Chef's Choice: Best Range For Home Kitchen

Our chefs have cooked in many kitchens, from no-expenses spared restaurants to home kitchens designed for personal use. After in-depth discussion, this is what we found.

When considering buying any new kitchen appliance there are so many options out there to choose from, each with their own list of unique features, performance stats or sleek design look. Range cooktops and ovens are no different in this regard; however, making the right decision in this category is crucial because you want your range or oven to give you many years of happy hassle free cooking.  

We asked our chefs to share their opinion on which brands they felt rose to the top of the list and offer the best in performance, design and functionality. Hopefully to save you the time and effort from having to scroll through endless pages of reviews, or meandering through showroom floors only to be left with more uncertainty. 

The chefs of Whole Health Everyday have a unique expertise in this area because we typically work in many of our clients homes and get to use a wide variety of ranges and ovens. So which brands, after being battle tested, are chef approved? We put together our list of the top five brands of Range tops and ovens.

1. Coming in at the top of the list, the creme de la creme to cook on, WOLF Appliances. They stand at the top of the mountain with their unmistakable signature red front dials. If you have heard of WOLF it should be no surprise to know that they are one of the top manufacturers out there. Our chefs really enjoy cooking with them. Chefs felt that WOLF stood apart from the rest of the pack because of their top quality performance and top quality design. WOLF offers you the most even cooking and roasting temperatures with consistent flame, ensuring total control of what you're cooking. They also typically have sleek no-nonsense design that holds up over time, even after years of cooking.
2. Viking (specifically, the gas models with no computers). Coming in second, but with a small caveat is another All-star of the high end appliance world is Viking. Viking has been a leader in the space for a long time and for good reason, they make fantastic appliances that blend that commercial quality with residential design. A very close competitor to WOLF, but our chefs felt that Viking fell short in some areas like design and functionality. Some of the more modern models have computer issues and are a bit bulky and not as easy to clean.
3. Hestan Appliances. Our third choice is a little lesser known but is nothing less than stellar quality in most every way. Hestan is a company that, like the previous two on the list, makes a wide variety of high end kitchen appliances. However, Hestan’s wide variety of available colors and design elements really take them to the next level and the design standard is matched by the performance and functionality. The only reason why we ranked them third is because they tend to be a bit pricer than the others and therefore we think you get comparable performance without breaking your budget.
4. Dacor. Dacor offers amazingly sleek design and specializes in adding all the fun modern features that you can add to your cookware. Higher End models boasting touchscreen displays with automatic cooking features, even options for different cooking techniques like steaming. Dacor also gives you comparable performance and an easy to clean design. 
5. Bluestar. At number 5 we have a fun sleeper that may fly under the radar but offers everything a home chef would want from a quality stove at a better price compared to its competitors above. Bluestar gives you peak performance, functionality even and consistent cooking to help ensure all of your meals are fantastic, while sporting professional grade stainless steel; a chef’s dream workspace.

You have the high quality range, now you need the chef to match!