Installing my new BlueStar Rangetop and Prizer Hood – Kitchen Remodel

Zoe and BlueStar zb 01

Last year I bought a new house. It had 4 kitchens. I thought I would use one for cooking with my family, one for my “studio/work space” and the others were, well I wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. There is a decent explanation for all of these cooking spaces; the house was an apartment building when we bought it. My husband and I are just crazy enough to find this project an adventure.  You’ll be happy to know that we are still happily married, we continue to love the house, but the reality of having all those kitchens wasn’t nearly as romantic as I had fantasized. They were all on different floors, so if I left my favorite balloon whisk on the top floor, but I need to whip eggs on the first floor, I had to run up and down again to get it. I ended up losing 5 pounds (not a bad fitness plan) and was getting frustrated in the middle of all my recipes. I could either duplicate every piece of equipment I owned or give up the whole notion and go with one kitchen. After months of using the house as a stairmaster, we decided a single kitchen made the most sense.

I needed to choose new appliances. The ones that came with the house were from the 1960s and no longer worked as they were intended. I originally went with a 48″ Wolf rangetop and hood that I found, virtually unused, on craigslist. It really worked fine, but I wasn’t blown away with the strenth of the burners and I didn’t care for the griddle, which I never used. I always wished I had the extra burners instead. So, when I was approached by BlueStar about being part of their BlueStar Chefs program, I jumped at the chance. I wanted the kind of fire power I had when I worked in restaurant kitchens, at home. I liked the fact that it can cook the pants off the Wolf (the open burners and extra BTUs are a little bit crazy, in a good way). With all that extra power I went with a Prizer hood, which is strong enough to vent the rangetop and it even sucks the smoke from my pizza baking across the room. Since this is my home office and I like to work in a fun space, the fact that I can pick knobs in any color, well that’s just cool too.  (But, every time I pick a color from the 190 choices, my mood changes and I want a new one.) Until I can make up my mind, I’ll stick with the black, which goes with every apron I own.  Now that I have this magnificent fire beast, I’ve vowed to stretch my dinner repertoire. 

BlueStar | ZoeBakes

So, out with the Wolf.

In goes the BlueStar, the movie!

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And the Prizer Hood.

BlueStar 03

Quick adjustments to the gas and I’m ready to make dinner.

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My first night on the BlueStar and I managed to use every burner, all 6 of them. In case you’re wondering, I made Spaghetti and meatballs. My favorite recipe so far is one that I’ve doctored from Cristina Ferrare’s  book Big Bowl of Love.

Sponsored Post: BlueStar supplied me with the rangetop and hood to use in my testing.

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8 thoughts to “Installing my new BlueStar Rangetop and Prizer Hood – Kitchen Remodel”

  1. Awesome! What a gorgeous kitchen. Happy cooking! 🙂 Darn, I wish Bluestar would supply me with a range for my current kitchen remodel! I’m pricing options now and seeing how expensive a chef’s quality kitchen can be!

  2. Yay! I have been debating between and BlueStar and Wolf and was leaning towards the BlueStar. Now I am definitely sold on it! What do you use for baking? What do you think of the BlueStar all gas ovens?

  3. How do you like your bluestar after having it for a while? I have read many things on many forums but nothing recent. Can it do propane?

  4. Just wondering how you are liking your Blue Star these days. I’m getting to build my “dream kitchen” and picked out a Wolf because the dealer didn’t have Blue Star. Now they carry Blue Star and I’m wondering if I should think about it. I’ve never had a blazin’ real chef’s range before, so thought maybe I should stick with the Wolf. And colored knobs? Now they have something like 300 colors for the whole range! I would *never* be able to decide on just one color – forever! Anyway, I thought I’d check for your opinion and see what you might say. I love your blog and recipes. 🙂

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