Muskokascp - its fun trying to figure out where people are from from their blog names. Do I assume you are from Ontario? Anyway, I bought my gaggenau steam oven today (yahoo!) I still haven't finalized floor plan or chosen cabinets or anything, so it will sit in the garage for awhile. But the price was too good to pass up. Having said that, I did phone around, and found another floor model which you might be interested in. It is at Midland Appliances in Vancouver. They are moving to a new store and clearing current floor models including the plumbed in combi steam oven and the standard convection oven. They are both right hand hinged (which would not have worked for me). Full warranty, though they have been used. Phone number 604-876-8589. I talked to Charlie. Good luck.

Fori, cheaping out is how I got into this! I was originally going to get the Varios, but much as I like the quality and design of Gaggenau I was not going from silly money to you've gotta be kidding money when they did the 38% price increase in an odd month. I finally found someone who will send me the 24" Gaggenau, and because of the differences in duty, etc., it's going to cost the same or maybe up to 10% more, when all is said and done, than the Miele, and I'm willing to pay a little for one LESS burner!! (That's like a quarter of what the same number of burners do in the Varios--and I don't need the very cool wok ring because I'm not a big wokker.) Can you see me doing the happy dance? I get seven more inches of counter without tiling over one of the hobs!!!

Hi Susan, glad to see that you made it over here with your question. :) I think you know that I almost bought exactly those units (in that year's model) when I did my kitchen. It was only a massive price change that scared me off. I'm very happy with my final decision, but the Varios are very nice. Is there any way you can take a trip to BC (or anywhere) and actually see them installed and working? To put your pan on, and feel how it works? It would help. Also, look to see if there are any user videos on YouTube or similar. Things to be aware of re cabinetry. You really do need to mount the knobs on the face, and you'll need full clearance for the guts attached to them. They're not shallow sitters. You'll also need a heat shield. That is, a piece of plywood underneath, between them and your drawer/cabinet. The distributor here recommended using half a lemon to scrub down the teppanyaki while it's still warm, then wipe out and rinse with a sponge. I'm thinking lemons, which grow on trees here, might be more dear where you live. I'm sure a little vinegar on a sponge would do the same thing, but you might want to check it out. The 2 burner gas cooktop (I don't know if it has changed but it looks the same) was spacious and had lovely open burners with spread inner and outer jets. It's probably a pain to clean between the brass and the stainless, but I thought it was a great burner, and plenty of pan space for such a small unit. The current specs are one gonzo burner and one low heat burner. You can use the teppanyaki for keeping pans warm, like on a French top. I had the most trouble deciding between the two element induction and the gonzo wok unit. I chose the latter because I do cook for masses sometimes, and use my (Le Creuset steel) stock pot a lot. They're just too big for the 8.25" element (they'd work but with a distinct hot spot over the element). I also thought the smaller element wasn't that useful for my way of cooking. This has been borne out in the way I use the three element Gaggenau top I did get. I use the 8" element most, because it has more oomph than the similarly sized one in the middle of the double ring, but I use the double ring a lot with my stock pot, bean pot and five quart braiser, and I rarely use my small element. Sometimes I just need another pot, but of choice I use it when I use a one quart saucepan, which is pretty rare. I use the gas (Wolf domino) far less than I would have guessed. I choose it for things I want to toast in the hot air it puts out, mostly with a small grill/griddle plate, for things like tortillas, and hotdogs/hamburgers. It's also good for charring vegetables and any other kind of flamey thing. I do sometimes wish I had the teppanyaki, but I got a round Demeyere stovetop teppanyaki that's designed for induction and fits on my double ring (it's discontinued--I'd been lusting for it, missed the sell off, and had to get it off eBay). It does fine, but isn't nearly as convenient (I do have a lemon tree...). I have a cast iron Le Creuset wok that was on a super sale (they were remodelling). It's interesting. It's useful. It's not ideal, but it works. I think I would have liked the Gaggenau wok arrangement a lot. I think you'll have plenty of cooking space with the three units, so long as either the gas or induction is a two pot unit. I'm sure you can make do with both as single pot units, using the teppanyaki to fill in when you need somewhere to put another pot or two. When you're designing your cabinet, do try to leave a little extra room in case you need some added supports. The one thing I didn't get to do hands on is see how they handled installed butted up against each other with the connecting strips. That is, I got to touch but not play. Most of my demos had them each separate. I think it was fine. They're wide enough not to create a lot of slop, except maybe for the wok handle. That's all I can think of. Feel free to ask questions. We're lucky to have a distributor within driving distance. Have you thought of asking the Gaggenau service near you if there's anyone in the area who has Varios? And if there is, if they could arrange a visit for you?

Portable induction can show you how the pot heating rather than the stove works, but it's usually underpowered and doesn't have sufficient number of heat levels to give you an easy experience cooking I have a seven year old Gaggenau 24" induction from Europe, and I LOVE it. It's basically the same as the 36" unit they were selling here at the time, but 2/3 of it. Plenty of power, great ease of use. Love the magnet knob. The two cooktops you've described may be the most cost effective. The Vario units are expensive, and I backed out of getting them when there was a huge price jump. OTOH, you might be very happy with something like the Vario 400 two burner gas or induction, gas wok, induction+wok unit and teppanyaki. Or do you really need ten pots going at once? I have the three element induction and a Wolf two burner gas and rarely have more than 3 pots going at once. I think I did have five going once, but usually four is the maximum, and that's for feeding dozens with multiple courses. Maybe you need to use an installed induction unit a number of times to see how you like the real thing? I wouldn't pay Gaggenau prices for a speed oven or warming oven. They won't do anything that a less expensive brand wouldn't do as well or better, and we're not into badge matching to look like the builder got a discount here. :) I originally thought I had to have the Gaggenau warming drawer because only a few had the features I wanted, and Gaggenau had the open sides. That was another idea that flew when the price jump happened, but I'm very happy with the Monogram I got instead. It has the correct temperature range for my purposes (the most important feature) the moist (closed) or dry (open) vent lever, and I wasn't worried about looks because it took a custom panel front to match the cabinets. I got the Advantium 240V for a speed oven, because that's the one with fully implemented speed cooking (big learning curve on that) and it also works well as a plain convection oven. The combi-steam oven is wonderful! I would have liked to have the ovens side by side for utility, but it really needed another inch or two between door and window. Stacking also made more sense because they're meant to be stacked with the controls lining up in the middle. I thought it might look stupid next to each other. Your plan with the warming drawer might look better, however, and might be a reason to get the Gaggenau to match. BUT You can rise bread in the ovens (check the manuals for your models--my regular and combi-steam both have settings for it), and usually the best place in a kitchen layout for the ovens is off to the side and out of the way, since one doesn't generally do a lot of back and forthing with an oven the way one does for a cooktop and sink. That's the worst place for a warming drawer. The best location for a warming drawer is either next to or under a cooktop or near the table, or somewhere in a straight path between. At the stove is for receiving pots to keep warm (though you can also do that on the low induction setting), to gather baskets full of pancakes, etc., to all sit down together, or to put the various pots in for dishing up. Near the table makes keeping serving dishes warm easy. In between is a bit less convenient for either but right in the traffic path so useful to both. Off to the other side with the ovens is just inconvenient for everything and makes it little used. Warming drawers also get the best use if they're at counter level or below a utensil drawer, rather than low. In all, I think the best thing for you to do is go to a showroom where they're installed and play cook for awhile, or if they're live, cook for real. Also, read through the manuals off the Gaggenau site, and the blog at Purcell Murray (California distributors) and try to get a sense of how the pieces work and what they can do. If you're in California, definitely make an appointment at Purcell Murray to see, and maybe take in some demos.