From a 333-Year-Old German Company, New Cooking Tech
An oven with royal lineage has the latest in sous vide and steam.
Credit:
BSH/Gaggenau
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Not many modern companies can trace their history directly back to a 17th century military ruler, but ultra-luxury home appliance manufacturer Gaggenau can.
Today at Design and Construction Week, the company is showing off two new products that blend the latest in cooking trends with a heritage that extends back 333 years.
The first, the 400 Series Combi-Steam Oven, takes advantage of two technologies popular at the forefront of cooking: steam, and sous-vide. The built-in wall oven also claims to have the world’s first self-cleaning function.
The Gaggenau 400 Series Combi-Steam Oven can clean itself fully. It's also capable of steam cooking and sous-vide.
The second product is the AF210 range hood. Compatible with all Gaggenau cooktops, the visor-like hood automatically extends from beneath cabinetry to capture steam and odors.
The Gaggenau AF210 range hood is compatible with any of the company's cooktops.
Both products bear the name of the Black Forest town where Ludwig Wilhelm, Margrave of Baden-Baden, established an iron works in 1683. We’d be willing to bet that no other home appliance company can claim it was founded by a military commander of the Holy Roman Empire and the godson of Louis XIV of France.
Ludwig Wilhelm, Margrave of Baden-Baden, founded the company that would become Gaggenau in 1683.
{{amazon name="Germany and the Holy Roman Empire: Volume II: The Peace of Westphalia to the Dissolution of the Reich.", asin="B00GSCOPE6", align="left"}} Gaggenau eventually built bicycles, signs, and stoves through the 1930s, and in 1931, Gaggenau’s owner decided to focus on built-in appliances. The rest is modern history.
Today, Gaggenau sits at the peak of the high-end appliance market, manufacturing design-forward statement pieces in Germany. Forget your Wolf, Viking, and Thermador—this is such an exclusive brand that most folks haven’t even seen a kitchen outfitted with Gaggenau appliances—let alone cooked in one.