HOME BORN IN THE USA

When people come to our house for dinner, everyone ends up in the kitchen. Smug at first, I attributed what seemed a friendly enough development to the olfactory stimuli wafting from the evening’s cuisine, or the inherent at-home ha-ha’s as my husband and I adjust dual traffic patterns and pots and pans in our barely adequate galley. But a few good friends often swell to a snug little crowd in there. Puzzled, I investigated the comfort level of the seating and even the aesthetic appeal of the decor in the roomier, more public areas of the house, and found no cause for evacuation en masse. Eventually I formed a hypothesis. The kitchen, even our small, unremodeled one, wins out as the most soothing place to rub elbows and not miss out on the action surrounding what’s cooking. The kitchen is what’s left of the hearth that used to be home. And it’s apparently where Americans are going in great numbers to find comfort in other humans and get involved in the communal show and tell and taste of good food.

Manufacturers of residential kitchen equipment have been quick to digest all this. A tantalizing profusion of professional quality appliances are finding a home in any kitchen. Add that to the fun fact that according to stats from the American Association of General Contractors, in 1985, for the first time ever, American homeowners spent more on renovating and remodeling the homes they had than on buying new ones. And one of the most often remodeled rooms in those homes was the kitchen. Americans are cooking up a storm with family and friends. We’ve educated our palates and made dietary input a priority, and we’ve made it our business to become more knowledgeable about the equipment available to ease our gourmet pursuits. We know we want professional quality appliances and ac-couterments, customized if possible, and we want it to look good.

For a while, the Europeans had culinary chic sewn up. Form followed function and the Euro-imports looked great: exteriors were designed to be sleek, subdued, elegant; the manual control systems were tech-y works of art. But though they won in the sizzle and style department, European appliances have been-and with the dollar on a downer, shall remain-pricier than their continental counterparts. They also rarely met the American preference for mega-wattage cooking in big pots, or user-friendly self-this-and-that features. And, just as servicing a limited edition Volvo in Mineral Wells can be a nightmare, replacing a thermostat on a slick, matte black oven made in Milano is enough to send even the most aesthetically inclined at-home chef running back to a Norge.

In the last two years, the American appliance contingent has made Iaccocan strides toward remedying this design dilemma. In fact, some of the most celebrated marriages in the USA over the last year took place in the kitchen, blissful unions of European-style design and componentry options with all-American technology, convenience features, and serviceability. What this means is whether your vision of kitchen nirvana involves a country chateau in Provence, the intergalactic galley from 2001, or a Southwestern-style cucina, there’s an American appliance line that will accommodate.

The entire subject is worth a lunch with your architect or designer to sort through offerings from the major manufacturers, most of whom are attempting to get with the Euro-style program. Three manufacturers are offering especially well-designed new lines worth more than a one-stop shop. Monogram is General Electric’s built-in, customized system designed and manufactured in the USA. The line includes an induction cooktop, a standard oven and a convection microwave oven, a simple, stellar, motor-on-top, side-by-side refrigerator/freezer unit with extra-large all-American capacity, and a dishwasher-all available custom-matched to almost any design scheme, standard in black or pristine white glass fronts. Euroflair is Frigidaire’s new line, the result of an intensive three-year design/manufacturing project produced under the umbrella of A. B. Electrolux, the European concern that added Frigidaire to its American appliance group that includes Tappan, Westinghouse, and Kelvinator. Frigidaire programmed Euro-flair with all the American must-haves, and Electrolux performed the design and production magic. The results are a stunning line that offers a full range of kitchen appliances including a refrigerator, freezer, and glass-front wine cooler. In 1986 and 1987, Thermador introduced Europa (with tempered black glass fronts) and Europa II (with tempered gray glass fronts), both intelligently programmed appliance lines designed to meet or beat the design and high-end features coining from Europe. This summer, Thermador follows with The White Collection, a complete appliance ensemble that includes a convection MicroThermal Oven and a warming drawer, all of clean-lined, white tempered glass surfaces.