Sub-Zero/ Wolf plant tour and seminar day two: I don't want to leave.

As was the case yesterday, today was a whirlwind of activity. Only day two was dedicated to Wolf Cooking appliances.

The people on this trip with me are all designers and all of us know the product line pretty well. So we didn't spend a whole lot of time reviewing model numbers and hearing product descriptions. That was good. So since everybody here has a basic understanding already, we could talk about more advanced uses and installations and then talk with the engineers and developers about what Wolf has planned in the coming model years. I'll be talking about some of these new products as they get closer to their release dates but suffice it to say that there's some pretty cool stuff coming from Wolf in the near term.

To get the day started though, we did a thorough walk through of the Wolf plant. The Wolf plant was a real education and for me, the real highlight of this trip. I know already that Sub-Zero refrigeration is the best in class. It was great to see up close how Wolf earns and maintains its reputation for stellar quality. Each and every component that comes out of that factory has been built from the first screw with the end user in mind. Everyone in that factory is fully aware and committed to making the best ranges there are. Their pride in their work shows through.

As an interesting anecdote, a Wolf range, as heavy as it is, never touches the ground as it's being made. They are born on the wooden pallet they're delivered on. Despite the fact that the ranges are on casters, they never use the casters in the factory. What I found interesting too is that each and every cooking appliance that comes out of that factory has been turned on and run through its various cycles at least once before it leaves the factory and Wolf keeps a record of each of those tests. Fascinating.

I met with a few members of the marketing department today including Paul Leuthe, Sub-Zero/ Wolf's Marketing Manager. Over the course of the next few weeks and with the marketing department's help. I'm going to be writing about the specifics of why a Sub-Zero/ Wolf appliance package is such a smart buy and what makes them such good appliances. This is a company that won't cut corners as a matter of principle and it makes them a very welcome anomaly. It's kind of inspiring to have been immersed in a company for the last two days that knows that there's a right way to build something and then just does it.

So stay tuned, I'll have more substantial information in the coming days and weeks. I promised. In the meantime though, I have some more shots of the Westye Bakke Center where this seminar's been held. Yesterday I showed some of the test kitchens, lounges and lobbies. Most of the public spaces in that building were designed by Jamie Drake. Jamie Drake also designed the main dining room where we've been having meals since yesterday. And man, what meals! I haven't eaten this well since... well... ever.

The building itself was designed by Zingg Design, Inc. A Madison-based architectural firm. The marketing department also promised me some of their real photos of this place and I'll run them as soon as I get them. The scale of this building is such that it really does need a real camera to photograph it. So without further ado, here's how it looks to a point and click:

After I get home tomorrow and consolidate my notes, I'll be writing more about this experience in Madison. In a lot of ways, it confirmed a lot of what I already knew about sub-Zero/ Wolf. It wasn't without its surprises though and I learned a good deal more than I thought I would.

I can't thank Cathy Bame from the Westye Group enough for nominating me. I need to mention Janet Salls, also from the Westye Group, for being such a great guide during my stay. And of course, the entire group here in Madison. It is always a pleasure to meet the people behind the brands and in this case even more so.

If any of you out there have any specific questions about either of these great brands you'd like to ask, please leave a comment here or send me an e-mail, I'll get back to you with specifics as soon as I can.

Again, the websites: Wolf Appliance and Sub-Zero Food Preservation.

Sub-Zero/ Wolf plant tour and seminar day one: Wow.

I spent almost the entire day yesterday at Sub-Zero/ Wolf's Westye Bakke Center and at the Sub-Zero plant itself. I couldn't take photos of the production floor and although I understand the reasons why, it's an amazing place. It was heartening to see an American factory staffed with enthusiastic people who were committed to the products they make and who were treated as valuable assets by their employer. Sub-Zero's daunting reputation for high, high quality starts on that factory floor and everybody knows it. It was inspiring.

Next door to the factory is Sub-Zero/ Wolf's Westye Bakke Center, a training facility and kitchen appliance wonderland that I couldn't quit photographing.

Between their high tech, multimedia showcase auditorium and more fully connected and fully staffed kitchens than I could count, I was on sensory overload all day. Never have I eaten so much good food to absorbed so much information in a single day. Tomorrow's all about Wolf cooking so it'll be more of the same I'm positive.

Being here in Madison completes a bit of a circle for me. Six years ago, I had the honor and pleasure to meet and get to know (and work with) Bill Draper from Draper DBS. Bill Draper is a cabinet and furniture maker without peer so far as I'm concerned. He was also the first member I'd met of a very small group of kitchen and bath people who've achieved superstar status. Draper's an inspiration and he was the first person I'd ever known who encouraged me to treat my career development as a true brand development. I took his advice to heart and look at me now. Hah!

Anyhow, when I met Bill, he had just finished a big project here in Madison. It was a lounge and dining room in Sub-Zero/ Wolf's Westye Bakke Center. He showed me his drawings and showed me some photographs and I was amazed by what I saw. It was an Art Nouveau lounge featuring some of the most amazing hand carved wood I'd ever seen. At the time I thought to myself, "Man, I would kill to see that lounge in person, but I'll never get to Madison." Never say never kids. Never say never.

I spent about an hour running my hands all over the most incredible hand carved wood I'd ever seen this afternoon and I was pinching myself the whole time. Six years after having seen the plans for the place, I was finally standing in it. Here are some photos of the lounge and the formal dining room attached to it.

I really need a decent camera. Oh well.

There were two really dynamic and huge kitchens that Sub-Zero/ Wolf use for training people like me hands on. The two kitchens are adjoining and although they are done in really radically different styles, I knew immediately that they were Mick De Giulio projects and sure enough they are. Mick's another of the handful of kitchen and bath people who've achieved superstar status. I haven't met him yet but there's plenty of time.

I noticed that in the lobby and in one of the De Giulio kitchens there were some tell-tale glass sculptures that I couldn't help but recognize as Chihuly and sure enough, that's what they are. I keep running into his work. I have to admit that it took me a while to warm up to him but after having spent so much time at the Chihuly Collection at home, I'm really warming up to him as an artist.

I had some really high expectations for the Sub-Zero portion of this seminar and I wasn't disappointed int he least. Sub-Zero is best in their category by a long shot and they are that for a very good reason. Nobody does refrigeration better.

Tomorrow's all about Wolf cooking appliances and I'm looking forward to it. I get to cook my own lunch tomorrow and I'm sure it'll be the highlight of this visit. Although, strange though it may sound, I'm really looking forward to touring the Wolf factory tomorrow too. So on Wednesday morning, I'll post about my day with Wolf and I'll get some more shots of the Jamie Drake-designed portions of the Westye Bakke Center too.

So many thanks to My amazing Sub-Zero/ Wolf rep Cathy Bame for nominating me for this trip and thank you Sub-Zero/ Wolf for showing me such a good time since I arrived yesterday.

If you guys have any questions you'd like to have answered about Sub-Zero/ Wolf, ask them here in the comments or drop me an e-mail and I'll take it from there. Once again, those websites are Sub-Zero Preservation and Wolf Cooking.

A visit with Sub- Zero/ Wolf

I am on my way to Madison, WI this morning and I ought to arrive there some time this afternoon. I'll be in Madison through Thursday and by then I'll know more about dual compressor refrigeration and cutting edge cooking appliances than I ever knew there was to know. I can't wait.





View Larger Map

In the interest of disclosure, Sub-Zero/ Wolf is footing the bill for this trip and I'll be writing about my experiences with them in Madison for the next few days. Sub-Zero/ Wolf is a brand I trust and specify under usual circumstances and it's a brand loyalty I developed long before there was any talk of my being flown to their headquarters.

My posting schedule will be a little off through the end of the week and I'll post things as I can. I promise lots of photos, good stories and since I'll be cooking in a Sub-Zero/ Wolf test kitchen for part of this week, recipes and tips from the Sub-Zero/ Wolf chefs.

Sub-Zero/ Wolf has been making great appliances for more than 60 years there's no end in sight. I'm looking forward to seeing the wonders that await me on their home turf. Here are their websites: Sub-Zero and Wolf.

If anybody has some questions or anything else he or she'd like for me to look into while I'm in Madison this week, either leave me a a comment or shoot me an e-mail and I'll do my best.

Karim Rashid takes on appliance design for Gorenje

Karim Rashid is a 50-year-old, Egyptian-born, Canadian-raised, Italian-educated force of nature. He's an industrial designer whose Manhattan design practice seems to touch every product category in existence. A year ago he designed a line of appliances for the Slovenian manufacturer Gorenje.

Gorenje isn't distributed in North America unfortunately, but looking over this collection is almost enough to make me want to import them myself.

Distinctive doesn't begin to describe the eye and hand of Mr. Rashid and I have to say that I've never felt the urge to describe an induction cooktop as ethereal until I saw this.

That same design is available in either induction or radiant electric. Amazing.

Here's his version of a wall oven.

That same wall oven is available in a variety of colors and what's interesting about them is that the color comes from LEDs hidden in the recessed handle.

Dear Gorenje, please enter the North American market. Please.

Wood stoves in my past and in my future

This is my parents' engagement photo. Here's a little background. They met at a dance in Pennsylvania right before my Dad got drafted into the Army. Europe was ten years removed from the cultural and physical devastation of the Second World War and my Dad was slated to become part of the US Forces that occupied Germany as it rebuilt itself. Fast forward a couple of months and in 1955 my parents married and settled in Wertheim am Main in the German state of  Baden-Württemberg. My parents were young and didn't have a whole lot more than each other. They lived off-base in a second floor apartment and it was in that apartment that they embarked on their new lives.

This is the day my mother arrived in Germany.

They were happy times overall from what I can surmise. The German family who owned the building more or less adopted them so when my oldest brother came along he had grandparents in the US but downstairs he had an Oma and an Opa.

I love hearing their stories of making their own way as strangers in a strange land and it's those stories about that apartment in Wertheim am Main that pushed me out into the world to explore it on my own.

Out of all the stories my parents tell of their early years, the one that never fails to amaze me is that their apartment had a wood stove that was both a kitchen appliance and a source of heat. "Whipping something up" in the kitchen was never really an option and cooking required a bit of planning and quite a bit of skill. Despite the fact that both of my parents like to downplay the pain and suffering of their early years, it had to have been a challenge. By the time my brother Ray entered the picture a year later, keeping a baby fed and in clean diapers with only a wood stove to work with speaks volumes about my parents' ability to make it in a tough situation. But again, to hear them tell it, it wasn't such a tough time. They were young, they were crazy about each other and they had a baby to take care of.

I grew up hearing about that apartment in Wertheim and my parents' adventures with that wood stove. I have a running fantasy of owning a mountain retreat somewhere and living off the grid while I'm there. My running fantasy has me mastering the art of cooking on a wood stove in much the way my mother learned how to do it  55 years ago.

via Flickr

Wood-burning cookstoves are still being made and the best ones available are made by the Elmira Stoveworks in Elmira Ontario.

These wood-burning cookstoves Victorian exteriors belie the advances built into them. They're highly efficient and clean-burning. They're also far less temperamental than the wood stove my parents had to tame in that second floor apartment in Wertheim.

My folks have a lot of photos from their early days in Baden-Württemberg but so far as I can tell, there aren't any photos of their stove. I doubt it was as nice as these Fireview models from Elmira, but having one in my someday mountain retreat will bring the whole wood stove thing full circle so far as I'm concerned. Wood stoves past and wood stoves future, it's kind of comforting to know they're still out there.

Twitter and the art of public image management

The Moggit Girls are an internationally famous and highly influential blogging duo. They're also terrific friends of this blog. One of these days when I stop mocking HGTV, Joy and Janet will help me land a development deal similar to theirs. Here's one of their highlights:





These two make me sound reserved.

Anyhow, Joy and Janet live in a kitchen I'd imagine looks something like this. And one day they were on Twitter and they weren't saying very nice things about their refrigerator.

moggitgirls: My Viking fridge shoulda been a vacuum, 'cuz it SUCKS. 12:14 PM Apr 22nd

Paul_Anater: @moggitgirls: Shouldda talked to me before you bought it! Apr 22 2010, 13:08

moggitgirls: @Paul_Anater: It (Viking fridge) leaks water from the bottom freezer drawer - how is that even possible?! 1:54 PM Apr 22nd

We went back and forth with the saga of the leaky fridge a few more times when I remembered that Viking's on Twitter now and since they were already following me, this would be a perfect opportunityto test the power of Twitter. Unhappy, well-known, outspoken luxury good consumers are a potential PR nightmare and on Twitter that's even more true. Viking was relatively new to Twitter and that they hadn't responded to the Moggit's and my thread. As the day went on, another good friend of this blog, Cheryl Clendenon,  joined in to discuss this leaky fridge. I decided to take matters into my own hands.

@Paul_Anater: Hey @moggitgirls, @VikingRange is on Twitter, let's ask them.
Apr 22 2010, 14:22

Still nothing from Viking, so I jumped in with both feet.

@Paul_Anater: Hey @VikingRange, meet @moggitgirls. @moggitgirls, meet @VikingRange. Discuss. Apr 22 2010, 15:11

That was a little obvious and I didn't mean to embarrass them. Really. So I sent them the following:

@VikingRange Sorry if I put you on the spot there. Maybe you and @moggitgirls can DM your way to a solution. Apr 22 2010, 15:43

Viking jumped on the situation and sent a technician over to the Moggit Girls' no doubt glamorous home. It's important to note that the Viking fridge in question is five years old and had been "fixed" repeatedly during those five years to the tune of several thousand dollars.

Over the last four or so weeks, I received periodic updates from the Moggit Girls and Viking was making good on their promise to deal with the leaky fridge.

Finally, I received the following yesterday:

@moggitgirls: @Paul_Anater --Got my fridge fixed! Price paid - $0.00. Yay! 10:25am, May 16

Bravo Viking and good job Moggit Girls. As I said right after I made the introductions,

@Paul_Anater: @VikingRange @moggitgirls --Behold the power of Twitter!
Apr 22 2010, 16:05

Jenn-Air's new finish, Oiled Bronze

OK, back to KBIS. The largest appliance manufacturer who showed at KBIS 2010 was Jenn-Air, and they meant business. Their exhibit was huge and featured a kitchen designed by Ellen Cheever and she used cabinetry by Scavolini. Other trade folks out there will agree that Jenn-Air isn't the appliance brand that comes to mind when I think of a Scavolini kitchen or Ellen Cheever.

But this is the new Jenn-Air. Jenn-Air's owned by Whirlpool and for a long time, all of Whirlpool's energy and money went into attempting to make KitchenAid competitive with some of the higher end appliances out there.

Well apparently, all of that's changed now with the rebirth of Jenn-Air.

That's not what I want to talk about though. Jenn-Air had several full kitchens in their KBIS booth and one of them featured their new-ish finish, Oiled Bronze. Here's a close-up.

It seems to be a surface patina applied to stainless steel. That Jenn-Air sells small containers of of Oiled Bronze touch up paint for it tells me it is. It tells me too that it doesn't handle scratches very well.

It's being touted as an "instant classic" and of course, everyone with a dog in the race is repeating that phrase. Well, I wonder. It's certainly different but it reminded me of something and I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

I was poking around on Pam Kueber's terrific website, Retro Renovation and I found what it is about Oiled Bronze that strikes me.

I think it's the old appliance color Coppertone, revisted.

I wish Jenn-Air well in this push toward the upper end of the market, but the folks already sitting in that spot aren't exactly worried. It's not enough to charge a premium price, you also need to build a premium appliance to justify that cost.

What do you guys think? Is Oiled Bronze an instant classic? Is there such a thing to begin with? Is this a finish you'd buy?

Elmira's Northstar series is now available in 10 colors

I've long been an admirer of Elmira Stoveworks' Northstar series of retro appliances. I've always thought they had a cool factor to them, but it's recently come to my attention that they are no mere novelty item.

Elmira's been at it since the early '70s in Elmira, Ontario. They know what they're doing and any company that can build a fully-functional, wood-burning cookstove in 2010 is OK in my book. I'll get into to their 1800s reproduction stoves in a later post. For now, I want to let you know that the Northstar series of mid-century-inspired appliances are now available in ten colors. Imagine, you can have a Candy Red, Buttercup Yellow, Robin’s Egg Blue, Flamingo Pink, Quicksilver, Mint Green, Bisque, Black or White suite. Sweet!

They're Energy Star-rated and they even have a custom color program.

So even though there's no such thing as timeless kitchen design, classics like these are always welcome. Check out Elmira Stoveworks' website for more info.

An American (Appliance Blogger) in Paris

Hi, I'm Julie Warner, author of Kitchen and Home Appliance Blog (creative title, eh?) for my family's appliance company, Warners' Stellian.

I strong-armed the keys to Paul's blog away from him before he left for the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show in Chicago. Thankfully, his readers have the best sense of humor of any of the design blogs I follow. So please, humor me as I -- an appliance blogger, not a designer -- attempt to fill his shoes.

I visited Europe for the first time for two weeks in late March, traveling to Portugal, France and Italy during my stay. Friends encouraged me to take pictures, but I'm not much of a chronicler; I don't even own a digital camera.

However, the Palace of Versailles blew me away enough with its scale and extravagance to make me turn on my cell phone and snap some (rare) pictures. They're not spectacular nor comprehensive, but anything that gets me to take a picture on vacation is worth highlighting.


I can't exactly remember which rooms are which -- there are so many -- but I believe this was either a king's bedroom or dressing room. There was so much to look at, from the artwork to the wallpaper, to the molding -- which was often gilded -- to the chandeliers to...


...the chairs. I took a picture of this chair because I could actually see it in a future house of my own. I think it's so beautiful.


This wallpaper is outrageous, in a good way, I think. If I commissioned paintings of myself, this is precisely how I'd display them -- marble and all.


No stone left unturned? More like no spot left bare. There are gold clocks on top of gold mirrors on hand-painted walls with intricate, gold-dipped moldings behind crystal chandeliers...


I covet the detail on the interior of this fireplace. Again, no space left undecorated.


OK, this couch simply reminded me of my mother, who collects antiques. I absolutely loved it.


At this point, my friends were judging me for getting excited about wallpaper and furniture. And we needed to leave.

Next stop? What a 180: Pompidou Centre, home to the National Museum of Modern Art -- and some pretty fantastic architecture.


I also snapped this picture with my phone. We're at the top level of the structure, after climbing many stories up the clear tube-encased escalator. It looks like it goes on forever, doesn't it?


This exhibit caught my eye, for obvious reasons, while visiting the female artist-focused exhibit, elles@centrepompidou. (Watch a clip of Martha Rosler's feminist video, Semiotics of the Kitchen.)


The kitchen has been historically decided to be "the woman's space." And despite the existence of female home designers, the exhibit said, "(translated by Google) Particularly in France, the access of women designers in the industry is still limited."

Thanks for letting me share my two favorite places I visited in France with you. I'd love to hear if you agree if people just see Versailles' decoration as gaudy or if they were inspired like I was. The Pompidou challenged my thinking -- always a good thing. But I'm not afraid to admit that some of the stuff in there was just plain WEIRD.