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Gaga for Aga
I’ve been eating a lot of food lately at the kind of restaurant where all the dishes are square, even the bowls. It’s given me an awful craving for something cooked in an old-fashioned way. Apart from an open fire, there are few simpler methods of cooking than on an Aga, an old-school Brit stove so powerful, it used to sub for central heat. The contemporary version of the Aktiebolaget Gas Accumulator is more than an appliance; it’s a fetish object. Made from solid cast iron and covered in vitreous enamel, a top-of-the-line model has four ovens and two hot plates housed beneath sleek chrome covers. The attached companion adds two more electric ovens and four gas burners. There are no switches or dials: Each component holds at a temperature specific to its task – roasting, baking, simmering, warming or boiling. Once you turn an Aga on, you never have to turn it off. It costs nearly $30,000. Like I said, fetish. At the Aga flagship store in Toronto, newbies take the stove for a test drive in one of the finest kitchens in the city. There are hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of working ovens, gadgets and cookware. The whole space is just crying out for a party or, at least in my mind, for my dinner party. And with an appliance that tips the scales at 680 kilograms, you bring the party to the kitchen, which is where it generally ends up anyway. Aga manager and specialist Marian Staresinic agreed to lend me the space, inviting me to one of her cooking demos to get acquainted with the cooker. Eighty percent of the cooking is done in the oven – counterintuitive for the modern-day foodie who relies more heavily on stovetop preparations. Nonetheless, I was able to sear some lamb chops on the boiling plate. “I’ve never thought of doing that,” Staresinic said, either horrified or impressed. Bolstered by my initial success, I came back a few days before the party to roast a chicken, the ultimate litmus test for gauging temperature and cooking times. I seasoned the bird and popped it in the roasting oven with some carrots, olives and a little pancetta. When the aroma reached its peak, I opened the door and found a moist, tender chicken with a dark, crispy finish. “It’s the radiant heat,” Staresinic explained. The Aga’s cast iron core stores heat and radiates it evenly across the entire surface, retaining food’s moisture, texture and flavour. It one-ups today’s complicated convection ovens for pure simplicity. |
