If you can identify the mag the article came from, there is normally a listing of manuf. in the back referencing page numbers. I really like the idea, hope you come up with a source.

The reason most people don't do custom configurations like that most of the time isn't a lack of creativity. It's a lack of space and the added expense. You just went 5-10x over what a conventional setup will cost you, and took away from the space needed for other tasks. Actual cooking is only 10% of working in the kitchen, and increasing the space devoted to it doesn't make a lot of sense in the average or small sized kitchen. Increasing the expense of an already expensive remodel is something that most people's budgets can't handle too well.

Should you decide to do this, you will need something completely custom for ventilation, not just the additional hob expense. Since most prep (70% of time spent) happens adjacent to water, I don't see that increasing the prep space without a prep sink in the mix too. Put it straight in the middle or to one side of hob row, and it can act as a pot filler as well as the place to wash the greens. (Not too close to the hobs, or you've got a burn hazard though.) It will increase the safety landing zone for your pots though, as long as that space isn't occupied by cutting boards or serving dishes. Trailrunner has a modular cooking station with deep fryer and cooking hob under a single large custom vent, so it can work if planned correctly for all of the relevant aspects.

They look like Miele Combisets.

Gaggenau used to make a linear cooktop, but I don't think they do any longer. In the 1960s there were a couple of near-linear cooktops.

Those are the gaggenau combi installed incorrectly with the controls on the left rather than in front. These are the vario units. I would do this with two induction single burners and two wok burners from Miele (15" wide for each). An easy to swallow cost of around $6000. Great idea though if you have 60" to spare for the cooktop only. You could also do this with the Gaggenau but their induction units are even more expensive.

I've cooked in commercial kitchens where there was a wide lip in front of the burners and a single row of gas burners ... It's convenient because you can do small amounts prep and staging on the lip and toss things in as you go.

But it would take extra counter feet and better vents. And way more money

I think Wolf also has modular units.

If I were tall enough to want to have prep space in front of my cooktop (which makes sense, functionally--and not just because I like to prep under the hood), I'd probably just use an extra deep counter and set a 6 burner cooktop back a ways. That would look weird though. What I've actually done is prep on my induction cooktop while cooking on it. Maybe I'm ready for zoneless induction!

If you look at old kitchen ads from the 50s and 60s, you'd see setups like this, sometimes wrapping around corners and always looking dangerous. And always looking cool.

A two burner Combiset is 20" deep, so two mounted sideways would be a few inches over 40" and give you four burners.

If you kept it at that you would not need custom ventilation, just a 48" inch range hood designed for a 48" range or cooktop. Not inexpensive, but not custom.

Or you could just do the Summit GC443BG which is already set up that way and is 43"

Here is a link that might be useful: Summit 4-in-a-row burners

And Gaggenau makes an electric smoothtop that's 13" x 36"

Fori, I too put some prep items on the front burners of my smoothtop, but it's not induction so only non-meltable things! And I tower over my mom and MIL at 5'4", so I can even see into the spaghetti pot on the back burner, and that's not even when I cook in stilettos. Which is never.

I was thinking 2 2-burners in a rotated L, 2 parallel and one perpendicular, so 3 burners marching along the wall with one in front. No more width than a 6-burner cooktop. I can't see why venting is such an issue; couldn't it use the same vent as a 6-burner range? They are pretty wide.

Alas, cost seems to trump function and safety and form (splatters on my shirtfront).

But, if it DIDN'T cost more, even for the vent, would you like burners in a line?

Personally, yes, if I had the room for it.

But I also cooked in a kitchen where the island had a cooktop (overhead vented) that was accessible from both sides, and I liked that, too because someone could stand on the secondary side of the range, not reach too far, and stir something that needed to be stirred constantly and for a long time, while the faster stuff was happening on the front side. It was further from the back edge from the front, but not the ten feet or whatever it is that people insist is necessary now.

It's actually pretty common in Europe. I'd love to be able to get something like these:

Pal- 10 ft. LOL

Island cooktops are a great option, when they're well planned. Personally, a raised bar behind it would be fine for me...mainly for outlets on the backsplash. Newspapers can be read at the table :)

My concern about any unusual configuration is the irreversibility of it, and the limited options presented at replacement time, which, with todays appliances may come much sooner than when you want to remodel the kitchen.

I knew Two families growing up, both who had the GE wall-hung refrigerator, one of which was already completely dead and the other which worked okay in the fridge compartment and not-at-all in the freezer. There was no place in either kitchen for a conventional fridge. One family was able to remodel slightly and squeeze in a 27" Subzero, which has it's own limits with replacement, the other family used the wall hung fridge like cabinets and stuck a refrigerator in the eating part of the kitchen.

At least if you go with a conventional range or cooktop in a conventional size, you don't have to pray that the few companies that make such a thing still do, when something goes wrong, or be faced with a remodel.

First of all, I loathe elevated burner grates because a pot can slip off those really easily when you're moving things around and there's not much space in the front. Also, you are constantly leaning in and over pots on burners set in the center like that.

I think this is one really bad design -- not intrinsically but how this is installed. It looks like a catering set up and it wouldn't surprise me if there was a full range in there somewhere else.

As for burners in a row, why not? But at least choose Wolf wok burners with flat grates (or any modular with flat grates).

The loss with this arrangement is the ability to move things across the stove easily. However, another issue with this arrangement is no bridge -- i.e. no griddle use.

With the functionality of a 22K "wok" burner, the idea is to be able to use a 14" braiser or a 20 quart stockpot. That's nearly the diameter of the unit.

So care must be taken.

This kitchen is in a NYC neighborhood with a lot of private townhouses that are prized as family residences because they are near all the private schools. You're in the 6-8 million house range here.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wolf 15

This post was edited by rococogurl on Sun, Sep 8, 13 at 18:44

I'm thinking the induction duos would be the way to go. One parallel, then one perpendicular, so three march along the wall with one outlier in front. That way, a normal (well, for a 6-burner range) vent hood should do fine.

As it is, I pretend. Like Fori, I set stuff on the front burners, but only unmeltables since it's not induction! Rococo, there isn't another range in the pictured kitchen, this is it. I agree about the elevated hobs, not my cup of tea at all! The linear layout is about the only element I liked in this kitchen. Writersblock,

Palimpsest, you have a good point about replacement. On the other hand, we just replaced a perfectly normal oven with another and had to somewhat hack up the cabinet for it, not to mention upping to 40 amps! Not to mention, a (long) while back, phone jacks were 4-prong. So, everything changes anyway :) as I watch Game of Thrones on Blu-ray (we had to replace our dvd player) on a flatscreen tv in a cabinet built for a tube.

Good thing I'm thinking of my fantasy kitchen not a real one, I'd be broke already LOL!

I'm with Live Oak on this one.

While I see the point, this configuration would "eat up" an excessive amount of counterspace and under-counter storage. And it would be very expensive.

Of course, I prefer to cook on the front burners (perhaps because I'm short and can reach them better), so maybe I don't see the point quite as much as you do.

My suggestion: For the few times you actually use more than two burners at once, gather a nice collection of countertop-cookers. Some electric fry pans, for example, (not the square ones sold at Walmart) are quite nice. This would allow you to use the burners you prefer on the stovetop . . . ignore the ones you don't like as much . . . buy only standard items, which are affordable . . . yet still have the ability to bring out additional cooktop items when it suits your purposes.

bpath, with respect, based on the two photos the designer put up it's hard to know what else is in that kitchen because it's two views of the island. You could be right but without a video of the whole space it's a guess. But it doesn't matter. You'd do what you'd do.

Darn, just when I think I've got a dreamy idea, space and budget wake me up to reality. Guess I'll put this idea on the back burner, so to speak. Better turn it off, first.

It was an old white enamel stove about 40" from the 1950s