How intelligent is your house? Most of us are familiar with the ‘mainstream’ smart home devices that have proliferated in recent years. However, these days, automating our abode, to one degree or another, has simply become the norm. Devices that were the domain of science-fiction ten or so years ago, seem fairly unremarkable today. In fact, it’s hard to imagine life without

 Amazon’s Alexa and Echo, Google’s Assistant or Apple’s HomeKit – and frankly, who would want to? They make everything so much faster, easier and more accessible. These voice-controlled “personal assistants” can shuffle music, provide information, and even tell you the weather forecast. They also play a key role in terms of smart home control.

Installing a new kitchen has always involved a lot of choices. Colours, materials, layout, appliances, furniture and finishes are just some of the key elements to decide on. But technology increasingly has a role to play within the ultimate modern kitchen. That’s because today’s top-quality appliances double up as smart home devices.

Luxury kitchens don’t just look good, they perform well too. Designed to the highest specifications, our Sense Premium cooking collection provides an unrivalled intelligent appliance experience. However, the latest additions to this range (which already includes wine cabinets) are smart ovens and a matching microwave.

We have specifically designed our new cooking appliances to work with smart home devices. I think our advanced new collection of Wi-Fi models is set to change the way in which we use smart ovens in the UK. So, the most recent addition to the Sense Premium collection is our luxury C2600GM Pyrolytic Single Oven, which is also available in black glass (C2600), gunmetal (C2600GM) and stainless steel (C2600SS) finishes. It features no fewer than 23 functions, including the pyro setting, which heats the oven to 475°C. More on this to follow…

Crucially, our Wi-Fi oven is compatible with smartphone technology – more specifically with our own in-house designed CapleHome app. This is packed full of features such as family-favourite recipe settings and multi-stage cooking times. However, we have designed everything to make meal times easier for those in the UK, and can even take the guesswork out of cooking. For the latter, simply connect to your oven using your smartphone and you can supervise dinner without even needing to be in the kitchen!

Whatever you and your family enjoy eating, our new C2600 smart oven can help you prepare it. For example, Sunday lunch lovers can select the roast setting. This automatically heats the oven to 250°C, before dropping to the set temperature, which seals the meat. Do you love baking? Choose the proving function for perfectly risen bread. We added a handy dehydrate option too,

which removes moisture from food, to dry and preserve it. Hungry and in a hurry? Our special setting ensures perfectly cooked Italian-style pizza in just two-and-a-half minutes. And, if you need to plan ahead, you can use the keep warm and keep warm+ settings. There’s even a Sabbath mode, which provides conventional heat with a time and temperature for up to 74 hours.

Our CMS260SS (right) is state-of-the-art with the ability to use the microwave with steam which you can operate via our CapleHome app.

Also joining our Sense Premium collection this month is our new built-in combination microwave with steam. Our advanced CMS260ss model allows you to steam, grill, bake or microwave your food and it’s tailored towards the UK market. And, like other smart home devices, it too is Wi-Fi-enabled (and compatible with our CapleHome app).

I think this model is the perfect choice for anyone who enjoys experimenting with multiple cooking needs. It certainly looks amazing in-situ in a bank of ovens in a luxury kitchen environment. But it’s also a practical option if space is tight, and you require one multi-tasking appliance. It incorporates a roomy 40-litre capacity and a turntable-free design,

which means you can fit larger dishes into the cooking cavity. Like our new C2600 smart oven, the CMS260 is available in on-trend gunmetal (CMS260GM), stainless steel (CMS260SS) and black glass (CMS260) finishes. It features 14 functions, including Steam+, allowing you to inject steam into the cavity throughout your cooking at your chosen pre-set times, giving you perfect results. Great for crispy crusts on bread.

Other highlights include the microwave combi and steam setting, and the microwave and steam function. I think this new model really is endlessly versatile! These days, so many of us are turning to fresh food to create mouth-watering dishes. And you’ll find the steam setting on our state-of-the-art CMS260 will enable each dish to retain all the nutrients alongside everything you would expect

from a high-performance microwave. It’s one of my favourite functions and I love the way this works; the appliance will rise to a temperature of 100°C then the microwave and steam settings alternate, so you are left with perfectly cooked food on every occasion. This intelligent function offers the convenience and speed of microwave cooking with the benefits of steam cooking, while retaining the moisture, which is revolutionary.