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.

I'm going with a CAPITAL CULINARIAN rangetop. I know I want a grill for sure and I currently have a range with a little griddle in the middle of the burners and I use it all the time. Here's where I'm stuck. I don't need more than 4 reg. burners too often but when I do the fifth one (on my current) is quite handy. Can the grill or griddle be used as a burner for pots and pans? Second, I HATE having to get creative when I need to flip a pancake or hand spread a batter on the griddle, because I'm going to get burned or run out of room. I'm worried the griddle might not be big enough. I don't want the config to be too redundant. I know the grill size is fine but I'm wondering if I have get a larger griddle or if someone has had this experience and it's actually a fine size...

Overall, we've been really happy, and we've been having pretty good results with ours. We managed to get the grates just in time to cook Thanksgiving dinner on the thing. Very glad I heard about the Capital before going for Blue Star. The wok burner was a big selling point, and so far we've been very happy with it. The wok grate holds the wok very securely (we tested this when we visited the factory, so it wasn't surprising). Boiling water, even large quantities, really is quite fast on this thing. While I still think that anyone who tries to justify purchasing a $4k+ range because it will "save time" is engaging in a high degree of rationalization, there definitely are cases where you notice a few minutes being shaved off here or there. Using the burners on "normal" settings is also very satisfying; I haven't found that getting used to that much power has required too much adjustment. We have all 23k burners, and the lowest flame really does get down pretty low (though it's still high enough to keep a ~4.5 qt saucepan at a pretty active simmer, so if you want to do really delicate stuff, you might still want one of the smaller burners). Baking and broiling (so far, broiling has been limited to making tomatillo salsa) have been going pretty well. Adjusting to using convection has, of course, required some experimentation, but the oven seems to bake evenly and well. Even with reduced heat *and* reduced cooking time, the cookies I've made so far have still been a little dry with convection; thinking of taking the advice of a pastry chef friend to just leave convection off when making cookies. A few minor issues / irritations so far: 1) Slight buzz sometimes when the convection fan is on - this happened more before we got the grates, but even with the grates on, something seems to rattle / buzz occasionally (besides the sound of the fan itself). 2) Burners constantly re-igniting. This happens most with one of the burners (front right), usually when it's just been turned on and when it's turned up all the way. If you back the heat off, it will usually stop re-igniting, and then you can bring the heat back up after a little bit. Seems to happen even when all / most of the holes have flame coming out of them. 3) Occasional constant re-igniting when burners are on simmer... this is probably due to flame from some of the holes going out, so maybe not a "bug", but it's still kind of annoying. On a more cosmetic level, I don't think they did a great job with the center grate for the 30" -- it just doesn't really fit in - the height seems just a tiny bit higher than the grates, and having the solid bar across the sides makes it look awkward. It's almost as if it were designed for a different range - at first, I thought it was actually from the Precision, until I looked at the iamges of the Precision online. Something closer to what Blue Star has (where the cross-hatch pattern kind of "mates" with the grates themselves) would look better IMHO. There is a little bit of "fuzz" with the way the grates fit in the top - I'm not sure whether this is intentional or not, but there's no obvious way to tell exactly how the grates should be positioned (other than trying to visually line them up so the burner's in the center). We didn't want a self-clean range, but the setup for the rails on the self-clean model does look a little nicer. Looks-wise, I don't really love the logo, the black sides of the knobs (and the red knobs are even uglier), or the rounded corners on the bar to open the oven. I know people make a big deal about the look of the Capital, but I have to say that from a purely aesthetic point of view, I personally much prefer the Wolf, or even the Blue Star. But still glad we went with Capital.

Hey Shaotung Mommy, It's a great idea to the get the big blower -- I have a 1400 CFM blower mounted on my roof and it works great. With the blower on it will not heat up your kitchen. Remember to make sure the construction crew avoid sharp turns or too many turns in the blower ductwork. I think I used 10" round duct. If you have upper cabinets make sure they are set back 3" from the sides of the cooktop, so you will have 36 + 3 + 3 = 42" between your upper cabinets, and your range hood should be 42" wide to catch smoke billowing up from the woks. Also make sure the range hood has adequate depth to catch the smoke and heat from the front burners (woks on the front burner probably will extend past the front edge of the cooktop). Most stock range hoods are too shallow for these powerful cooktops. The hood height above the floor and cooktop... I used a piece of foamboard to determine how high I wanted mine. Obviously you want it as close to the cooktop as possible but it needs to be high enough to keep you from banging your head. I've had only one person bump their head on the hood. It didn't draw blood but they didn't do it a second time! The last issue is the make-up air. With a 1400 CFM blower the air has to come from somewhere or it won't be very effective. I was not able to come up with a good make-up air solution so I need to open windows when I turn on the vent fan/blower. It is cold in the winter here near DC, but it will depend on where you are located. I hope you have a window or two in your kitchen, or a doorway to another room where you can open windows. Enjoy! Billy