When asked to recommend a great hob I can come up with a number of recommendations, depending on what you are looking for. Top of my personal list is the Wolf gas cooktop from the US. This is the one I am saving up for. It comprehensively does away with two of the biggest pains when cooking on gas: spills blocking the jets and not enough room between burners for your bigger pots and pans. The burners on this one are fully sealed and generously spaced with elegantly designed bars between them. Another superb feature is the flexibility of the heat output. Its burners range from the highest BTU levels necessary for scorching food rapidly for restaurant-quality sealing and searing, to the very lowest barely-there heat for melting, simmering and delicate culinary operations like béarnaise sauce. This is achieved with two levels of gas burner placed together: the upper one high, lower one gentle.
The Wolf
The Wolf’s robust visual style fits beautifully into modern kitchen designs. Its build quality means you’ll enjoy using it for many years. The whole hob surface is also extremely easily cleaned.
I am also excited by the top product in the Siemens iQ700 series, the freeInduction cooktop. With this you position pots and pans anywhere you like on its surface, as it automatically detects their position with micromodule technology and fires up its induction function. I see it as the precursor to a future when we will be able to cook on countertops embedded with heat induction. In the meantime this Siemens hob gives cooks a new highly welcome level of freedom to use a range of pan sizes and shapes in convenient configurations. It could not be easier to clean with its perfectly flat surface and colour touchscreen controls.
In a compact space the Fisher & Paykel gas on glass hob gives excellent cooking flexibility while looking stylish and easy to clean. Its three rings, including a wok burner, offer a good heat range with very responsive controls. We like the innovative spirit of this New Zealand manufacturer.