Platform about design and technology in the kitchen, home, and bathroom industry
"We asked a hundred Flemish people..." That's how Koen Wauters used to ask the questions on the television program Family Council. Had the question been "name a kitchen appliance", oven would undoubtedly have been one of the top answers. After all, an oven belongs in every kitchen.
As with other appliances, and by extension the home, we can't ignore the whole smart thing with ovens. The connected kitchen, where each appliance is individually controlled remotely via an app, is no longer the future. It is the here and now.
It even goes beyond each device separately. Today we easily create networks where appliances communicate and send commands to each other. Think of the cooktop telling the cooker hood how powerful the cooking vapors are. Even the oven feels at home in such a connected kitchen, although of course there are still plenty of models without smart features for users who stick to the traditional way of working.
The connected oven has a number of strong features that save users a lot of time, not to mention ease of use and well-being. Picture this quasi-daily situation for a moment. You leave for home after a long and usually tiring day at work. In the car, if you are lucky enough not to be stuck in traffic, you think about what the evening will bring. Starting with supper. How easy is it then that, just before leaving of course, you can already have the oven preheated? Or, if you forgot, from inside the car. Safety first: so just pull over, open the app, set preheat temperature and you're done. The oven does the rest. When you get home, you already don't have to worry about that anymore. Even more, the oven automatically notifies you when the next step in the cooking process can happen. Just put the dish in the oven and wait. You can then use that time in other ways.
Searching for recipes is also done in a totally different way. Not so long ago, the cookbook was the source of all delights. Just about everyone who moved out of the house and went to live alone or together got at least one copy. That looks nice on the bookshelf. We do find the recipes online, whether in the oven app or not. Preprogrammed settings and cooking methods help the user even more, especially if they appear without too many actions ánd it is also visualized very clearly. Enter, a nice touch screen to scroll through. We all know how to swipe and now we can do the same in the kitchen. Add small icons or drawings and the ease of use increases even further.
Elegant handles and rotary knobs are a good alternative to handleless appliances with touchscreen controls.
The aesthetic demands of consumers today are high. In addition to perfectly functioning appliances, which must also assist us every step of the way, we also want the kitchen to look great. Years ago, we hid the kitchen in a separate room, far away from prying eyes. We didn't come into the kitchen except to prepare meals. That has been drastically changed.
Today, the kitchen is the beating heart of the home and we seamlessly add it to the living space. The kitchen has to be seen, that much is clear. Then of course we don't want a motley assortment of appliances that are larger or smaller than the one next to them. The finish should also be identical. A homogeneous whole, a perfect combination of appliances and kitchen cabinets, a showpiece to show off. Like all other appliances, the oven follows this trend. With a handle or without, or with a recessed handle strip as an intermediate solution? The options are there. The comment sometimes made about the lack of handles, namely that fingerprints are visible on the appliances, is countered by numerous manufacturers. They provide protection, each with their own development, of the surface so that no fingerprints stick. After all, let's face it, a beautiful kitchen with beautiful appliances is marred when every fingerprint remains visible on the appliance. This protection is certainly useful with the trend color of the moment: black. On a black appliance, for example a black oven, you can see everything. Unless it is properly protected.
