You can get a higher oven installation with an induction cooktop. Like a 36" Miele with a Miele oven under. That induction cooktop needs about 1-1/2" clearance. Check the installation pdf at AJ Madison.

@dan1888 Gas cooktop is essential for the kind of cooking we do. We can change everything about the remodel except that :)

I have no idea why this is an option if you want an oven below a cooking surface get a range and save big bucks .No cooking appliance in an island is ever a good idea anyway. A gas range is always a nice thing to use and you can choose all gas or gas and electric oven The look will be almost exactly like the second picture .I do agree you need to plan this on an outside wall or at least a place where you can install proper venting.

@User We do have an existing venting which vents out to ceiling. Although this might need to be moved to a new location.

When you say make up air what does that mean? Is it a code requirement in specific states or all over the states?

My recollection is that you don’t want a range because you’re confident you can’t get it to sit flush with the front of the cabinets. What about going at this another way. Instead of doing the range top and oven separately, if you’re concerned about the range depth—then account for that in the depth of the cabinet that is behind the range. As in, rather than having a 12 inch deep cabinet behind the range that opens toward the seating, have something that is only 10 inches deep there. Or whatever you need to make it work. It may require a bit of DIY, but even if you had to build the cabinet box yourself you should be able to affix your cabinetry’s doors and get something to work. Maybe not perfect, but it’s not a high visibility area either (under the counter overhang, in the very center of the island). That may not be the answer, but it may give you another option.

You can’t violate the clearance to combustibles required by the manufacturer. Ranges have to have the doors and seals protrude, so as not to catch the adjacent cabinets on fire.

There ARE a few ranges designed to more less be flush. Designed for looks. You give up power. There are trade offs to everything. You can’t have it all. Decide if you want a usable kitchen that you make pretty, or a pretty kitchen that you can‘t wok fry, only steam fry. And smoke up the house doing that.

If you want a powerful cooking top, that’s a rangetop, or range. Not a cooktop. You can’t have it all. You have to accept tradeoffs. And that range needs to be against a wall. Not on an island. So that some of that cooking vapor has help to channel into the capture zone. You can’t have it all. You have to accept tradeoffs. With a powerful hood, and makeup air. And if you choose island cooking, a bigger and even more powerful hood, and more makeup air. You can’t have it all, you have to accept tradeoffs.

Cooking is only 10% of kitchen activity.

Prep is 70%.

Cleanup is 20%.

Islands are most valuable as large social prep spaces. Not hot, unsafe, and too small for prep, crowded cooking and prep zones.

If you choose island cooking, there are ways to do it that are both functional and safe. They take more space and cost more than putting the cooking zone on the owe meter. You can’t have it all. You have to accept tradeoffs. For island cooking, that’s a lot of added expense added as a tradeoff to do it right.