Lonnie Curran isn't a professional chef, but she loves to cook and entertain. She's actually got four ovens in her kitchen.
"I can do like a turkey and I can do a prime rib and I can do side dishes. I love it! It's easy, very easy. I don't mind having people over now," says Curran.
Granted, four ovens are a lot. People more often expand their cooking capability by getting two.
Perhaps a standard-size range with two ovens is the answer. Consumer Reports just tested four from Maytag, Jenn-Air, and GE.
They are expensive, costing anywhere from $1,450 to more than $2,000.
Mark Connelly, Consumer Reports, says "Manufacturers have eliminated the storage drawer and moved the big oven down, closer to the floor. In place of that you have a nice small oven on top."
Testers cooked pizzas to see if the smaller top oven cooks as well as a conventional oven.
The results? The smaller oven did just about the same as a conventional oven.
Connelly says "Basically the biggest difference was in the preheat time. As you might expect, since it's a smaller oven it takes a lot less time for the oven to come to temperature."
In fact, the smaller oven took just five minutes to preheat compared to about 15 minutes for a conventional oven.
But there is a significant drawback to the bottom oven because it's so low. "Getting the food in and out of the bottom oven could be quite a problem."
If a dual-oven range seems to suit your needs, Consumer Reports says either of GE's two electric dual-oven ranges do a very good job, top to bottom.
The GE convection version, model pb975smss goes for $1,950. The regular range, model pb970sm is $200 less.
