This was tested using the grill and hob in tandem and also just using the top oven alone for a baked full breakfast. Both results were very pleasing and bacon, sausages, tomatoes all cooked evenly and in the case of bacon crisply. The grill did seem slow to heat on occasions but gave good results and certainly it did not suffer from excess smoking, which has sometimes been the problem in the past with other cookers. The results from baking the breakfast in the oven were also very good but did take a little longer to produce - however this is the preferred method when cooking a full breakfast for a large crowd or more than 4-5 servings. Eggs were usually poached, scrambled or shallow fried on the hob although I have had success by using Easy Glide directly on the hob when it is set to halfway or position 6.

I have cooked a full roast dinner countless times with meats as diverse as beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey and ham. Most were accompanied with potatoes of some description usually roast or boiled and a selection of vegetables. Yorkshire puddings were also cooked to accompany sometimes and there was always a gravy or sauce to serve with the main dish. On some occasions the oven was also used at the same time or just after the main cooking was over to cook or reheat a pudding. This is where the cooker really seemed to come into its own. It coped effortlessly with large quantities, the two ovens enabled the varying components to be cooked accurately and the spacious configuration of the hob enabled up to 6 saucepans to be positioned and heated at the same time.

I miss a hotplate to keep dishes warm after cooking but for the last couple of testing times I have placed a metal cooling rack over the top of the hob and kept the two hob rings heated on low to keep food warm with good results. I am hoping that the new ‘companion’, which will be available shortly, will have a flat surface suitable for placing dishes and plates on to keep warm.

Rice and pasta were cooked plainly on the hob and also in the oven with excellent results. The flexibility and control of the hob was perfect for the rapid heating of the cooking water and then lowering for good ‘al dente’ pasta or fluffy rice results. The hob was very responsive to turning up and down so that there was no boiling over and certainly no need to ‘slide’ or reposition pans as on other true range cookers. Baked pasta and rice dishes such as lasagne, rice pudding, cannelloni etc were also cooked with good results. I also found the hob controls perfect for producing a classical creamy risotto.

I’ve long suspected that those who buy a true range cooker love to cook and baking is part of their basic repertoire of family favourites. It is essential therefore that the ovens should cook a vast array of bakery items with success. Over the weeks I have cooked sponge cakes, large and small that require short but high cooking temperatures; fruit cakes and tea breads that require a slower, gentler baking temperature; pastries and pies that require moderate temperatures; meringues that must have a low enough temperature to stay white but enough to cook; and biscuits that will crisp and brown evenly whatever their composition and cooking temperature. The ESSE Electric made light work of them all. I used both ovens and chose the one most suitable at the time - opting for the larger oven for large quantities and usually the lower oven for low temperature items or those with a lengthy cooking time. (Not because it is inferior in any way but it simply kept the top oven free for cooking other items). Both ovens worked well, although the top oven sometimes cooked a little faster than the bottom in the low to moderate cooking range but not so much as to cause concern.

These have been cooked on the hob, in the ovens and also under the grill. All gave good results. The grill often seemed slow to heat compared to my previous electric and gas grills and I imagined that it might give me problems with grilling items to ‘rare’. This wasn’t the case and steaks of 2cm thickness and above could be cooked so that the outside was brown and crisp and the inside rare and juicy - a triumph. I also baked marinated chops in the top of the top oven at a high temperature and achieved excellent results. The hobs also heated frying pans to a good high temperature for frying steaks, chops, chicken fillets etc. The hob was also good for sautéing meat and poultry.

A large selection of dishes have been tried from the simple poached egg to the more exotic whole poached sea bass; and the shallow fried french toast to the deep fried beignets. Again the flexibility of the controls ensured success. I have always been very reluctant to deep fry on the hob of a true range style cooker - sliding pans of hot oil around to get just the right degree of cooking is, for me, a recipe for disaster. The ESSE hob controls however are flexible and responsive enough to deem this unnecessary.

Perfection! Whether I chose to cook a stew or casserole from scratch first on the hob then in the oven fairly quickly at a moderate temperature; or put a long-standing family favourite in the oven at a low temperature for hours on end the results were tender, succulent and aromatic. I often used the bottom oven for this since a large casserole sits snugly on the bottom set of runners leaving the top oven for cooking any accompaniments at a later stage. On one occasion I batch cooked 6 medium casseroles using both the top and bottom ovens to their full capacity. Cooking times were not impaired even though this was a very large load and the results were very acceptable.

Soups could also be loosely placed in this category and I have made quite a few good soups on the hob and a wonderful French Onion Soup with cheesy crouton floats in the oven.

I have been able to cook a large variety of sauces with pleasing results. Many were standard white and flavoured sauces but others were very temperature sensitive like hollandaise and egg custard. The ability of the hob to cook evenly at low temperatures and in a gentle enough fashion ensured success for these latter recipes.

I had hoped to cook a quiche or flan on the oven floor thereby dispensing with the need to bake the pastry case ‘blind’ before adding the filling. However, I noticed in the handbook that it states “Food or utensils should not be placed on the base of the oven, as it gets very hot”, so I didn’t try it - but I expect it would work! I did try a conventional recipe for a quiche with all the tedium of baking blind etc. and it worked well.

I did stir-fry several meat and vegetable mixtures using a deep frying pan but my wok cannot be used on a ceramic surface. I know there are woks available for use on ceramic hobs and have little doubt that the ESSE Electric hob would be able to cope easily with the high temperatures and wide surface area required for wok style cooking.

For the last couple of weeks I have been busy bottling fruit and making countless preserves from my kitchen and fruit garden. The large and deep top oven has proved indispensable for large clip-top Kilner jars and the bottom oven easily holds three trays of fruit rings for drying. Whether I needed a high hob temperature to bring chutney ingredients to the boil, a moderate temperature for bottling pears in the oven or a low and steady even temperature for drying apple slices, the ESSE coped magnificently.

I do have an independent toaster so rarely would use the grill for toasting although I know it gives adequate results. I did try my old hinged Aga Toaster on the hob and it worked well.

I had sorely missed a range style jacket potato always saying there wasn’t anything else to compare one to. The ESSE Electric didn’t let me down and within 1 hour I had a crisply baked jacket potato with fluffy flesh. I have also enjoyed stuffed and baked onions, stuffed peppers, baked garlic (wonderful for spreading on fresh bread), butter drizzled and baked mushrooms of dinner plate size and baked or roasted mixed vegetable concoctions on either the winter or summer theme.