It is a man's new playground

There is some good news for all those men who have taken to cooking as a hobby or as a major stress-buster (a secret women knew all along).

The luxury brand Porsche Design and Germany's oldest high-end furniture and kitchen makers Poggenpohl have teamed up to create a kitchen that has been designed especially for men.

However, this helpmate does not come cheap and the starting price of this kitchen called P'7340 Poggenpohl Porsche Design kitchen is Dh753,000 (net price).

Thomas Oberle, Global Public Relations Director for Poggenpohl told Emirates Business: "We are one of the oldest furniture manufacturers in the world as we were set up in 1892.

"More than 100 years ago, our master cabinet-maker Friedemir Poggenpohl decided that our goal was to improve the kitchen. This has been our guiding principle since then we have tried to break away from established modes of thinking and to discover the best possible solutions at every stage.

"We come out with an innovative kitchens every two years and had been mulling over a kitchen that would be designed especially for men as more and more successful, young, metrosexual males are opting to enter the domain that has traditionally belong to women until now.

"We had also been looking for a luxury brand to partner with. As we are the experts in luxury kitchens and Porsche Design specialises in high-end products for men, it was only natural for us to collaborate with them on this project. It took two years to design this kitchen. While its design came from Porsche Design, the technology and the manufacturing was ours."

A rectangle provides the starting point for this kitchen. Unlike the classic fitted kitchen, elements no longer need to be arranged side-by-side but can be positioned anywhere within the frame.

The kitchen has been made out of the best quality wood, glass and aluminium.

Oberle said: "This kitchen has been designed for men by men. We understand that men always want the best tools whenever they decide to do any work around the house.

"So naturally this kitchen had to be designed using the best materials," he said.

"In particular, the concentration on the finishes is unique. Metallic materials are sealed with special anodised coatings in exclusive colour shades, while wooden surfaces display an open texture, reinforcing an animated look.

"Back-lacquering brings out the materiality of glazing and satinised, surfaces appear silky matt. In high gloss, surface colours achieve absolute brilliance," said Oberle.

The kitchen has a handless face and swing-up flaps open in response to a mere press of the finger. Lateral spacer pins push the flap forward by a distance that permits easy, convenient opening by hand. Pushed up, it is held in any chosen position.

The doors, drawers and pull-outs also open at the slight touch of a finger and a slight push is all it takes to shut them and over the last few centimetres, they automatically pull themselves into the
closed position. This is important, as it is an open design state-of-the-art kitchen and it will not do to have the drawers and closets hanging open.

The practical layout of drawer interiors ensures a convenient and clearly structured system of organisation. High-quality wooden containers can be combined in any way and supplemented by inserts that provide flexibility of use. A cross-shaped wooden insert organises the basic element and keeps bottles upright.

This kitchen is also easy to clean as burners have been replaced by a induction hob that responds almost as quickly as gas but generates far less unwanted heat.

As heat is not produced on the hob but directly in the pan base, no energy is lost to the surrounding area. Spills cannot burn onto the hob surface and are easy to wipe away.

Touch controls at the front permit individually tailored programming, such as automatic boil start, acoustic signal, residual heat indicator, cooking time selection, timer function, automatic switch off function and safety lock. The five cooking zones come with convenient pan recognition technology that automatically adjusts the supply of heat to the saucepan or frying pan diametre. The other feature is that the sink has a touch control that operates the bowl's plug. The ring lights up blue when the plug is in the plughole and water cannot drain away.

Oberle said: "This is so that the user does not have to put his hand inside the sink to drain way the dirty water after washing."

This kitchen also comes with a dining table and island bar that are identical in design and finish.

Oberle said: "But the best part of this kitchen is that it has a multimedia system so that the user can watch TV, or a movie on his DVD or work on his PC or listen to music on his iPod as most men like to multi-task."

The built-in multimedia LCD module has been specially developed to bring moving pictures with sound to glass surfaces. It requires no thermal ventilation and is equipped with an innovative and extremely small sound system. As a plug-&-play solution, it provides analogue and digital connection capabilities.

The hi-tech screen can also be integrated in the kitchen work area. As all of the electronics are installed behind glass, they are protected from dirt and splashes of water.

The kitchen also comes equipped with an oven, steam oven, coffee machine, refrigerator and dish washer that have been specifically designed for this kitchen by Miele.

So go ahead and cook up a storm in this new male domain.