THE COMMERCIAL KITCHEN AT HOME: PROS AND CONS; BY CAROL VOGEL (original) (raw)
Home & Garden|THE COMMERCIAL KITCHEN AT HOME: PROS AND CONS; BY CAROL VOGEL
Advertisement
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
THE COMMERCIAL KITCHEN AT HOME: PROS AND CONS
Dec. 9, 1982
Credit...The New York Times Archives
See the article in its original context from
December 9, 1982
,
Section C, Page
TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
FOR the past decade commercial kitchen appliances, restaurant stoves and refrigerators in particular, have been considered something of a status symbol. Professional stoves, gleaming or matte black, are placed almost like sculpture in the kitchen's center; glass-front cafeteria refrigerators display the week's shopping; overhead pot racks allow shiny pots, pans and utensils to dangle proudly before friends and family; open-wire shelving and industrial lights show off cookware and china.
''People chose commercial appliances over the standard residential models mainly for esthetic reasons,'' said Robert Bray of Bray-Schaible Design, a New York interior-design concern. ''From a design point of view there's really nothing quite like them. They evoke all the senses that we associate with truly great cooking.''
Such equipment may not be for everyone. ''Unless you cook very frequently and for large numbers, you'd be smart to think twice before installing commercial appliances in a home,'' said Frances Halsband, an architect with the firm of R.M. Kliment & Frances Halsband. ''Although more of my clients are asking for restaurant equipment than ever before, I try to discourage it whenever possible.''
Primarily, Miss Halsband considers them an energy liability. ''We spend so much time worrying about keeping heating and airconditioning costs down by taking such precautions as weatherstripping doors and windows,'' she said, ''but these conservation measures can be blown with all the energy it takes to run these appliances.''
''The most popular restaurant-range size, for example,'' she said, ''comes with six burners, two ovens, a griddle and a broiler and generates 190,000 B.T.U.'s. That's the equivalent of lining up six residential stoves in a row and turning them on. It actually produces enough heat to heat the average three-bedroom house. And having a stove that gets so hot can be dangerous in households with small children.''
''Restaurant appliances were designed and tested for commercial establishments and were never intended to be used in homes,'' said Arthur F. McCormick, vice president for marketing and director of corporate relations at Garland Commercial Industries, a leading manufacturer of restaurant ranges. Even so, Mr. McCormick added, hundreds of professional ranges are installed in homes each year and demand is growing.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Advertisement