1 post tagged “frigidaire flair custom imperial”
Sooner or later, I had to write an ode to my obsession of the last 3 years......the 44 (or so) year old oven in my kitchen. I absolutely LOVE it. I have never been so attached to an appliance in my entire life. In fact I have a closer relationship to it than I have to most people, which, when you look at it, is kind of sad statement on my relationships with people, but I digress.
Actually, when I first moved in with my future husband four years ago, I hated that oven. He lived in a 40 plus year old house, and everything in it was 40 plus years old too. Stepping into this house is like stepping back in time. The spirits of progress, home maintenance and remodeling have never stopped here; as though an overpass were built over us on the spirit superhighway.
As a professional pastry chef, I felt it was a punishment bestowed on me to have to deal with a "substandard" kitchen in my personal life, and I was stuck with an old beat up oven that had probably never been cleaned in it's entire 40 years. Not only that, but it was almost completely useless. It had four burners, but only one worked. It was a double oven, but only the small one worked. Even worse, I couldn't get a lot of normal sized baking dishes in the small oven......never mind a Thanksgiving turkey. Because of this hindrance, the first year I lived here, we tried smoking a turkey, but we couldn't find rolling papers that big. No! I kid! We used our outdoor smoker, but you know, if you're going to smoke a turkey, you need to do it slowly over a couple of days. It's not something you can pull off in under 6 hours. Needless to say, we ate smoked turkey leather that year.
I finally had really just had it with that piece of crap oven and I was frustrated beyond belief. How could I perform my housewifely duties with substandard equipment? I kept pushing my husband about remodeling, but he always deflected the topic when I brought it up. Later, after I took over the family bookkeeping, I discovered that a remodel was WAY OFF into the future, if ever. Ok fine. Forget the remodel. How about a new oven, at least!!!??? Something that works?? Something I could cook dinner on? One small problem....when the kitchen was built 40 plus years ago, it was built around the oven, since it was so "state of the art" at the time. It was the "oven of the future!" If I got a NEW, as in, built after the year 2000, oven, I would have to cut the cabinet that my Flair was sitting on out..... and I would lose cabinet space, and also, the new oven would look horrifically out of place in my old, 1960's kitchen. Frigidaire Flairs came with an optional base cabinet that they sat on if you didn't build a kitchen to accommodate them....in my case, the kitchen was built for it, meaning that we had our own custom built cabinets sitting underneath. What to do?
On a whim I decided to search eBay to see if MAYBE someone was trying to get rid of an old Flair that at least worked better than the one I had. What luck! Not one Flair, but many Flairs were up for sale! There was a beautiful one in Michigan that I missed out on, and another hindrance was that many people refused to ship the ovens because of the hassle, stating "local pickup only".....much to my chagrin. Finally, I saw a listing from a guy in Kansas City who was actually willing to ship to the winning bidder. The Flair he was offering was in perfect working condition except for the clock (which is pretty normal....hardly any clocks work on old Flairs). I won the auction for a final price of $200.....the shipping was $250, but totally worth it! My husband installed the "new" old Flair and we took the old old Flair to the dump.....it was beyond repair unfortunately, although we salvaged some parts from it, for future repair purposes.
Now that I had a WORKING Flair oven, I fell in love! I love the fact that it's a double oven. I love that the ovens are at eye level, and I can see right into them. I love the "speed heat" burner and the "heat minder" burner. Although the stovetop can slide inside and be out of sight, I never slide it in, because I use it so much. My Flair fits right in with my old kitchen since that's the kitchen I will have to live with for some time to come.
You'd think that since I finally possessed a working oven, the story would end there. Not so fast. My Flair still needs work. I'd love for the clock to work, and the timer. The Flair also came with some neato optional features, like the "Kant Slide Griddle", the rotisserie, the "Broiler Grill" and a meat probe. The meat probe wasn't optional, but seems to be missing from almost any Flair owner's inventory. I got a Kant Slide Griddle, but I am still hunting for the Broiler Grill, the meat probe and the HOLY GRAIL, the rotisserie attachment! I KNOW there's someone out there with a Flair, in good condition, and has all those accessories too! I'm just waiting........for you to give them up.
I love my old crappy 1960's kitchen. I love my Flair! I'm a chef that knows how to "make do", as well as "make dough".
For other Flair owners, here's a couple of links you might find fun and useful:
Frigidaire Flair Forums and Tech Talk Manual Download!
Dan Langdon's Flair Page!
Actually, when I first moved in with my future husband four years ago, I hated that oven. He lived in a 40 plus year old house, and everything in it was 40 plus years old too. Stepping into this house is like stepping back in time. The spirits of progress, home maintenance and remodeling have never stopped here; as though an overpass were built over us on the spirit superhighway.
As a professional pastry chef, I felt it was a punishment bestowed on me to have to deal with a "substandard" kitchen in my personal life, and I was stuck with an old beat up oven that had probably never been cleaned in it's entire 40 years. Not only that, but it was almost completely useless. It had four burners, but only one worked. It was a double oven, but only the small one worked. Even worse, I couldn't get a lot of normal sized baking dishes in the small oven......never mind a Thanksgiving turkey. Because of this hindrance, the first year I lived here, we tried smoking a turkey, but we couldn't find rolling papers that big. No! I kid! We used our outdoor smoker, but you know, if you're going to smoke a turkey, you need to do it slowly over a couple of days. It's not something you can pull off in under 6 hours. Needless to say, we ate smoked turkey leather that year.
I finally had really just had it with that piece of crap oven and I was frustrated beyond belief. How could I perform my housewifely duties with substandard equipment? I kept pushing my husband about remodeling, but he always deflected the topic when I brought it up. Later, after I took over the family bookkeeping, I discovered that a remodel was WAY OFF into the future, if ever. Ok fine. Forget the remodel. How about a new oven, at least!!!??? Something that works?? Something I could cook dinner on? One small problem....when the kitchen was built 40 plus years ago, it was built around the oven, since it was so "state of the art" at the time. It was the "oven of the future!" If I got a NEW, as in, built after the year 2000, oven, I would have to cut the cabinet that my Flair was sitting on out..... and I would lose cabinet space, and also, the new oven would look horrifically out of place in my old, 1960's kitchen. Frigidaire Flairs came with an optional base cabinet that they sat on if you didn't build a kitchen to accommodate them....in my case, the kitchen was built for it, meaning that we had our own custom built cabinets sitting underneath. What to do?
On a whim I decided to search eBay to see if MAYBE someone was trying to get rid of an old Flair that at least worked better than the one I had. What luck! Not one Flair, but many Flairs were up for sale! There was a beautiful one in Michigan that I missed out on, and another hindrance was that many people refused to ship the ovens because of the hassle, stating "local pickup only".....much to my chagrin. Finally, I saw a listing from a guy in Kansas City who was actually willing to ship to the winning bidder. The Flair he was offering was in perfect working condition except for the clock (which is pretty normal....hardly any clocks work on old Flairs). I won the auction for a final price of $200.....the shipping was $250, but totally worth it! My husband installed the "new" old Flair and we took the old old Flair to the dump.....it was beyond repair unfortunately, although we salvaged some parts from it, for future repair purposes.
Now that I had a WORKING Flair oven, I fell in love! I love the fact that it's a double oven. I love that the ovens are at eye level, and I can see right into them. I love the "speed heat" burner and the "heat minder" burner. Although the stovetop can slide inside and be out of sight, I never slide it in, because I use it so much. My Flair fits right in with my old kitchen since that's the kitchen I will have to live with for some time to come.
You'd think that since I finally possessed a working oven, the story would end there. Not so fast. My Flair still needs work. I'd love for the clock to work, and the timer. The Flair also came with some neato optional features, like the "Kant Slide Griddle", the rotisserie, the "Broiler Grill" and a meat probe. The meat probe wasn't optional, but seems to be missing from almost any Flair owner's inventory. I got a Kant Slide Griddle, but I am still hunting for the Broiler Grill, the meat probe and the HOLY GRAIL, the rotisserie attachment! I KNOW there's someone out there with a Flair, in good condition, and has all those accessories too! I'm just waiting........for you to give them up.
I love my old crappy 1960's kitchen. I love my Flair! I'm a chef that knows how to "make do", as well as "make dough".
Frigidaire Flair Forums and Tech Talk Manual Download!
Dan Langdon's Flair Page!
