by: John Crook
The Aga cooker has emerged as an icon of the UK with its solid performance and cast-iron reputation built over 70 glorious years. It is the undisputed queen of British kitchens that has conquered many a heart across the Atlantic as well.
An invention of a Nobel-winning physicist, the Aga is unique because it cooks with radiant heat, locking in the natural juices and tastes of the meals in its cavernous belly. In every home with an Aga cooker, the kitchen invariably becomes the heart of the house as the family is drawn to the toasty warmth it radiates.
The Aga range cooker was the brainchild of Sweden's Nils Gustaf Dalen, who won the Nobel Prize in 1912 for automating lighthouses. When an industrial accident blinded Dalen, the genius spent a lot of time at home and became convinced that his wife's conventional cooker was inefficient. His decade-long efforts at improving it gave birth to the Aga, whose first model was patented in 1922. Named after Dalen's firm Akteibolaget Gas Accumulator, the Aga relocated to the UK in 1928.
Powered by a single burner, most Agas run on either propane or natural gas. Some models also come with electric ovens. Because they are always on, Aga cookers save you the bother of preheating the oven before cooking. And you could put a dish in before rushing off to work in the morning and find it warm and ready never burnt when you return home. When entertaining, you could cook a fancy many-course meal simultaneously.
The flagship of the Aga cooker family, the four-oven Aga, has separate ovens for baking, roasting, simmering and warming. The four ovens maintain different temperatures for their disparate tasks. The four-oven Aga cooker also comes with a hotplate, a warming plate and an optional gas cook-top. Made of cast iron coated with vitreous enamels, this legendary cooker is available in 14 colours ranging from the conservative black or white to the exciting claret or aubergine. And it boasts a life of 100 years!
Aga cookers, which also sell widely in the US and Canada, have become a way of life, even a legacy handed down generations. Among proud celebrity owners of this wonder cooker are the Prince of Wales, Hollywood stars Sharon Stone and Ben Kingsley, singers Paul McCartney, George Michael and Billy Joel as well as the American goddess of good living, Martha Stewart.
Bring home an Aga cooker and gain an ally for a lifetime. Visit www.rangeaway.co.uk for information if you want to buy or sell an Aga.