A celebrity and chef favourite, these hand-made ovens are built in Burgundy, France’s gastro capital.
What do actor Sienna Miller, retired rugby legend Cian Healy, Brian O’Driscol and Amy Huberman, Made in Chelsea’s Jamie Laing, and pâtissier Una Leonard all have in common?
They all like to cook and have shown off their kitchens to the world on social.
Miller opened the doors to her chocolate box cottage in Buckinghamshire to Architectural Digest in one of its Open Door videos, while in a sponsored post by Cosentino, Cian Healy stands shoulder to shoulder with his.
The range has also played several NPC roles, in a brief birthday pic carousel marking Huberman’s 2024 celebrations and Laing showing off his new kitchen in a video where you can see the range central to the action on the island and in Leonard’s remodel.
We mere mortals mirror celebrities. The kitchen is where most homeowners like to make a statement about who we are, what we like and, ahem, how well we’ve done in life.
One of the signifiers of having arrived is being able to afford a custom range cooker that says as much about your love of cooking as it does about its bespoke finishes.
Those who also like to cook invest in Lacanche, still made by hand in Burgundy, France’s gastronomic capital.
What’s the attraction? Its name is synonymous with striking good looks, which it marries with high-end functionality.
"Owning a Lacanche is as much about the experience as the cooking,” says Sean Drumm, whose Showtime Appliances is the exclusive distributor for Lacanche in Ireland.
“It’s beautifully made, wonderfully responsive, and built to last a lifetime, but more than that, it brings a real sense of joy and occasion to the kitchen. It makes every meal feel a little more special."
The gastronomic heavyweight can, at the flick of a dial, create the kind of culinary symphony that can go from fortissimo to pianissimo in seconds.
It is the burner power and durability of the components that attract the home cook.
The designs are robust, they are easy to clean, and the materials used are durable: solid brass, cast iron and stainless steel.
There is no faff here. Faff is likely the only F-word not in Gordon Ramsey’s vocabulary, and he was one of the first celebrity chefs to use the range back in the 1990s.
Control is a big part of the sell. In the oven, the heat penetrates evenly to cook evenly.
It exudes power, too. Its standard hob measures 65cm deep, the depth of a commercial unit. The middle burner offers five kilowatts of power. It is easy to slide a pot from one burner to another, and there is space on it for four large pots. It also comes in gas, electric and induction options.
The enamelled units come in every colour of the rainbow and can be custom-tinted to any RAL colour.
Still made by hand, every cooker of 100cm or more is initialised by its maker. A clever design feature is the fact that the base legs are customisable, so on an uneven floor, your Lacanche will still stand solidly. The height is also adjustable between 90 and 93cm – great for shorties and Amazons.
With built-in obsolesce considered a given in white goods, it is heartening to discover that new components for Lacanche are built to also fit on all the older models, so you can retrofit an existing range. It means the product can change and evolve.
All this tech and design mean the cookers are not cheap. Lacanche cookers range enormously in price depending on size, finish and trims. Prices start from about €6,949 for a Classic Cluny 1 metre, including VAT but ex delivery. After that, the build is component-based. Every Lacanche is bespoke.
Contact Showtime Essential Kitchen Products to find out more. Follow on Instagram here.
