Design Hounds & Signature Kitchen Suite

1. INTRO

We are just back from Napa Valley, CA where we were invited as special guests of Design Hounds and Signature Kitchen Suite to be a part of a three-day brand immersion trip to learn all about the new SKS showroom and their luxury lien of appliances.

A. Background – Part 1 – Design Hounds

i. We have been very fortunate to be a part of Modenus Blogtour and Design Hounds trips around the country and in Europe. Design Hounds and Modenus are run by a woman by the name of Veronika Eagleson. She has done an incredible job of curating a large network of design professionals who share best practices, design finds and product knowledge via social media and their own design businesses. These designers are also known as micro-influencers who align brands like Signature Kitchen Suite with truly relevant audiences. And you thought we just made homes look pretty!

B. Background – Part 2 – SKS

i. Signature Kitchen Suite is the new luxury brand from LG Electronics. The Napa showroom that we visited was a 2 ½ year dream in the making. It was one of the most impressive showrooms we have ever been in complete with an appliance playground, a massive kitchen for inhouse cooking shows and training, conference rooms, dining rooms, an killer bar etc. The SKS team wine and dined us and told us their story…

2. TRUE TO FOOD

A. Storytelling - Before SKS sells you an appliance, they tell you a story. They are all about being what they have coined "TRUE TO FOOD". If you go to their website, (signaturekitchensuite.com), watch the film series all about their deep respect for food and where it is sourced. You will see stories about cheesemakers, breadmakers, fishermen, vineyard owners and more. It is so cool. So if you have a deep respect for food, where it comes from and who grows or produces it, then it makes senses that you would continue that respect for how you cook the food. This is what SKS does.

B. "Technicurean" – SKS believes that being on top of technology is a luxury experience. They also believe that people are willing to pay more for performance and technology. So they coined another word – one for those people that are passionate about food and technology - Technicureans.

3. HOW TO BE TRUE TO FOOD

A. Cook "Sous Vide" pronounced (sue-veed), which is French for "under-vacuum". This is a cooking technique where food is vacuum sealed and then submerged in water and slow-cooked at a constant, precise temperature until it's perfectly cooked. So for example, you won't see that gray to pink radiant in your meat because it's cooked evenly edge to edge. You can cook chicken, fish, eggs, and vegetables all sous vide.

SKS is the only brand to incorporate a sous vide built in to the cook top range.

B. There are several ways to cook on the SKS ranges – sous vide, induction, gas, griddle, true convention and steam. The ranges come in 36" and 48" with different combinations of components.

C. Don't forget about refrigeration - With SKS you choose your columns and put them together – so you can choose a freezer column that is 18", 24" or 30". You can choose a refrigerator column that is 24" or 30" or a 36" French Door frig. SKS also just debuted their 18" (holds 71 bottles) and 24" wine refrigerators (holds 113 bottles) with "wine cave" technology that mimics the wine preservation of historic, old-world caves.

4. OH WOW LEARNING MOMENTS

A. SKS sells 120 LG products that are wifi compatible or wifi connected. So if you want every one of your appliances to be connected to your home system, your phone or your ipad – go for it! This also means that you have on-going monitoring of your appliances because of the on line connectivity.

B. SKS has a 5 day repair or replace guarantee on their products – no questions asked.

C. When you buy an SKS appliance, you have a single point of contact for your product needs once you register. No suffering thru the automated cycle of button pushing!

D. All SKS appliances have a 2 year warranty with an additional 1 year added as soon as you register your appliances.

E. Their average repair time is 3 days and they have 24/7 service.

F. The 48" range has an articulating handle that helps you to open and close the oven door.

G. The new column refrigeration is built so that you can refit any built in refrigerator without tearing down cabinets.

H. The refrigerator has a convertible drawer so you can make it what you want – a freezer (-6 to 0 degrees) or a beverage drawer at 33 degrees or a meat drawer at 29 degrees etc.

I. The drawers in the refrig move easily and the LED lights move with it. The bins pop out super easily to clean.

J. When you buy a wine column, you have the "True Sommelier App" – this app is SO COOL – it will catalog your wines, recognize your labels, assign different "cellars" within your wine column, learn your preferences and those of your friends and frequent guests. If you go to a certain restaurant, it can tell you what to order based on the brands you prefer.

5. CONCLUSION

A. So as you can see, we became big fans in a big way on LG and the SKS luxury arm of appliances. We cannot wait to introduce our clients to the Signature Kitchen Suite of options the next time we work on a kitchen renovation or new build. We LOVED the Napa region and had a total blast with our fellow design buddies.

6. NOTE

SKS nor Design hounds is sponsoring this podcast but our trip was sponsored.