“Thermador – real innovations for real cooks”
A few weeks ago I attended Thermador’s “The Ultimate Kitchen Blogger Experience” at Thermador’s brand new Design and Experience Center in Irvine, Ca.
But before I get into that, I need to make a couple of disclosures. First, the “standard” one ( yes, Thermador did provide me with lodging, food and transportation for this event and all opinions here are definitely my own!).
But there is more. You see, my entire kitchen is Thermador … oh, and I work for Purcell Murray, Thermador’s distributor here in California.
Command Central at A Communal Table!
So, to say that I am slightly “biased” might be a wee bit of an understatement. So it’s probably no surprise that I was beyond excited since I hadn’t yet seen the new showroom in Irvine. Actually, the term “giddy” comes to mind. Honestly, who wouldn’t love to spend a whole day surrounded by shiny, state of the art appliances that you can play with???
Now THIS is a kitchen....
The day started off with a little history of Thermador .. and even though I “thought” I knew a lot about the company, I learned some very interesting facts about Thermador such as-
-Introduced the first wall oven in 1947 and introduced stainless steel appliances to consumers
- Introduced the first warming drawer in 1952
-Introduced the first self cleaning oven in 1963 and the first “smooth top” cooktop in 1970
-Julia Child chose Thermador products for the set of her iconic PBS cooking show AND owned Thermador in her own home – and that kitchen is now on display at the Smithsonian!!!
After getting our orientation, we were then introduced to some of Thermador’s new appliances – the pro grand steam convection range, the “drawer” microwave and the new Freedom Induction cooktop! (Sigh…) maybe if I am a very good girl, Santa might leave one of these under the tree…
And yes... your starbucks cup WILL fit!!!
You can place pans ANYWHERE you want on this - how cool is that?
Then, the fun really started – we got to cook lunch!!
Like ALL blogger events, there was no shortage of delicious food!
After lunch, we took a little break with a photography presentation by Diane Cu and Todd Porter of White on Rice Couple. Their presentations never fail to inspire me and this one was no different. If you’ve never heard Diane and Todd speak about photography, put it on your “must do” list… they are truly phenomenal and so passionate about sharing what they know with anyone who wants to learn!! At the end, Diane gave a little impromptu lesson on iphone photography – which was perfect for me, since all of my shots that day were with my iphone!
An impromptu lesson on iphone photography..
It truly was an amazing day but to me the best part of this event was meeting the people. We had the opportunity to meet not only the marketing team at Thermador but also some of the engineers and designers of the products. For me, this was a special treat - I loved “talking shop” with them about the different products and all the new features. What struck me was the passion and excitement each of them had for what they do and I realized that it’s the same passion and excitement that I feel for food and food photography.
“Real innovations for real cooks” – is more than a tag line, it really is the mission that drives the people at Thermador.
So, what does this have to do with Ciabatta bread? Well, I thought I’d share one of my favorite things to make in the Steam Convection Oven – but don’t worry, it can easily be made in a regular oven too – the recipe is pretty much fool proof!
Ingredients
- 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. active dry yeast
- 2 cups warm ater
- 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup minced fresh rosemary (optional)
Instructions
- Oil a large bowl and set aside. In another large bowl, combine the flour, salt and rosemary if using. In a separate bowl, combine the water and yeast. Dissolve the yeast in the water and wait until you see tiny bubbles on the top - this means your yeast is alive!
- Add the water and the olive oil to the flour mixture.
- If using a mixer, use the paddle attachment to mix the dough for about 1 minute. Allow dough to rest for 10 minutes.
- Beat the dough at medium speed until it is smooth and elastic, about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Scrape the dough into the oiled bowl and rotate the dough so that it is covered with a little bit of the oil. Cover the top of the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until the dough is doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
- For Conventional Ovens: Pre heat the oven to 500 degrees.
- When the dough has doubled in bulk, scrape the dough onto a floured board, handling the dough as little as possible. Cut the dough in half to form two loaves. Roughly shape into rectangles and place each loaf onto a parchment lined sheet pan.
- Place the loaves in the oven and reduce heat to 450 degrees. Bake until they are very dark golden - about 25 - 35 minutes.
- Let cool and slice!
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Looks like a fun trip – and congrats on passing you tests!
How fun Nancy. Nice to know they have a new showroom in Irvine. This is perfect timing for a friend of mine. He is remodeling their kitchen and has been asking my advice on appliances. I do like Thermador and forwarded your post to him so he could read and visit the new showroom to do his homework. Dacor has a fairly new one in Costa Mesa too. Must be the area to build new showrooms. I’ve been to PM. Nice showroom too.
Hi Sally!! Thanks for forwarding the post! I love PM’s showroom!! Ah, aren’t kitchen remodels fun? Well, the planning at least is – the actual remodel itself? Not so much… at least for me.. the neighbors however, loved it – yup, there was Nancy in her jammies in the garage making breakfast – LOL!!!
WOW!! Sounds like the ultimate cooking experience Nancy!
Forget the bread…I want your stove! Can you please provide the recipe so I can make it at home?
LOL!!! If you only knew Barb – we almost didn’t get this configuration to work! Even Thermador had never seen it done – thank goodness my contractor is a rocket scientist – he figured out how to make it work but it was a little “iffy” there for a while!!
Wow. It looks like you had a fantastic trip and thank you so much for sharing this recipe and the insights on Thermador!
Oh Thermador we love you:) Great post!
The trip and the bread sound amazing. Thanks for the post. I did want to point out that Ciabatta is misspelled in your article and recipe. Please check it out…the ‘ci’ in italian is pronounced ‘ch’ no need to place the extra ‘h’ in there….
Hi Paula!! You are absolutely right!! Writing blog posts when you are on muscle relaxants is not the best practice!! The bread is a good one because I honestly don’t think you can do it wrong which is perfect for me!!!
breathtaking Nancy!! and I agree about Todd and Diane, every food blogger needs to spend time with them at least once!!