Chilling With Signature Kitchen Suite

So why Napa? Why did Signature Kitchen Suite develop their Experience & Design Center there? Perhaps it’s their dedication to the vintner’s way of life and the Technicurean’s passion for great wine. It is said that the Paris Tasting of 1976 put Napa Valley winemakers on the map. In a blind tasting, two American wines, a Chateau Montelena Chardonnay and a Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon fbeat out the best wines of Burgundy and Bordeaux. Since then, Napa Valley wineries have grown from just over a dozen to several hundred today, and along with the vineyards grew Americans’ love and appreciation of the wine culture.

This year at KBIS, the National Kitchen and Bath Association launched the inaugural “30s Choice Award.” The NKBA honors an outstanding group of young professionals as part of its Thirty Under 30 program. At KBIS, the incoming class was tasked with scouring the KBIS show floor searching for the most innovative products, ideas, and technologies in 10 categories which are selected as the NKBA 30s Choice Awards. The new SKS integrated wine column refrigerators were singled out for this prestigious award in the Smart Home Integration / Wi-Fi Enabled Product category..

I love this shot of the dining room at the Signature Kitchen Suite Experience and Design Center with the wall of integrated wine columns. Who wouldn’t want this in their dining room? They surprised us all in this room with a cupcake party to end our second evening there.

Unique to the brand’s new integrated wine column refrigerator series is Wine Cave™ technology, designed for precise wine preservation, inspired by the traditional, historic old-world caves of wineries, located in Napa Valley, Calif. Carefully tailored to mimic these ideal environments, the exclusive Wine Cave design significantly reduces vibration – a primary impediment to wine preservation, which causes chemical imbalances affecting the quality, flavors, aromas and texture – as well as minimizes temperature fluctuations, limits light exposure and locks in humidity.

The 24” wide integrated wine column holds up to 113 bottles and can accommodate up to three different temperature zones for reds, whites and sparkling wines.

SKS has also launched the True Sommelier™ app that helps wine collectors manage their personal collections, including making pairing suggestions, remembering favorites,and suggesting alternatives when your favorite is unavailable.. Being in Napa, we certainly couldn’t overlook the importance of wine in our culinary culture. Vineyards have become more plentiful throughout the US. We enjoy really nice ones throughout Virginia, but nothing compares to the grapes grown in Napa Valley! For the true wine lovers and collectors, it’s important to have the very best equipment to protect the wines they’ve collected from favorite local vineyards or their travels.

The 18”wide integrated wine column holds up to 71 bottles and offers two temperature zones.

If you’re not a wine collector or just don’t keep your wine around long before drinking it (yours truly), SKS has developed the perfect French door refrigerator for you. The two bottom drawers have the ability to set the temperatures to serve as either a freezer or a wine drawer!

Signature Kitchen Suite has put the same innovative “True to Food” philosophy into action with their refrigerators. They offer “Speed Freeze & Speed Chill”. The faster something freezes, the smaller the ice crystals — meaning less disruption to your food. Freezing fresh food as quickly as possible, Speed Freeze helps retain original flavors, vitamins, nutritional value, and appearance. Speed Chill uses the same innovative thinking in the refrigerator, quickly bringing the temperature back to optimum level after the door is opened for an extended time.

And talk about a smart appliance, the SKS freezers offer Adaptive Defrost. Meet the freezer that gets to know you. Adaptive Defrost measures the number of times you open the door and ambient temperature to select the best time to defrost. When you are away, it will defrost less often, saving energy and reducing freezer burn.

As the love for excellent food grows, so grows the need for space. Fortunately, the Signature Kitchen Suite 30-inch Integrated Column Refrigerator is brilliantly engineered to provide the industry’s largest capacity column, featuring 18.0 cubic feet of storage capacity. Food deserves to stay fresh as long as possible through optimum temperature. Ingenious features like a linear compressor and engineered all-metal interior help to minimize temperature fluctuations to maintain food freshness — brilliantly engineered to help you do your part in the battle against food waste.

One of the coolest features I discovered with these refrigerators and freezers is the integration of cleverly hidden True-Illumination™ Lighting. The LED lighting is within each shelf and moves with the shelves which ensures that the spotlight stays focused on the food, not shining in your eyes.

Time to wine down! After a great few days of learning and marveling at all of the ingenious features of the SKS line of appliances, we were ready to relax a little and of course, enjoy more wine! We ended one evening here at Zach’s Lounge, named for SKS General Manager, Zach Elkin.

We had a wonderful time connecting with each other, making new friends both among the designers and the SKS team. Everyone from Signature Kitchen Suite was so gracious, knowledgeable and passionate about their brand. I’m very thankful for the opportunity to visit their absolutely stunning Experience and Design Center.

And a big thank you goes to the wonderful ladies of who put together these amazing opportunities! Your hard work and dedication to providing terrific educational and brand partnership opportunities is greatly appreciated!

Veronika Eagleson, Flo Von Pelet and Sarah Harman

Now I’m off to open a bottle of Cabernet with all of this talk of wine!

This post is sponsored by Signature Kitchen Suites, as they paid for my trip with the Modenus Designhounds to Napa. All opinions and commentary are my own.

Meet Signature Kitchen Suite - The New Luxury Appliance Brand Raising The Bar!

This has been an eventful Spring with lots of great travel. I’ve recently returned from Napa, California where I visited the Signature Kitchen Suite Experience & Design Center with the Modenus Designhounds.

What an incredible opportunity this was travelling with an influential and talented group of designers and meeting all the brilliant folks behind this impressive new luxury appliance brand. I’ve followed this brand’s rapid rise since first discovering them at the 2017 Orlando KBIS (Kitchen & Bath Industry) show. Signature Kitchen Suite is the fresh built-in kitchen appliances luxury from global home appliance leader LG Electronics, and is committed to innovative thinking, purposeful design, and leading-edge precision.. They have developed innovative and technologically advanced appliances for their ideal consumer … the Technicureans™

This year Signature Kitchen Suite earned multiple honors at KBIS, led by the highly-coveted Gold “Best of KBIS” Award for its industry-first pro range with built-in sous vide modality. This pro-range is the first on the market with built-in sous vide, induction, and gas – all on the cooktop, delivering the ultimate in precision cooking. Once limited to working pros, sous vide is a cooking technique utilizing precise temperature control to deliver consistent, restaurant-quality results. Now, with the industry’s first built-in sous vide range, home chefs can achieve professional-level results capturing their food’s full, true flavor. My husband and I have cooked for several years with a sous vide wand and have become huge proponents of the cooking method. So much so that this past Christmas, everyone in the family got a sous vide wand from us as a gift! Instead of using the wand in a large vat of water taking up space on my countertop, I would love to have the SKS 48” Pro Range with sous vide built right in it! And if you don’t have room for the 48” Pro-Range, consider their award winning 36” range. Innovations like designing the largest capacity steam-assist convection oven have led the SKS 36-inch Dual-Fuel Pro Range to be recognized by two of the industry’s most prestigious award shows: The 2018 IDEA Finalist Award and the highly coveted 2018 Red Dot “Best of the Best” Award – chosen by a global jury of 39 design experts.

While visiting their beautiful new Experience & Design Center, we had a wonderful dinner with Moone Tsai winery. This was our first chance to actually taste the magic of the built-in sous vide with perfectly prepared filet mignon with foie gras. The entire meal was to-die-for and the wines were perfect! I loved the Cabernet Sauvignon Cor Leonis!

The 23,000-square-foot facility’s centerpiece is the high-performance Signature Kitchen Suite-equipped demonstration kitchen, which is one of 20-plus vignettes. On the second day of our visit, we witnessed the 48” Pro Range in action with master chef A.J. Schaller.

With designer Christy Davis’s help, she made a beautiful leek salad with eggs poached in the sous vide. Then John “Nick” Nichols jumped in to assist AJ with the amazing lamb we would later have as the main course for lunch. And last, but certainly not least, Rebecca Reynolds helped AJ with a beautiful creme brulee.

Seriously … look how beautiful these lamb chops were! And did I mention that the 48” Pro Range also has a gas cooktop AND an induction cooktop all on one range? It also has a 30” convection oven along with an 18” steam assist oven. It really does offer the best of all worlds in one range.

Signature Kitchen Suite has developed a “True to Food” philosophy wholly embodied by their brand and dedication to the Technicurean lifestyle. Check out their True to Food films about the importance of knowing where your food comes from and how it is sourced.

In the first episode of our True to food™ Films, Mark Bittman shows us why being on a first name basis with your local butcher can actually make everything taste better. Learn how to make the best steak using sous vide and finishing it with a nice crust.

Of course, we did manage to have a little fun while we were there! We spent an afternoon at the Culinary Institute of America at Copia enjoying a fabulous lunch and touring The Chuck Williams Culinary Arts Museum. What a great display of beautiful kitchen gadgets and wares!

We then enjoyed a fabulous lunch with you guessed it … more wine!

So as I sit here putting together this amazing experience in words and photos, lamb chops are currently cooking in my sous vide and it’s time for me to get to the potatoes. You’ll have to come back to learn more about Signature Kitchen Suite’s award winning wine columns and refrigerators. I have so much more to share with you! But for now .. . .

This post is sponsored by Signature Kitchen Suites, as they paid for my trip with the Modenus Designhounds to Napa. All opinions and commentary are my own.

JSI Raves: Thermador Ushers In A New Era Of Luxury at KBIS 2018!

Last week at the 2018 Kitchen and Bath Industry Show (KBIS) in Orlando, Florida, Thermador, the iconic American luxury home appliance brand, announced the launch of more than 300 groundbreaking new products, the most significant launch in the brand’s 102-year history.  As a member of the Modenus Blogtour team, I was there to see the unveiling of several exciting new additions to Thermador's repertoire.  

Completely redesigned, the sleek new Masterpiece and Professional Collections deliver the seamless culinary experience consumers expect from Thermador.  Both collections offer a seamless inset integration without a bulky frame and they're beautifully styled with metallic gray glass and sleek contemporary handles.

Thermador Masterpiece Series Oven

The new Freedom® Induction Cooktop offers the largest fully usable cooking surface on the market within its class.  The entire surface can be used!  This new cooktop offers more responsiveness, more flexibility and the first full-color touch-screen interface on an induction cooktop.
 
In the dishwashing arena, Thermador introduced their newest dishwashers featuring StarDry™ with Zeolite for a superior drying process without the use of chemicals, as well as the Star Speed® cycle which is the fastest hot water cycle in the industry at 20 minutes. One of Thermador's newest dishwashers is called "The Entertainers' Dishwasher".  This dishwasher features a gentle cycle that won’t break or damage glasses, with a no-slip, soft rubber lower rack and adjustable stands specifically designed to keep stems secure. The rack stands are fully adjustable at multiple levels to accommodate different heights and sizes of your glasses.  It can accommodate up to 26 large wine glasses. What a great addition to a butler's pantry!

Thermador Freedom Induction Cooktop

In the dishwashing arena, Thermador introduced a suite of luxury dishwashers including the New Star-Sapphire™ Dishwasher.  It's features include Push to Open, allowing you to either push or pull open the unit, as well as Thermador exclusive Star Glow, which illuminates the inside of the dishwasher in a variety of colors, so you can set the mood that matches the occasion. And, with the two-step StarDry™, Thermador delivers the only program that provides the ultimate drying, so all your place settings are ready for use after each cycle and you can get back to serving your guests. It also boasts the fastest hot water cycle in the industry with the Star Speed® 20 minute cycle.

Thermador's "Entertainers' Dishwasher" features a gentle cycle that won’t break or damage glasses, with a no-slip, soft rubber lower rack and adjustable stands specifically designed to keep stems secure. The rack stands are fully adjustable at multiple levels to accommodate different heights and sizes of your glasses.  It can accommodate up to 26 large wine glasses. What a great addition to a butler's pantry!

Entertainer's Dishwasher

One of the most eye catching displays in all of KBIS was the section of custom paneled Freedom Refrigerators which come in a variety of sizes and configerations.  These units accept any custom panel and for the show, Thermador outfitted their refrigerators with large panels wrapped in custom abstract art canvas. 

Thermador Paneled Freedom Refrigerators

While I'm not sure I have a client bold enough for this look, the features of these units are the real story.  You have the option of handle-less units with push latch openers that automatically close if left ajar.  Inside, you have soft-close bins, including bins with Thermal Fresh humidity and temperature control.  And no more dark corners, these refrigerators feature "theater lighting" in the form of LED panels from top to bottom. 

Continuing to redefine the possibilities in the kitchen and beyond, Thermador also introduces the Thermador Connected Experience by Home Connect, an industry-exclusive app.  Home Connect provides culinary assistance by partnering with Kitchen Stories, the unique app that provides you with recipes, wine pairing suggestions and video tutorials.  It will allow you to remotely control your Thermador appliances through brand partners like Amazon Alexa or EVE, Tesla's connected vehicle software.  Cut down on trips to the grocery store by letting Thermador's Home Connect and Amazon Dash inventory and replenish groceries as needed.  

With this new launch, Thermador will be able to empower consumers to perfect recipes, enhance their experience with smart tools and provide expert knowledge that helps them reach their culinary goals.  With the comprehensive collection of products, exceptional cooks can now choose from more options than ever before to perfect even the most adventurous recipes and elevate their culinary lifestyle.  

If you're building a home or considering a kitchen remodel or update, I would strongly suggest that you spend some time getting to know Thermador.  Personally, I want to pull out all of my appliances after seeing that exciting showroom!  

Please note: According to FTC rules, I need to disclose that my trip to KBIS was sponsored.    While I did not get paid for my time at KBIS, my hotel, airfare and some meals were covered.  As I write about our sponsors  I wish for you to know that I do not receive any additional monetary compensation for doing so.  And please note, the views expressed in this blog are totally mine!