Several points: 1) Higher cfm will not make up entirely for decreased capture area. I think of blower performance as what determines how quickly smoke etc. that has been captured by the hood can be evacuated. Inadequate cfm means the hood will not clear fast enough to "make room" for incoming smoke, thus leading to spillover. However, an overly small capture area means that some smoke will never enter the hood at all. Remember that smoke diffuses laterally as it rises, and that is compounded if there is any cross-current of room air. As a first approximation, smoke that drifts laterally beyond the edge of your hood is lost no matter how high the cfm rating is. Kind of like trying to go faster on an icy road by installing a bigger engine, when the limiting factor is the spinning tires. Re haus proud's comments: all of the major hood manufacturers other than VAH allow remote blower installation. In the case of the OP, though, it sounds like he/she is venting through a side wall. That eliminates possibility of using a blower mounted inside. Only remote option would be to mount an external fan on the side of the house, which on the first floor of a house would look pretty weird. "Air intake surface covering entire underside of hood"? Isn't that all of them, except for some of the "Euro-style" hoods that have a flat piece of glass extending beyond the edges of the hood? Otherwise, the entire underside of any hood is "capture area." However, that is not related to airflow noise. That is almost all generated at the actual point where the ducting connects to the hood. "Forcing" the air through the much narrower diameter duct causes acceleration and turbulence, thus the noise. And remember that the largest duct in any standard hood is 10'', so that's pretty much fixed independent of brand. weissman: my experience differs somewhat. I have a 42'' 600 cfm VAH over a 36'' Dacor cooktop. I clearly get spillover. May reflect how I cook: I love to sear (favorite salmon recipe involves preheating dry pan on max heat for 4 minutes then dumping in fish). I'm hoping the new hood with 1200 cfm remote blower will do better over the Lacanche, and if I could, I would choose a different hood with higher cfm over the Dacor as well. Agree totally that increasing the depth from standard 24'' to 27'', or at least mounting the hood out an extra 3'' or so will partially compensate for the narrow width. amysrq: re choice of hoods--all the companies you name are good choices. As always I'll throw in a plug for Modern-Aire (Modern-Aire) with whom I've had an excellent experience. I know others have liked Metallo Arts for really wild, over the top designs. Any of these companies would make a good hood for you. I think it's more of a design decision: find one you like the looks of and you should do fine.

The crux here is that you believe that all 36" ranges cost $5000. As Clooney mentioned, I just checked on AJ Madison and there are several 36" gas ranges for well under that, for example a beautiful Bertazzoni for $3000. Also, there are some people on the Appliances Forum who love their NXR ranges, also $3000. I am assuming you are looking at an all-gas range. If you are looking at Dual Fuel, you will pay up for that. But IMHO, a dual fuel upcharge is not worth it. There are more electronics to break, and the idea that a gas oven is not as good as an electric oven is outmoded. I would not, if I were you, trade down from a 36" range to a 30" range. Also, since you said there are built-in cabinets above the range, what about the cabinets on either side of the range? Are those base cabinets staying, so that you are going to have to add something to fill in the 6" if you go from 36" range to 30" range?

For an island, bigger is better! Ranges & cooktops in islands (or peninsulas) need even better venting than those against walls. There are more and stronger air currents over an island than against a wall...so you have to accommodate those air currents. This means a hood at least 6" wider than your range/cooktop and at least 24" deep (27" is even better). If you plan to mount your hood higher than the recommended height (which many people do b/c they don't want to "spoil their view"), then also get a stronger fan so you have a better chance of capturing the effluent (i.e., smoke, steam, grease, long-term odors, etc.) before it escapes into the rest of your house...probably 900 to 1000-cfms, at least. (BTW...the strong the fan, the lower the setting you have to use on a daily basis...and the quieter it will be b/c you're running it on a lower setting.)

I don't think you will notice after a while. Mine is off by about 1" on the left, because the *&^&%$ range hood is a full inch less wide than the rangetop (I swear I bought a 48" range hood, not 47"!). But then again, we are DIY so I wasn't about to make my poor DH uninstall then reinstall all of the lower cabinets after it took him a full day in the first place; if we were paying someone for it, it might be a different story. If you choose to keep it, just make sure you don't do a stacked tile BS - you would probably definitely notice it then. Example of what not to do: http://www.peeltile.com/img/media/backsplash/layout.jpg