I think it is an interesting concept: I am not sure how high you would mount this so the ventilation portion was most effective. I think the shelf would end up too high for a microwave and dangerously high for a Salamander. I would hate to be taking broiling hot things out of a salamander at face level.

It could be nice for someone who wanted something out of the ordinary, but the shelf may just end up being a shelf.

Watch the video of him searing steaks. All the smoke/steam rising up past the front of his microwave speaks for itself. I'm surprised they actually "aired" that.

On the videos it didn't seem like the vent-a-shelf was even working. I could not see venting either, so perhaps it is recirculating.

On second look you may be right. Not 100% sure but it would make sense, to keep down the noise for the video.

palimpsest - Any salamander I've ever seen was mounted under a hood.

You are right, it doesn't make any sense to have a cooking appliance like that Over a hood. I was stuck on the idea of something like that being 5 feet off the ground. This seems like a variation on the modern/minimal wall mounted hoods that are slanted over the cooking surface but do not have a canopy parallel to the cooking surface. So it has a shelf on it, but the utility of the shelf..(?).

Yeah, now you got me looking at P-A site and I see they advertise the ability to put a salamander up there.

Unfortunately the spec sheet for Bluestar's salamander states, "This unit must be installed with a hood." Though, to be fair, they don't specify that it must be installed under a hood. LOL!