- Location
- London
I'm quite intimate with a friend's 1997 Lacanche. It's not marvellous by any means, I'd much rather cook on a 1960s Parkinson Cowan.
On another note, I find myself drooling over used Lacanche ranges in a most undignified manner - does anybody now if they are actually any good?
I'm quite intimate with a friend's 1997 Lacanche. It's not marvellous by any means, I'd much rather cook on a 1960s Parkinson Cowan.
On another note, I find myself drooling over used Lacanche ranges in a most undignified manner - does anybody now if they are actually any good?
'Tolerate' isn't exactly a ringing endorsement. How are the results Ed once you've got used to its quirks?
I have had one since installing a new kitchen four years ago and am still in the drool phase.
Mine has a static oven and a fan oven. 5 burners and a central simmer plate.
Pros:
Extremely beautiful with a character and soul that a modern oven cannot match (if you like said character, of course!)
1m hob width (standard width hobs now feel comically small in comparison)
Simmer plate which is excellent for fish kettles, big gravy trays, makes light work of stock, pot-au-feu style pie fillings.
2 full size ovens which are surprisingly deep - a massive turkey will fit in lengthways
Simplicity of operation
Handy storage drawers which can also be used for plate warming when not full to the brim with crap as mine definitely always are
A brutal grill with more power than Beelzebub himself
Good performance from fan oven- cooks consistently and evenly. Baking oven not so much unless at fiercely hot temps, below 150C it has some cold spots. Roast potatoes do brilliantly in the baking oven.
Baking oven can touch 300C. Sourdough loaves do very well.
Accurate fan oven which tracks +/- 5C of stated dial temp in normal use, although not quite as accurate below, say 100C, where the range is more like +/- 10C
Built like Canterbury Cathedral and feels intimidatingly sturdy in use. I remember studying the Buddhist concept of Anicca at school and wondering if I'd ever encounter a man-made item which could defy it. The Lacanche runs it close.
Entirely mechanical engineering means that there's little to go wrong (other than see below!), and there is nothing on it which can't be fixed with a coat hanger and a sturdy pair of tights.
Did I mention that it is incredibly beautiful?
Cons:
Stupidly expensive parts - my 2 yr old smashed in all the LEDs with a plastic hammer and the replacement cost of the bulbs alone was £90. I plan to take the money out of his first paycheque sometime around 2035
Gaskets need replacing every 5 years at £80.
No viewing glass
Not as practical as eye-level oven
Absolutely no concessions made to modern technology. Has no features whatsoever.
Modern ovens heat up more quickly and are probably more efficient.
Without wishing to descend into Clarksonian levels of metal-worship, I really do love cooking on my Lacanche. It lends a reassuring and endearing presence to my kitchen, is vastly capacious and generally performs very well, although probably no better than a normal oven at a quarter of the price.
All of this means nothing if your heart is aflutter, let alone if you've reached the drooling-in-an-undignified-manner-at-eBay-listings stage. The battle is lost and resistance is futile - it's now just a question of which colour you'll choose.
Interesting, thanks Ed. My theoretical understanding is that a gas oven is supposed to be better for baking and getting very hot indeed (I have electric myself). Sounds like it's a pretty good tool in the right hands
We got ours as an approved used model. Saved about £800 on the list price which in context was more than we spent on our fridge and certainly made the costs a bit more justifiable.Wonderful stuff, Will, thanks. Did you buy yours new or used?
I completely agree with this Thom, although high heat is clearly not without its uses -browning, baking etc.
Far better to trust Harold McGee than Escoffier.
I've been watching Nigel Slater's 90's-tastic 'Real Food' series which is being repeated on an obscure TV food channel. Some of the recipes and techniques are just comical. In one episode, I watched in awe as Nigel and Nigella conspired to roast a small chicken at 220C for 90 mins and then declared it 'beautifully moist and tender'. The laws of physics would disagree.
220C is not hot for a chicken, is it? I find a 1.3-1.5 kg chicken(always spatchcocked now, the top two wing joints detached and placed on top of the breast, the backbone cut out and put underneath, because I can guarantee a 10C lower temperature in the breast than the legs) takes about 45 minutes from a cool start; in a very heavy cast iron pan, which certainly speeds things up.
I now cook most things from a cold start when more convenient, though I haven't yet trusted myself with green vegetables, bread or pastry. The experiments will happen and I think bread might actually work. Several years ago Jasper Morris relayed the advice of his Bresse chicken supplier to turn on the oven after putting in the chicken and that has been a revelation in all sorts of ways.
Was Nigel/Nigella's chicken frozen? that might work, I suppose. I don't really want my kitchen full of smoke any more, it seems unnecessarily macho and indeed wasteful.
I have done extensive research into chicken roasting...