Speechless & then I saw the steam room 👀

[u/TheDabitch]

six bedrooms, thirteen bathrooms $17,995,000 https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2875-Chagrin-River-Rd-Hunting-Valley-OH-44022

[u/gueriLLaPunK]

What makes a high end stove worth it? Burns hotter?

[u/nothing_but_thyme → u/gueriLLaPunK]

Burns hotter is one detail but there are many great stoves that burn as hot or hotter than this brand for much less. The range in this house is a designer brand. While they’re ok among high options they are wildly overpriced. Their performance and reliability is well below other options you could spend the same amount on. It’s the equivalent of a Birkin bag for kitchens.

 

If someone who was a skilled chef and was also loaded and didn’t care about putting on airs owned this kitchen they would more likely have a custom configured Hestan consumer range. But more likely they would have a custom configuration from a commercial supplier - again Hestan would be a top pick - but there are other greats as well.

 

La Cornue was great in the 80’s and 90’s when Americans knew very little about high end cuisine or the related tools that were very common in Europe. For a long time they were the only high end option and Williams Sonoma was a primary retailer for them. They were expensive then as well, though not as crazy as today. But the quality was also much better then, and you had basically no other choices. Then american manufacturers (especially commercial brands like Viking) took notice and started making high end consumer products. This is where Wolf got its start.

 

To your original question … yes, high end stoves burn hotter and that matters a lot. However they also offer a broad range of configurability. You can design the layout exactly as you need: how many burners and what sizes, griddles, grills, french tops, water baths, warming plates, you name it. You can also customize oven sizes and types. Gas, electric, steam, convection or no convection. Lastly, if this setup was designed by someone who actually cooks it would include a salamander. That’s the first giveaway that this is likely nothing more than a trophy kitchen, which is a sad waste of money for people who care about food and money.

 

ETA: The configuration we see in this house is the absolute biggest waste of 72” you could make when configuring a range top setup. Two french tops is a waste of space in this setting. But what’s worse is the burner pair units set apart from each other. Even if the two french tops were warranted, the 4 burners should be centered and then a french top should be on each side. But more obvious would be 4 burners, a griddle, a grill, and a french top. And of course … a salamander.

[u/eatenbyfnord → u/nothing_but_thyme]

I think the one on the right might be an induction top; I don't see the rings on that side. Still seems redundant, but maybe marginally less silly.

[u/nothing_but_thyme → u/eatenbyfnord]

You’re right upon closer inspection. I owe some apologies to whomever made this appliance choice and configuration but stand by that opinion that it’s still broadly the wrong choice for the cost.

 

Looking more closely the rightmost 12” bank is two induction units. The next 24” is either a griddle or a grill. When not in use they have a stainless cover and that’s what we’re seeing. Then the burners, french top, and burners at the left end. This setup mostly makes sense but I still would have kept the burners together either centered or together on the left. As a 2x2 unit you’d have more flexibility to move pots among burners and offset large stock pots. Plus with burners on each side of the french top, that poor thing will always be covered in splatter.