Lacanche or everhot?

[TerfranosaurusVagina]

I love the thought of both of them so tell me which I should buy... I can't have both!!

Its between a Lacanche Citeaux and an Everhot 120.

I love baking cakes, sourdough, sweet stuff, pizzas, italian dishes, indian dishes and batch cooking. We often entertain up to 16 people for dinner so needs to roast well! Is it true that Everhot gives soggy roast veg?

We moved last year, leaving a Lacanche Macon behind, as no gas where we moved to. Loved my Lacanche, for its power and simplicity. No gimmicks or gadgets. We had the traditional hob, and liked it so much we added another cast iron plate to the right of it.
Had an Everhot 110+ (no induction model) delivered 3 weeks ago, after a year stuck with a ceramic hob and single oven. Currently enjoying the Everhot ( though slightly worried about electricity bills!) but have yet to scratch the surface of what it can do. The heat is powerful but doesn't dry food out. Build quality is lovely, and customer service second to none. If you want advice or info look at the Everhot Discussion Group on FB, very active and helpful.
Happy choosing.

Thanks Walkingbacktohappiness
thats very helpful! I went to our local everhot dealer who agreed to let me use their working model, so I went back and baked 2 sourdoughs, a banana loaf, a cooked breakfast for the staff, a big batch of cookies and an italian beef polpettone!!
The bread rose magnificently (though I burnt the bottoms - not used to the cooking style!), the banana loaf was the moistest I've ever made, and though I fluffed the hot plate eggs, the rest turned out great.
I've reluctantly decided against it though as my kitchen is south facing and I came out of the showroom sweating like a pig on a mildly warm day. I can't look like I'm in a sauna when I'm entertaining!!
Perhaps I could pick up a cheap 2nd hand 60 model to put in the utility room while the kitchen is being bashed to bits...
What was the lacanche like to clean? Especially the stovetop? I'm thinking of getting the traditional top and extra cast iron plate too. Love the versatility.

Wow, nice to have a play first. Must admit I’m still getting used to the less dry heat. But am happy overall so far. My kitchen isn’t that warm normally, as very well insulated, and am only really running one oven at full heat at the moment, but can imagine it might be a bit much in a south facing kitchen.

I honestly loved my Lacanche. Would have brought it here, or had another, but don't like induction much, and no gas. The traditional plates were easy to clean, you can just use a green scourer on them, if necessary, and the stainless steel was fabulous, such high quality. If you have a gas oven, be warned, the markings aren’t the same as UK gas marks, but there's a conversion in the manual. Tricked me for a while. The gas oven is fabulous for sourdough.

if you're considering it, we also had an extractor to match, really nice quality.

Good luck!

Thanks for that. I think I'm going to go for the extractor too. Did you find it a lot more powerful than the average one you get with a hob top?

I have an everhot 150i. I wouldn’t buy it if I was making the decision again.

Does anyone have experience of the Lacanche Macon with an induction hob? Debating between that and perhaps the Rangemaster Elise. Nervous about getting a gas cooker given we are trying to decrease our overall dependence on gas.

Sorry, meant Lacanche Cluny, not Macon!

Can you say why not?

We are thinking of a 100i. No mains gas where we are otherwise I'd just get an ordinary range cooker with gas on top and electric below.

I like it because it looks pretty in my kitchen. But it costs a fortune to buy, it costs another fortune to run, it doesn't cope well with high levels of moisture and so if for example you put some frozen chips together with some cherry tomatoes into the hot oven it would take a LONG time to cook. In fact it isn't good with anything frozen for that reason, even frozen pizzas take a long time if you put more than one in at once. The hotplate has to be on a very high setting to make it worth using over and above the induction hob on the other side. So the hotplate just becomes a very expensive toaster.

I'm afraid I genuinely believe that a lot of the gushing over them is those who have bought them trying to make themselves feel better about having spent all that money by insisting that they're wonderful. It just isn't a sensible option with todays electricity prices and the concerns about climate etc. It's very much a luxury/status purchase.

It does look pretty in my kitchen though. Sorry Everhot. You're a nice friendly company.

User79865765 thats a very honest review, thanks! My sister has just purchased a refurbed aga and regrets that decision too. Everything takes so long to cook in them!
I do still look at it with longing, but I've managed to see past my farm house lifestyle delusions. I'm not suddenly going to be prepping tea at 7am for a slow cooked tea when most evenings I don't know what I'm going to cook for tea until 5pm!
Plus for the size of the beast, you don't get that much oven space and you can't use it in boiling hot weather. The lacanche has much bigger ovens depending on which model you use, and the vertical warming cabinet can take the plates and most of the prepared warm dishes while you're waiting to serve!

My mum had a Lacanche range. She’s a keen cook but hated the Lacanche. I’ve cooked with it a fair bit and also hated it. Main issue was that the burners took forever to light. But also, the hob burners were all enormous and fierce so it was hard to cook anything slowly, except on the one tiny burner. The oven heat was likewise hard to control with any finesse. And the lack of glass in the oven doors is a real pain.

Did she have the french plate (solid hob top)? I've read those are supposed to give you more control, especially if you get the one which sits over the 2 smaller burners.
And was her oven gas, static electric or convection?

No just normal gas burners on top. Ovens, I seem to recall it had one gas and one electric, but that sounds odd? Is that a Lacanche thing?

I found the gas burners great. Had one huge one for woks etc, under a trad/French plate (you can lift the middle of it out to use burner directly). Also added a second plate over the two smaller burners on the right. (That could be taken off completely if you wanted to use the burners normally.)

The oven configuration is up to you. I had one full size gas one (mostly for sourdough) and two electric, one big, one small. The small one had a grill in it which was pretty fierce. I quite liked not having glass doors, but that's personal preference.

I love my Everhot but have lived with it for 20 years. Before that I had AGAs and was brought up with the AGA way of cooking. Anyone coming from gas or electric will struggle as it is very different. It is not suitable for quick family dinners (although my stir fries work out great), or cooking from frozen as someone mentioned above. I am able to cook oven chips etc but there is a learning curve and I rarely do those type of meals as it is a different/slow cooking style that doesn't dry out the food. It does however make the best roasts and slow cooked meals, great bread and the moistest fruit cakes. If you are a SAHM and enjoy cooking then go for it, but if you want to get a meal done in half an hour when you get home from work, it is not for you.

I have an Everhot and love it. I no longer need my Electric Kettle or toaster and rarely use the iron or tumble dryer.
The background heat is gentle and background rather than inferno like as Aga heat can be, in the summer.
The grill is commercial and quickly brings the oven up to temperature for roast potatoes and veg.
I use the induction to bring pans to the boil and then drain and transfer to the bottom oven or hot plate.
Pizzas cook in minutes , I use the hot plate to cook the base until crispy and then Transfer to the preheated grill for 5 mins or less.
I can't comment on frozen food as I rarely cook frozen food but the bottom oven is useful for dehydrating food or defrosting.

Does anyone know if there's anywhere where there are live Lacanche ranges to try? I've never cooked with a gas oven but I'd like to try before I buy. Especially at that price!!

The distributor is based in Dorset and has a live showroom. They are generally happy to demo when asked.

We have an Everhot and don't have any problem with oven chips, pizza etc, just whack up the temperature for a bit. It can make the kitchen too hot though, I turned off the hotplate last night. Otherwise I like the nice steady warmth, unlike our old gas cooker which made the kitchen very hot very quickly when the ovens were on.