I'm about 4 weeks or so from moving into my brand new house and my TurboChef was installed last week. I've been looking at wall ovens for over a year and was intrigued by the TC, yet hesitated because of the price. It came down to either the TC or the GE Trivection/Advantium. Though we are WAY over budget, I chose the TC and am thrilled with my choice.

We are living in a rental just ten blocks away and the day it was installed, I made two of the recipes in the included TC cookbook. A Lemon-Rosemary Whole Roasted Chicken, and a Poblano-Corn Casserole. It took about 8 minutes to preheat the oven for the chicken and rather than placing it in a roasting pan, I put the chicken onto an aluminum stand that is basically a round tube, about three inches in diameter and 5 inches tall. It's welded to a flat, square base and was designed to produce a beer-can chicken without the beer can. I filled the inside of the tube with about three inches of beer, and set it with the mounted chicken into a pyrex casserole dish.

I set the lower unit on warm when I began the preheat of the upper oven. On warm, the lower oven maintains 145 degrees. That way, I could keep the chicken warm while cooking the corn-poblano dish.

Watching the chicken cook was amazing. It reminded me of my first microwave oven and the fascination of looking in as it cooked a couple of hot dogs in less than a minute.

The chicken browned quickly and beautifully. When the oven paused at the 80% point, we chose the "Brown More" option for a crispier skin. After 21 minutes, the oven chimed and I checked the temperature with an instant-read thermometer. I was a bit concerned because the probe indicated 219 degrees but I must have touched a bone, because when we pulled the chicken apart it was PERFECTLY cooked. The skin was crispy and both the breast and thigh was succulent and incredibly flavorful. One of our best chickens ever.

The corn-poblano dish also turned out perfectly. We let the chicken rest in the warming oven below while the casserole cooked. I think it took all of eight minutes and finished with the top a beautiful golden brown and the inside was steaming hot, creamy and perfect.

The next night I cooked a couple of rib-eyes. Each steak was about an inch thick and just under a pound. I placed a cast iron grilling pan in the oven for the pre-heat and after about 14 minutes, the oven chimed and it had reached 500 degrees. I placed the steaks on the griddle, closed the door and pressed the start button. The only prep for the steaks was freshly ground pepper and kosher salt. I had some butter standing by to place on top at the 80% mark.

I opened the door at 80%, put a couple of pats of butter on each rib-eye and continued cooking. When they were done, I wrapped them in heavy duty aluminum foil after pouring the butter and steak juices over them.

When I got them to my rental about 10 minutes later, I was amazed at how perfectly done they were. I forgot to mention that I did flip each steak just over halfway through.

The exterior of the steaks was a dark, crusty brown and just a millimeter or so into the steak, was a beautiful red that didn't vary in color. In other words, the outside was seared and the interior was rare all the way through.

I believe the cooking time after the preheat was about 5 minutes.

My only disappointment with the oven (other than cost, of course) is that I was expecting to have the upgraded software. I was told that the oven had a microwave-only feature but when mine arrived, it wasn't there. I called Atlanta and spoke with corporate. It turns out that the software upgrade is about 30 days or so away and I will be e-mailed the update when it's released. It's a simple matter of moving the file to a flash drive and then transferring it to the oven via a USB port on the top of the oven. Pretty cool.

By the way, the oven is HEAVY! About 410 pounds so it's probably not an appliance that you want to "slide in" yourself. It took two of my trim guys, and a couple of big electricians to get it into the cabinet. Consider professional installation. My local dealer charges $150.

All in all, I'm extremely pleased with the oven, and can't wait to actually move in so that I can begin to create my own recipes.

It's one of the coolest kitchen appliances I've owned.

My other appliances are:

30" Thermador Freedom Column Refrigerator

18" Thermador Freedom Column Freezer

Sub-zero 427R Wine Refrigerator-holds 70 bottles and has two refrigerator drawers.

30" GE Monogram Warming Drawer

Meile "La Perla" Dishwasher

48" BlueStar Cooktop-4 Burners/1 Griddle

GE Monogram Ice Maker

54" Vent-A-Hood w 1200 CFM Blower

Insinkerator Hot/Cold dispenser

Nikken PiMag Water undercounter filter

I'll post some photos once it's all complete in about a month.