Cat Mom, I really liked the display too. The chef did about 3 minutes on SubZero and almost nothing on the gas ranges, but everything was there for fondling, measuring, getting the feel of size/looks. HPX, I'm with you on the ovens. They were really great. Plllog, I'm still figuring out the other attendees too! There were maybe 20 of us and I spoke in some depth to six people (I got nosy and was all "so when do you break ground on your renovation? What are you in the market for? Did anything you saw here tonight change your mind?") So sweeping generalizations from small sample size follow. The crowd skewed older - mid-50s and up, with four of us I'd peg for younger than that. I wouldn't recognize a designer outfit if it smacked me in the head, but based on the jewelry, handbags and plastic surgery I saw, this was an upper-middle-income-plus crowd. Of the six I spoke with, three people (one couple, one woman) were buying appliances for their second homes. One couple was proudly buying an entire Wolf/SZ suite of appliances, everything from microwave to outdoor grill, and the guy got a little testy when I asked what other brands he was looking at, as in "what else has this kind of name recognition?" And many of the participants treated this as a cooking class. Besides the from-scratch-cookies amazement and the salmon thing, they were quizzing the chef on the best pans to buy and how many minutes per pound to cook a Thanksgiving turkey. I got the impression that most people were looking at their purchases as status first, cooking capability a distant second. The ovens would be nice for the caterer to use, but the interest level dropped off significantly as the chef went into detail on the differences between bake, roast and convection bake. These were casual cooks at best.

You have lotsa options besides Wolf, especially ovens. Just follow one lady's experience with her Wolf ovens on Garden Web, She is on at least her 3rd Wolf oven now. Compare that to my nearly 7 year old Electrolux oven that has never had a service call and still looks and performs great. Also note the posts from a user that has both an Electrolux oven and a Wolf Oven---The Elux is a wall oven and the Wolf oven is part of a range. Also there were at least 3 different posters that had problems with the Wolf door latch and some with various error codes. True there are many many Wolf ovens that work well and are relatively trouble free, as there are a few Elux ovens that have had problems (Usually those made around 2009-2010), but it you compare the number of Elux ovens sold, (They are sold in virtually every Sears store), plus they are about half the price of a Wolf, one would suspect that Elux sells a lot more ovens than does wolf. "Most folks" will only post if there is a problem with the oven, so taking that in account, one would deduce that far more Elux ovens are in operation with no problems than there are Wolf ovens with no problems. Both ovens are made in the US. Good luck with your hunt! Gary

We're not pros by any means but we purchased a 30" Bluestar Platinum when we moved last year. Originally we were looking at Wolf until learning about the flaking blue enamel on this site. Wekick's posts on this topic over the years have been very helpful. Before moving we had the 36" Sub Zero all freezer and 36" all refrigerator and appreciated how well they worked and Customer Service was fantastic. It's very disappointing that the SZ side of the business is so responsive while the Wolf side is dismal. In our new place we went with the SUB Zero BI 42" model. It was a real adjustment to the smaller size but this has worked well for us. As for the BlueStar - DH loves the big burner for his wok, and the oven has been perfect for his bread, tarts, pies, cookies etc. We also have a 30" Thermador wall oven which I tend to use because the height is better for me. The HVAC fellow who installed the MUA is married to a chef and they both cook. They were using a Garland from a local restaurant that went out of business and he was impressed with the simplicity of the BlueStar. I've posted these before - Ina Gartin's Tatin and bread.

V Barr Is that the 36" French Door or 42"? Did you have the cabinets built out to be flush? Looking at the 42" SS but it sticks out so far I really don't like it. If I get the panel ready I can get the cabinet built out so it looks flush I think. I really like the integrated look but I don't have space for 2 columns.