Milan 2012: French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte has designed a hob and oven system that looks more akin to furniture than electrical appliances.

The Induction Table has four inductors laid out in an arc to leave a central workspace.

It has a matching remote-controlled hood in screen-printed tempered grey glass and lacquered metal, and both are designed to stand alone or against a wall.

The Big Vaulted Oven Tower houses an electric oven in a painted wooden cabinet with pull-out storage below and a large cupboard at the top.

A wooden cabinet and three-drawer sideboard complete the set.

Designed for La Cornue, a French brand best known for traditional ranges and stoves, the W collecton will be presented at Eurocucina in Milan from 17 to 22 April.

See all our stories about Milan 2012 here.

The information below is from La Cornue:

LA CORNUE W.

A contemporary view of La Cornue fondamentals

"Creating an attractive modern alternative to traditional French art de vivre, offering an innovative culinary range, designed as a real professional reference, a line that is as lasting and prestigious as all our others". With this new furniture range, that's the ambition of Xavier Dupuy, La Cornue Chairman and grandson of Albert Dupuy who founded the brand in 1908. With this revolutionary new range, known as La Cornue W and designed by Jean-Michel Wilmotte, the La Cornue name is taking its place at the very heart of our era. Proof that, over a century since its birth, La Cornue is still a daring, innovative company.

This is the first time in thirty years that La Cornue has created a new model. It is also the first time in the history of electrical appliances that a stove has been created by a top designer. It has taken four years of development to create this original range dedicated to design and architecture. And with it, the La Cornue brand, the very symbol of French-style art de vivre, proclaims loud and clear that it is part of the 21st century whilst retaining its DNA: the spirit of innovation and gourmet hedonism.

Two signatures

The idea for La Cornue W came when two men met around a grand table; it is the result of a search for culinary perfection on the one hand and the interpretation of heritage on the other. To establish this dialogue between past and present, who could have been better placed than Jean-Michel Wilmotte, the builder and defender of the "contemporary graft" concept? The architect has taken the La Cornue fundamentals and reinterpreted them in his own creative style. All the traditional components of the brand are therefore found in the W range: the kitchen towel rail, the cooking control knobs, the generous size of the cooktop (150cm) and the legendary vaulted oven. All in the spirit of the French-style art de vivre that is so dear to the brand, but in the radically contemporary look specific to Jean-Michel Wilmotte's style. The W range uses the architect's iconic vocabulary: black and brown colours, fine and powerful materials, ribbed lines and visible screws.

A new look at kitchen appliances

True to the La Cornue spirit, units in the W range are free-standing, unique items of furniture, a far cry from the principle of a fitted kitchen. No longer a stove but a cooktop with elegant legs. This search for lightness and elegance is reminiscent of the revolutionary models that André Dupuy, the great inventor who ran the Salon des Arts Ménagers (Home Living Show) for thirty years, developed in the sixties to help women forget they were cooking. His range, known as the Cornulyre, comprised units with tapered legs, more in the style of a lady's dressing table or Hi-Fi unit than a new style of cooker. Today La Cornue returns to this daring, offering a range of kitchen appliances whose functionality is hidden within an item of furniture; thus the cooker becomes a table and the oven, a cupboard.

Unique ergonomic design

La Cornue has always sought to respond to culinary demands. The elements in the W range have therefore all been given top ranking technical features. The induction hob is fitted with four hot plates representing total power of 14 kW, i.e. the equivalent of professional kitchens. The indicator lights are located on the sides of the hob, to enable the chef to see them at all times. The polished stainless steel adjustment knobs are on the front, for speed of use. The hot plates are laid out in a rainbow leaving a space in the centre of the hob that can be used for preparing food, placing pans and kitchen tools etc., in this way the cooker becomes a unique area for the entire cooking process. At the controls of this high tech cooktop, the chef is almost like a DJ at his mixing console.

The development of the new vaulted oven, a speciality at La Cornue from the very beginning, which guarantees impeccable cooking, has also been a technical prowess. This electric model, high performance yet well placed in terms of energy consumption, already complies with future European standards. It is controlled electronically by sensor and by field of 5 degrees, which guarantees unique cooking precision. Temperature control is possible right from 45 degrees, compared to the usual 150 degrees, thus permitting slow cooking. The peripheral cooker hood is remote-controlled with the suction area located around the edge of the hood, guaranteeing maximum odour absorption. W hobs and ovens are made in France, individually and to order, by La Cornue craftsmen.

There is also a show case of the collection at La Cornue’s Milan showroom on 17th April from 5pm-9pm: Il Piccolo, croso Garibaldi / corner via Delio Tessa 1. The collection will also be on show at Eurocucina - Hall 9, stand F04 from 17th -22nd April