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.
