The resurrection of this thread is perfect timing. I'm planning on a six burner 36 inch Culinarian range, and had been up in the air about an additional oven. DW and I were in an appliance store in Tampa yesterday, and since we don't do a tremendous amount of baking, the Miele Speed Oven and a warming drawer seem to be a good complement for us to the large gas oven of the range (whether an additional full size wall oven, in addition or instead of the Speed Oven, would be better or resale purposes at some point down the road is another matter). In comparing the two, my bride much preferred the more conventional controls of the Chef series SO. Even though she's still likely to want a dedicated microwave oven (doesn't trust that the SO will do that and hold up over time), she didn't like having to push the Master Chef menu buttons through about three levels to get to the point where she could enter the numbers for a straight microwave task. OTOH, the combination of different modes one can use is so staggering to an untutored barbarian such as me that I have to wonder whether the Master Chef would ultimately show me how to get that much more value/use from the SO. For example, DW likes to take a frozen filet of salmon and nuke it. To me, it's hot and edible, but that's about all I can say for it. I can imagine the Master Chef first defrosting, then roasting that same block of salmon in a much more appealing fashion than straight nuking. I just wonder how many pieces of fish I'd ruin if experimenting with the Chef oven before breaking the code for times and modes of cooking. :-) I grill 90% of the fish I prepare (gas grill or over hardwood charcoal on the back porch), so the oven roasting would definitely be a new experience for me.

Well, my favorite idea - cooking for them and then making a basket with booze & such got shot down fast. "I'm not going to cook for a CHEF!" said one of the participants. Oh well, we're back to square one. If you have any more ideas, please let me know. I'm guessing we're going to end up with gift cards simply because we won't be able to come to an agreement on anything else. Sweeby, We go to Damian's. We have seven attending and that's about the limit the table can accomodate. But I'm sure as little as two would be ok in there. However, if you're going to do it, get some friends to go with you. It takes up the entire evening and it's more fun with more people. IIRC the price is $75 + tax & tip. It might be slightly higher than that but I'm sure it's under $100. That does not include liquor of course. We end up spending somewhere around $130ish per person, that includes cocktails and wine. Although it's not a complete list, b4-u-eat.com has some chef tables listed, and you can google for more places that have them. I do highly recommend Damian's though. The food is fab. Let me know if you end up going! Here is a link that might be useful: chef tables list

Antss is correct. I have a Miele speedcook and it functions superbly for my needs. It does have a one minute button on the front panel. It is really easy to get used to. Start everything out at 30 seconds and see how it goes. I put bacon in there to reheat at 1min and there were pieces of paper left in the microwave. 20 secs and it was perfect! The speedcook function works really quickly. The miele manual has some guides but it still takes some getting used to. I used it to bake bread the other day and it was wonderful. I am going to order an extra swizzle stick (the stick you put in liquids to heat it up) because I can never find mine when I am looking for it. They run about $4. The only thing that concerns me is the glass tray that is used in the oven. I worry that it will break easily. So far, it has proved much tougher than I expected. I have used a Le Creuset pan and several porcelain pans full of food without issue. Good luck!

As someone who doesn't like design shows, I'm really looking forward to a new cooking channel! I can't tolerte most of the cooks on The Food Channel. I don't like how they use film for the shows instead of tapes, it makes a big difference. Paula Deen's show uses tape, the others are film, I think. The Bark hotdog sounds like fun...coming from a hotdog girl! Just no low talkers like the Contessa or whatever her name is. lol