I'm getting ready to buy and install a stove for the first time in my life, but don't have any sense of how to pick and choose which stove to buy. I've very rarely lived in the same city (much less the same apartment or condo) for more than a year, so I've always been a renter who just basically chose places based on their kitchens. Now that I'm an owner looking to remodel a kitchen with a chitty electric stove, I don't know how to approach stove selection when it's not a multiple choice question.
Poking around online, it seems like most of the advice is coming from retailers or manufacturers who have a financial interest in you choosing their products, or from interior design/house people who may not actually cook.
So I have a few questions about starting my search for a stove, from the perspective of a person who is a pretty serious home cook (used to work in a restaurant kitchen in a previous career, still tries to host big events, usually in charge of the big ticket items at family dinners for Thanksgiving and Christmas).
Poking around online, it seems like most of the advice is coming from retailers or manufacturers who have a financial interest in you choosing their products, or from interior design/house people who may not actually cook.
So I have a few questions about starting my search for a stove, from the perspective of a person who is a pretty serious home cook (used to work in a restaurant kitchen in a previous career, still tries to host big events, usually in charge of the big ticket items at family dinners for Thanksgiving and Christmas).
- What are some good resources for researching individual makes and models?
- Does the style of gas burner matter? Why?
- What specifications matter, and which do not?
- What kind of features are worth the extra cost, and which are not?
- What kind of pitfalls should I look out for?
- What else should I know when looking around for a stove and oven?
