Top 10 kitchen trends

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We spoke to Sean Alderson at Peter Collins Agencies, which is a wholesaler of a variety of ovens and cooktops: from the middle market through to the top of the range. Sean shared his observations of trends in the kitchen and helped us put together this Top 10.

1. Kitchens are now the hub of homes. With a tendency toward open plan houses the kitchen is the centre of the action. 
2. With the kitchen quite often exposed and right in the middle of a living area, rather than hidden away in the back of the house, people are spending more time and money on the look of the kitchen.
3. Stainless steel is by far the most popular finish for cooktops, ovens and rangehoods.
4. “Non-venting” ovens are becoming popular in the upper end of the market. This simply means the oven is fully sealed, so it doesn’t let in cold air.
5. Coupled with the non-venting ovens are highly accurate thermostats. These new thermostats are light years away from the temperature control of conventional ovens that would heat up to a desired temperature of, say, 200°C but would then drop back to 180°C. It would then have to work hard to get back up to 200°C. With non-venting ovens, temperatures drop by only a couple of degrees. A more stable cooking environment makes for a better result.
6. Ceramic hot plates are becoming the most popular form of stovetop cooking.
7. There is a swing back to the freestanding oven/cooktops. There is a general tendency for people to consolidate their cooking methods into fewer different specialist units.
8. Double ovens are far less popular.
9. Fan-forced grills are becoming a standard. They are an extremely convenient and efficient griller because there is no need to continually turn cooking meat. Fan-forced grills are also a lot cleaner than conventional grills because they cook at lower temperatures, resulting in less splatter.
10. Although there are a lot of people who are going for ovens with all sorts of bells and whistles and up to ten different cooking modes, there is also a big market for the basic fan-forced oven. In Sean’s opinion, this is not so much a budgetary consideration as a lifestyle choice with many people opting for out of home cooking and eating out more often.
    

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