Kitchen Thoughts & Reflections (+ Olive Oil and Orange Cake)

... the who, what, when, and why of our new range.

The first question I got asked when I shared a sneak-peak of our new Lacanche range on Instagram last week was: did the last one break?

No. Madame (our first Lacanche range - a Cluny) is alive and well - she’s never had as much as a hiccup in the six years we owned her.

But in the six years we’ve owned her, a lot has changed for us. We are now teaching workshops from our kitchen each month, along with running an active Cooking Community which requires a lot of recipe testing and filming. Couple that with YouTube filming and cooking and our lifestyle of growing and preserving our own food, and the result is a range that is never…

…ever…

….ever…

…. ever sitting unused. We used our Cluny more than I ever had imaged we would. The Lacanche team is really quite extraordinary when it comes to customer service. Once you buy a Lacanche, in a way, you’re sorta like family. So in one of our normal email exchanges, I began to inquire about a larger range. One that would fill the new available space we found as we moved around the kitchen and also one that would fit a standard sheet pan for recipe testing.

As that infamous Seinfeld episode says “Yada, yada, yada…” and before you know it, we made the decision to bring a larger Lacanche into the kitchen.

I talk about this more in the video, but there are a few traits about this range that I really enjoy: the customer service is superb (such a rarity), the range is analog (no digital this or that to fail me), the quality is there (hand enameled panels, solid iron grates, etc.), and it looks baller. Some people like fancy cars or designer purses. I, apparently, like gorgeous work-horse ranges.

So come along with me into the kitchen today where you can see:

a) Stuart and my friend Cody lift a 500 pound range with just straps

b) the most delicious, moist orange and cardamom cake to break in our new stove

Well - I’m off to clean the crusted cheese off the range. As much as I’d like to just stand back and admit how clean and wonderful she started, it’s time to get to work.

Cheers,

Shaye

PS: Here’s the cake recipe: