Capital Culinarian vs GE Cafe? Yes I'm serious

12 years ago

Capital Culinarian CGSR304 vs GE Cafe CGS985SETSS

I realize this probably seems like a Toyota-vs-BMW type of comparison but there are reasons I'm considering both 30-inch ranges. There's no doubt the Capital Culinarian is a serious cooking machine with open burners and all around great performance, fit and finish. But I think the GE Cafe seems more versatile.

I have no space for a separate wall oven so the Cafe's auxiliary oven / warming drawer could be especially useful for my situation. The 20k BTU tri-ring burner seems plenty powerful for a wok stir-fry (which I do often), and the Cafe's burner arrangement seems suitable for normal home cooking needs (for example I can't imagine needing all four of the Capital's 23k burners running at full blast at once just to cook ourselves dinner). The GE Cafe also includes temperature probe roasting and a number of other conveniences offered by the digital oven controls which I believe are actually useful in a home kitchen, not just marketing gimmicks.

On the other hand the Capital offers those wonderful 23k BTU open burners, all of which can do everything right down to a great simmer meaning less shuffling cookware around to various different burners for each job. Infrared broiler vs the Cafe's gas broiler. More even heat in the oven (by some accounts)? Rotisserie. Available wok ring which I would get. And all the panache of a high end pro style range for our new kitchen, but at 3x the price of the Cafe.

Like our last car purchase, it might come down to whether to get the BMW that could conceivably go 150-mph down the turnpike, or the Toyota SUV that can transport our pets and building supply purchases, and still get us comfortably enough from point A to point B. Different classes. Luxury vs practicality. Which to choose?

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Comments (9)

Zany13
12 years ago
Hello there,

I was in your exact situation. I was going to get the GE cafe (around 3100 CDN), but ended up getting the CC 30 (4600 CDN), and then upgrading to the CC 36" 5800 Cdn).

can you really compare it like its a car? I mean if you want a practical range, i am sure there are ones that are cheaper than the GE cafe.

I like Capital ranges, but some of the features are not worth it. The CC 30 with the self cleaning over and rotisserie function is like 2K more than the manual clean model. If you can live without those features and you only use the 23K open top burners, then the CC 30 manual clean isnt that much more than the GE Cafe...

Plus, the CC will look more grand in your kitchen than the Cafe.. hahah
tyguy
12 years ago
I'd pick a cc hands down. I understand your your comparison with cars but its not the most accurate as you CAN use the the performance of a cc but can't really use the full potential of the bmw...at least not in north america
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Ladybug: I'm not sure if this helps or not, but I'm in a very similar situation as you. I have done a lot of research on 48" ranges and am keen on having high BTU and a lot of interior space. After having a long conversation with Trevor (from Eurostoves), I actually went to the Capital factory and was very impressed. In fact, it's the only appliance I have decided on! So, if they can assure you that you can get easy service relatively close by, I'd go with the Culinarian. Hope that helps!
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Servicing a Capital Culinarian is one of the easiest jobs for a tech because of design and accessibility. Through Utah there is a group of independent techs called Mr. Appliance. They've been certified to work on both the indoor and outdoor equipment for Capital. That applies to the all the other Rocky Mountain and Northwest States. IF a dealer is not a service center then these guys are more than capable of handling anything they would need to do. I have the 30" CC because of our counter configuration. My wife talked me into looking at it and we watched the Youtube videos. We also looked at the price and there was quite a bit of savings over the Wolf and the Blue Star. We saw no advantage in Viking, Blue Star was interesting until we spoke with a local dealer and they couldn't adjust one for our altitude and took it back the same day they tried to put it in. When we saw the Life Style Article provided by Mercedez Benz and their write up we had to have it. Had it sent to a dealer so we could pick it up and they got to look at it. Their sales staff was ooohing and awing when we took it out of the double wall box. Came on its own pallet. For everyday cooking and simmering I'll never even look at anything else. I put my high end stainless away and I've really enjoyed using my cast iron skillets and pans for baking and frying. We'll be building again in a few years and this time it will be the 60" with the double oven and again the gas range and ovens. The ceramic plates really make the oven work efficiently and evenly. I am suprised at all those waffling both dealers and consumers.....look at most of the chef shows now and they almost all have the Culinarian Stoves! Large smooth oven door handle, largest window on the oven door and the drip lip and catch trays make cleaning up my messes great and the design keeps it from getting into the door. Everything can go in the dish washer. I couldn't do half the things as easily with any other brand. By the way my son who's a welder looked it over and said he'd never seen seams in Stainless that were so nearly invisible and smooth. This is the upper end of tech in the cooking world for the common guy to get his hands on. I didn't get to try it out but made a lot of calls to dealers in the East and to California. I met one guy who was frustrated about getting a counter range and built in ovens. The contractor and the appliance dealer didn't know anything about Capital they said. I happen to know they did but he went back to California and bought what he wanted and had the cabinet guy put them in. He looked them in the eye and stated he would never cook on anything else again. I wish he'd known about Gygi the dealer in SLC. Would have saved him some trouble. Oh and Gygi does have an operating model in their culinary school which is in the center of the store and open to the public. I think that one is a 6 burner top 48".....have to look again. You don't know what you're missing until you get your hands on one of these pieces of kitchen equipment. I don't care what it takes, I'll always have one now in my home.
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It wasn't your providing the link that I was referring to, gregl, it was another post further down that seemed to be citing the thing as if it had the slightest veracity whatsoever. It doesn't hold any weight at all other than it expresses the opinions of the corporate leadership of Capital. In fact, I have reason to question the veracity of the document right at the outset based upon the statement that Surjit Kalsi "founded the concept of the high-end, commercial-quality range for the home while working at U.S. Range Company." The guy who "founded the idea" was Fred Carl Jr., a 4th generation building contractor from Mississippi, after his wife told him she preferred an old Chambers or commercial stove to anything on the market at the time. He took his idea around to several manufacturers to see if they could or would build it for him. Kalsi may have worked on a later version of it but it sure as heck wasn't his idea.
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I see it this way: there's a reason every other manufacturer has different burners with different max and min BTU ratings (or they only go to 16 or 17k BTUs)it's very, very difficult (some may argue impossible) for one burner to span nearly 23k BTUs and operate optimally at full on and simmer. Full on is the easy part but when it's on simmer there's not enough gas to support all the ports and it clicks (hence the sheet metal disk add-on) or flickers unevenly. The burner video on Eurostove's dedicated Culinarian website showing the burner on simmer has different ports going out and reigniting constantly. Everyone's might not be clicking but are everyone's ports (holes) all lit on simmer? Is the pattern uniform and consistent or flickering? Does the flame go out if you quickly go from high to low? Seems like they're doing retrofits and tweaks to keep the ports near the igniter lit so people don't complain. I doubt any change to the actual casted burner design has been made, just changes after the fact, sheetmetal add ons, drilling ports and messing with simmer settings. That's why I said maybe it wasn't quite ready for market.
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zartemis
12 years ago
I think it comes down to how much oven cooking and baking you do.

The GE Cafe will have delayed started, timer off, easier fine control over oven temp settings (versus the analog dial of the CC) and will go to a lower temperature.

You can always get an aftermarket temp probe, so I wouldn't worry about that.

If you only use the oven now and again and mostly for meat and casseroles and especially if you might use the rotisserie and broiler regularly, go for the CC.

If you will want to do regular baking, want easy-to-set fine repeatable temp settings for precision baking without using an in-oven thermometer (want 315F, just punch it in), and might use the timed cooking options, I think you'll be happier with the GE.

We have a CC, but I enjoy the electronic features of our Gagg wall ovens very much and typically only use the oven of the CC for rotisserie and broiling, much preferring the convenient features of the wall oven for other tasks.
Shira S
12 years ago
I went through a similar type of dilemma (I was debating a Wolf double oven, ended up with a Frigidaire instead).

I decided that I didn't bake well enough to warrant a $5400 oven and that the money would be better spent elsewhere.
sas95
12 years ago
I think that if you are asking this question, the additional capabilities of the cc are not important to you, so the extra money would be better spent elsewhere.

Almost every time I have gone against my instincts and bought "up" from what I originally intended because of what others told me was "better" or I "had to have," I ended up with buyer's remorse. Only you know what is important to you. Either way, go with your gut.
guadalupe
12 years ago
Cafe is a hell of a range, very versable
carnivore
Original Author
12 years ago
Interesting - more comments than I expected lean toward the Cafe.

The precise oven temperature control is something I hadn't factored in. Our previous (electric) range had digital controls and I'm so used to having them I didn't even think about the fact the CC would mean reverting to the analog oven control, so good point.

I know the CC excels in many respects, but since we don't have the luxury of separate wall ovens here I think our range needs to be more of a Jack-of-all-trades. The Cafe seems to fit that bill better for our situation so that's the way I'm going to go. Yes it does looks like a hell of a range, and there actually aren't any cheaper ones that offer such high powered burners and comparable feature set. The Cafe seems to be in a class of its own bridging the gap between typical consumer models and the higher end pro-style ones.

The nice thing about a freestanding range is it's easy to swap out, so if I hate it, it's no big deal to change it later.

Thanks for the feedback.
oceangirl67
12 years ago
The Cafe would simmer better also from what's been said about the CC.
carnivore
Original Author
12 years ago
oceangirl67, I think that's the biggest irony of all, given the price difference.

Capital Culinarian vs GE Cafe? Yes I'm serious

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Zany13

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Capital Culinarian vs GE Cafe? Yes I'm serious

Comments (9)

Zany13

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