Last month at KBIS (one of the world’s largest kitchen industry trade shows) I gave a presentation on luxury kitchen renovations. My presentation focused on the idea that the kitchen is the living room. You spend time in the kitchen as a central gathering and entertaining space. People want a kitchen that is beautiful and functional.
In the last couple of years, many companies like GE, Miele and Whirlpool have tried to market colors as an alternative to stainless steel. However, French owned La Cornue executes color better than any other company with a full palette of every color and accent trim possibility.
But how does it compete with a range like Wolf? We will look at both companies and ranges and compare features and prices.
Nearly 30 years ago Viking introduced a commercial-style range for a residential application. They essentially pioneered the pro-range category. For 30 years customers wanted the “commercial look”. This trend is still very popular with many customers designing a high-end kitchen want appliances to be visible in the space.
La Cornue and to a lesser extent AGA have manufactured a professional looking range with color options. Now you finally have a color choice amongst professional ranges.
La Cornue is a French luxury appliance brand known for manufacturing very high-quality ranges. La Cornue is a common appliance brand in many celebrity homes. La Cornue has two range product lines available in the US. The Chateau series is their premium product. The Chateau series is the most customizable range on the market, entirely hand-made and built for your specific needs. The CornuFé series is their affordable luxury line with all-gas and dual-fuel ranges at much lower prices. Both range series come in a wide variety of finishes and trims.
Wolf is a well-known luxury appliance brand in the US Market. Wolf is owned by Sub-Zero and is manufactured in the US. Twin convection ovens for more even heating and a three stage burner for lower, consistent simmering are hallmarks of the Wolf brand. They were also the first to include a clock and timer on a pro range.
The grill is infrared like many of the better outdoor units.
Both La Cornue and Wolf are great brands; either range would be a great choice. It really comes down to what features are important to you.
Price
For a 36’’ high-end dual-fuel range, the Cornué Fe 90 series is way less expensive than the Wolf 36’’ dual-fuel range and many other leading 36’’ range manufacturers.
Cooking Real-Estate
The Wolf range gives you more oven capacity with 5.4 cubic ft. next to La Cornue with 3.81 cubic ft. Wolf gives you 6 burners, whereas La Cornue gives you 5. Wolf also makes a dual-fuel range with a grill or griddle option (cost extra) for more cooking flexibility whereas the La Cornue is only a five burner range
Design
Both ranges make a statement. However, La Cornue gives you more flexibility in customizing the color and trim of their ranges with 8 colors and 3 trim options.
For price and appearance, I like La Cornue. However, functionally Wolf is a bigger and more powerful range. So it really depends on how you cook as well. La Cornue has 1 high output burner, which may be good enough depending.
To me, it's style versus power and functionality. We have no reliability numbers on La Cornue as of yet, but Wolf is number 3 in premium high end products after Miele and just behind Thermador.
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