Smart Cuisine

Sometimes, for the home chef, cooking can feel like a balancing act. Following a recipe, prepping ingredients, and setting temperatures and timers—of course, amid the inevitable flurry of activity in your kitchen—leaves little time to consider how you’re using the advanced features of your appliances.

As a result, Sub-Zero Group’s senior manager of electronics and connectivity, Ryan Kools, says, “A lot of times, our owners will typically stick to ‘Bake 350’ when they are cooking something, and they don’t really explore the full capabilities of their ovens.”

As part of a multi-phase process called the Mobile App Roadmap, Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cove is launching new features within the Owner’s App to help customers maximize the benefits of their appliances. Launched this past summer, the first phase included an intuitive interface to guide customers through Sub-Zero’s chef-curated recipes. “It’s a collection of almost 150 recipes that were devised for our products and that help owners explore different modes, like Roast or Convection Steam,” says Kools.

But the new enhancements go beyond providing recipes: they ease the overall process of assembling a meal, and further, teach owners to utilize the many advanced features of their appliances to achieve the best possible results. After a user connects to the Owner’s App, they can follow a recipe, and set a timer by clicking a “start” button directly beneath each step; the clean, easy-to-follow interface displays checkmarks beside each ingredient to cross items off once used; and a “share” button allows users to copy and paste them wherever they like.

Want to view recipes you can cook with a specific appliance? Simply select the product of choice and click “Explore recipes.” You can also filter recipes by mode: for instance, select 'Steam', 'Broil', or 'Roast' to see recipes best suited for those modes. “Every time I’ve sat through one of our kitchen demonstrations, people are just blown away by what these appliances are able to do and the amazing results the chefs can achieve, ” says Director of Electronics and Connectivity Steve Nackers. “And the chefs aren’t doing anything crazy or difficult; it’s just that they’re showing the inbuilt performance of these amazing appliances. So, this is giving people direction and guidance as to how they can accomplish that.”

Keeping in mind that most people already have go-to sources for their favorite recipes, a more recent feature was added to the app this fall that enables users to do just that. Simply find the recipe you’d like to cook online, select “share,” and the link can be exported into the Owner’s App. The exported link will display the same clean interface as Sub-Zero’s recipes, complete with grocery-list checkmarks and timer start buttons. “It does such a great job of cleaning up [the recipe] and making it so much easier to read and follow,” notes Nackers, adding that he even uses the app to make cocktails. “I just started using it for everything. It was great.”

Coming Soon: Owners can look forward to more app enhancements in the near future. Stay tuned for intelligent features related to recipes and wine storage.