Smeg Opera A42

Ladies and gentlemen, in this review, I'm going to wax lyrical about SMEG.... That's an oven. Apologies to anyone who reads Ciao and has seen a version of this review before. Ok apology over, here goes. Three years ago, Mr Sweary and I decided it was time to re-vamp our kitchen. We were living with the one which came with the house which was fine really but it had been there since 17 years before us and it was designed in about 1982. Tence the floor was bright red lino with manky brown bits at the side, the cupboards were pine, the tiles were a kind of spray diffused public bog grey, the work surfaces were grey patterned ...

Why would anyone spend £1000+ on a cooker? Well, we hadn't planned to, but when it came to the crunch, because of the type of cooker we were looking for, there wasn't really much choice. We are lucky enough to have an absolutely perfect location for a decent freestanding cooker in our kitchen, and the gap size was just over 70cms. Most standard appliances are 60cm, but we have heard that there are a (small) selection of cookers that are available in different widths, and whilst conducting our research we found that the extra 10cms width (now stop it!) really did make a huge difference to the cooking area over the standard 60cms. Our ...

I enjoy cooking and like to use well designed, practical, long lasting appliances. This cooker lives up to all my hopes, despite its large price. The oven doors are triple glazed and have an air stream inside them to keep them cool to the touch, even after extended cooking, which means no accidents waiting to happen to children. The only criticism I have about the cooker is that you have to be very careful opening the oven doors as the blast of air from the door can blow hot gases at you. The number of functions is more than adequate, including a defrost function in the main oven - no heat, just a flow of air - which defrosts very efficiently. The grill can ...