"What would you say is the biggest difference between the gas or electric for the main oven" There are some very specific differences. Most people like their food to be browned because it adds flavor to what you are cooking. In order for food to be brown, the Maillard reaction must take place. In order for this to happen, need to evaporate water. I would look at what happens in either oven. In a gas oven, there is moisture released in the combustion of gas but because there is much more ventilation in a gas oven, it and the moisture from what you are cooking are ventilated out so you have superficial drying of your food which promotes browning. This will also add more heat to your kitchen. An electric oven is more of a closed system so will hold on to the humidity more. You can increase the superficial evaporation in an electric oven by increasing the heat or using the fan. In reading some marketing materials, Wolf and Capital, come to mind, they will state that gas is "moist heat". In the past that was the belief. That would be true of the flame but does not take into consideration the oven as a whole and the effect it has on what you are cooking. They also seem to think that the external moisture from the "moist heat" produces moist meat when it would have nothing to do with it. It is a function of the internal temperature. There are certain irreversible physiological changes to meat as the temperature rises which dictate the amount of moisture in meat fibers. Some also attribute crispiness to the moistness but again is is drying that produces that. On on the other hand, an electric oven can hold on to moisture which can be a benefit in baking because it promotes starch gelatinization. It can affect the amount of rise, browning and crust formation. This is why bread bakers add moisture at the beginning of baking and/ or use a cloche in a gas oven. The cloche is then removed or moisture allowed to escape and the drier environment promotes browning.

We've gone back and forth and back and forth with this exact same decision - Sully vs. Citeaux. In the end, we're leaning towards the Citeaux. Definitely contact Elisa at Frenchranges.com. She'll see if there is anyone in your area who has one and then you can visit one in person. The Citeaux is new, so the only caveat is you may not be able to see one live unless you're willing to go to NYC. If you have specific pans you're worried about using, send the dimensions to Elisa and she will see if the pan fits or not. For example, I wondered if my popover pan would fit in the vertical convection oven and it does. She had the technical department check it to confirm. Also, one of the things that swayed me to the Citeaux was Chef Marty (on the Lacanche thread) talking about how he uses the warming cupboard to slow cook and I can totally see my husband doing this. Let us know what you choose! Here is a link that might be useful: Popover Pan

Hi Nicoleradams, Just curious - what did you end up choosing? We are in a similar decision point right now, planning on a Lacanche Vougeot for our kitchen and thinking of a Miele CSO XXL for the spice kitchen. Based on reviews, it seems like the Miele is fantastic for re-warming food, but the online manual suggests that it doesn't actually have an official keep warm setting (beyond a 15 minute default after food is done cooking). I guess people could just turn it on to a fairly low temperature with some steam/humidity to keep things moist?

Hello Ilve owners and aspiring Ilve owners! We purchased our 30" dual-fuel Majestic oven just over one year ago. It is dark green with brass trim, and it looks custom made for our design scheme, which is wonderful. Our major issue with the oven is that its internal fan which cools the electronics as necessary is very noisy. In the beginning, it didn't go on unless we were using the oven at a relatively high temperature, but now it goes on every time we use the oven. The fan stays on as the oven cools down as well, and recently, it cycles on and off multiple times for quite awhile during the cooling off period. Has anyone else experienced this?