| April 24th, 2004 11:47 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Her 900-Pound Gorilla Makes the House a Home
By DAVID COLMAN
New York Times
Ah, the fantasy. The high-design cabinetry and appliances you glimpse through the giant windows of kitchen showrooms like Boffi in lower SoHo are a seductive sight for anyone longing to escape the kitchen's drear domesticity. Jade Jagger, for one; for another, her architect Tom Bartlett.
For Ms. Jagger's house in Ibiza, Mr. Bartlett created an all-white kitchen filled with the latest and sleekest. But as happens in many such relationships, the client wanted a creature comfort the visionary did not approve of, and nothing the client said would dissuade him from his Roarkian ideal. What was a homeowner to do?
"I waited till he was on vacation," Ms. Jagger said. "And then I called up and ordered it."
What is It? A stove — well, a cooker, which is what the British call a stove. And the Aga is very, very much a cooker.
"I had had one in the first house I ever had, a rental farmhouse in Dorset," said Ms. Jagger, who as the creative director of Garrard, the venerable British jeweler and silversmith, was in New York to celebrate the first Garrard boutique in the United States. "I have pined for one ever since."
Mr. Bartlett, she said, was not overly distraught to find his seamless plan thwarted. After all, Ms. Jagger was the one who had to figure out where to put the 900-pound, $9,000 gorilla. "He hadn't figured it into the master plan, so it couldn't go into the golden triangle — sink, cooker and fridge," she said. "I have some glossy gas thing there, and this had to be an island unto itself."
Yes, Ms. Jagger has two stoves. But to call the Aga a stove is to miss the point entirely. Unique on many levels, the Aga might be the 20th century's most homey invention. Made of enameled cast iron, the stove is always on and ready to cook. Its two burners, covered by lids to conserve heat when not cooking, are permanently set at two temperatures, high and medium low. There is a baking/roasting oven (set at roughly 400 degrees) and a warming oven (at 200). The stove is designed to conserve heat, and the cost of running one, an Aga spokesman said, is only about $18 a month.
But as British an icon as it is, the Aga is roughly as British as Ms. Jagger, whose mother, Bianca Jagger, was born in Nicaragua. Her father . . . well. The Aga has an equally impressive pedigree. It was designed by Nils Dalen, a Swedish engineer who was awarded the 1912 Nobel Prize in physics for an invention that automated lighthouses. Named after Dalen's company, Aktiebolaget Gas Accumulator, the Aga was born after Dalen was blinded by an explosion at work. During his convalescence, he became convinced that his wife's stove was inefficient and spent nearly a decade perfecting a new prototype, patented in 1922. The company relocated to Britain in 1928.
In an age when people barely cook, the Aga is about as modern as Mrs. Miniver. "People don't know what it is," Ms. Jagger said. "And no one ever wants to cook on it." She herself allowed that it is best for slow-cooking things like roasted meats or vegetables. But it is the Aga's inner life, simmering away, that makes it special. "It's the heart of the home," she said. "Whenever I get home, I always go have a coffee or a glass of wine and stand by the Aga."
Ms. Jagger, who as a designer likes to take classic forms and give them a modern kick in the pants, even chose the most perversely homey color: cream. Other souls might consider the many colors that Aga offers, including Heather, Pistachio, Terracotta, Aubergine and Jade.
Are they all named after rock daughters?
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| April 26th, 2004 01:27 PM |
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| jb |
Mr Hess - Mr. Hess The New Middle School Principal Mr. Hess enjoys almost every aspect of his new job. ... Mr. Hess also came up with some interesting ideas. ...
http://www.liberty.k12.ok.us/ms/msteachers/hess/hess.html
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CHAT
ROOM aka THE FUN HOUSE] [
RESTROOMS]