Looking for help with selecting the best bang for our buck. We're renovating our kitchen and are getting a 36" Thermador Gas Cooktop (Model: SGSX365FS).
There will be a 36" cabinet above the range and we will be venting to the outside.

It's not clear to me what would be a minimum cfm for the hood given our range. Any advice/product recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!!

In your case I would look at something in the 600-700 cfm range.

Some local building codes require something called make-up air(MUA) past a certain limit of CFM.It requires you bring in fresh air from the outside to balance the air being exhasted. If that is the case you may want to get something at your local limit because it can get expensive.

A lot of trade people buy recommend Broan/Best by Broan. American company sells some cheap stuff made in China/Eastern Europe and some better stuff made in Italy.

Broan also has a cheap MUA unit that is compatible with their hoods and meets most building code specifications that require MUA. Might be a way to get a more powerfull hood on the cheap if you have local MUA codes.

A good bang for the buck hood is Kobe. Japanese company product made in Taiwan. Another good range hood comapny is Zephyr, a Korean company that makes its hoods in Korea.

There are some generic Chinese made hoods with really good specifications but questionable quality.

American made hoods tend to fall into either the bargain basement stuff made with Chinese parts that are not much better than the generic/Chinese brands or the Ultra Premium hand made hoods. These are very $$$.