking zones for which you can choose one of three pre-set frying temperatures. With these it’s as if everything cooks itself – from fried eggs, through steaks, fish, stir-fry meals and frozen food to golden brown pancakes. An acoustic signal indicates when the correct temperature for the chosen frying setting has been reached.

While the side dishes and sauce are prepared on the settings for simmering and/or keeping food warm, the roast braises in the superfast, built-in oven with integrated microwave and steam injection function, and the roasting thermometer with 3-point sensor measures the core temperature of the meat. Versatile cooks and bakers as well as proponents of vitamin-preserving steam cooking and of professional simmering or steaming under vacuum (sous-vide) make full use of the benefits of a steam cooker with full-oven functionality – a model with a fixed connection to the water supply is particularly convenient and professional. Anyone who wants to be on the safe side when baking, roasting, simmering and grilling can select one of the automatic programmes. Gourmets with a taste for experimentation eagerly define each step of the cooking process themselves and take advantage of the option to create and save their own programmes.

Versatile cooking in fume-free surroundings is provided by the latest ventilation technology – e.g. directly above the cooking area in the form of overhead, island or appealing ceiling extractor hoods that can be raised and lowered into position. New, almost invisible downdraft extractors are an up-to-date solution, and not just for kitchen-living rooms. These extractors can be placed, for example, directly to the right or left of a large cooking surface or between two or three domino hobs – small cooking modules that can be mixed and matched, such as an induction unit and a teppanyaki grill. A further option is a professionally networked combination of extractor and cooking zone that communicate with each other wirelessly, so that the level of extraction automatically adjusts to the fumes being emitted during the cooking process underway at the time.

After cooking like a pro and enjoying the results, the next stage is the cleaning. “No problem”, says AMK’s MD, Kirk Mangels, “because the latest domestic appliances also take care of that for us, thanks to the expertise that has gone into them”. Examples include ovens with convenient self-cleaning operations, such as pyrolysis, catalysis and hydrolysis, as well as dishwashers that are quiet as a whisper, super energy-efficient and lightning fast. (AMK)

AMK, the trade and service association for the entire kitchen industry, is active in the fields of technology and standardisation, marketing & public relations, internationalisation, as well as supporting the industry through the patronage of trade fairs. More than 139 companies are members, all renowned manufacturers of kitchen furniture, electrical and built-in appliances, sinks, accessories, as well as suppliers, trade partnerships and service providers in the kitchen industry. AMK is patron of “Tag der Küche (Kitchen Day)”, which takes place each year with live events at numerous kitchen exhibitions in the German-speaking area. The next event will take place on 24 September 2016. Further information can be found on the internet at www.amk.de and www.tag-der-kueche.de. (AMK)