THE SAGA OF THE AGA
By Peter Hughes & Kinga Monica
The lineage of range cooking is thought to trace back to Dutch and German communities in the New World.
The UK had coal, and from about the 16th century this had taken over from wood, while the Dutch and Germans had learned to innovate where coal had not yet been discovered, and used wood as their fossil fuel of choice.
The Aga range was developed from these original innovations. In 1922, Gustaf Dalen - a Swedish Nobel Prize-winning physicist - lost his sight following an explosion during an experiment with pressurised liquids and gases. Stuck at home, Dr Dalen learned his wife was exhausted and harassed by the constant need to care for and watch over food as it cooked. Although unable to see, he was determined to develop a cooking stove that was capable of every culinary technique and easy to use with perfect results.
Adopting the time honoured principle of heat storage, he combined a small and efficient heat source, two large hotplates and two generous ovens into one robust and compact unit. Seventy years later the Aga cooker remains outstanding in its ability to cook food, bringing out the full flavours.
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