Once it was an Aga that signified an aspirational kitchen. Now you have made it if your refrigerator has two doors and an ice maker. Could it be the cost of oil? Climate change? Or the new way of cooking (or not cooking): plating up deli buys rather than spending hours sweating over a stove. Whatever the reason, forget a retro range — the smart kitchen must-have is a statement fridge.
“I completely love my Sub Zero. It ruined any other fridge for me,” Pascale Smets says. She is the owner of not one but two mammoth refrigerators by the cult American brand. “Our first, in Suffolk, is probably 15 years old. Our London one required a crane and a team of six people to get it into the basement, but we felt it was worth it. It is one of those purchases where the pain of the eyewatering expense is forgotten because it is so brilliant.” Smets, a former fashion designer and founder of the online interiors store Pascale (pascalestore.co.uk), which has a concession opening in Heal’s on Tottenham Court Road, west London, in September, was not attracted only by her fridge’s good looks. “They are so solid and so well made. Food definitely stays fresher. You’d obviously have to live for a thousand years to recoup the cost in longer-lasting lettuce.”
Ah yes, the cost. Smets has the ICBBI-36UID, a popular over-and-under model — with freezer drawer below — which would now set her back £14,950 plus VAT (subzero-wolf.co.uk). Interior designers report that when it comes to kitchen projects statement fridges are taking centre stage.
“Fisher & Paykel is definitely the fridge du jour. It does seem to be the one that everyone wants,” says Joanna Plant, an interior designer. “Since lockdown people are thinking about food in a different way, possibly cooking more from scratch, so their relationship with their fridge has changed. And there is that satisfaction in something you use multiple times a day that feels good. The weight of the door, that satisfying clunk when you close it . . . ”
Yet that doesn’t quite explain why her clients are willing to shell out a five-figure sum for a high-end one. Surely you can get the clunk for less cash? “There’s also that whole kind of status notion around it,” she says. “It’s, like, my watch is a Rolex, my car is a Range Rover, I’ve got a Sub Zero in the kitchen.”
Advertisement
A fancy fridge is a conversation starter, as Jessie Hewitson, deputy money editor for The Times and The Sunday Times, found. At her seven-year-old’s recent birthday party the mums and dads crowded into the kitchen to “ooh” and “aah” over her new Samsung and quiz her over its capability. Did it have frost-free tech? (Yes.) Cubed and crushed ice functions? (Yes.) And how many bags of groceries did it store? (Thirty-five, actually.)
“I’ve never coveted an Aga, just the fridge,” she says. “I grew up watching Fresh Prince and all those American shows where everyone had big fridges. I had always wanted a fridge that made ice and filtered water. I thought, when I’m older I’m going to get one of those. I found myself watching videos of fridges in the evenings . . . Now I’ve got it, it’s every bit as good as I hoped it would be.”
Hewitson bought a Samsung Plumbed American fridge-freezer (£1,539; ao.com). “It’s so big that last night I was really tired and I cooked something and couldn’t be bothered to decant it into Tupperware, so I just whacked the saucepan in the fridge.”
Demand for cool fridge-freezers has grown this year — possibly intensified by lapses in supply. At John Lewis, sales of American-style fridges were up 25 per cent on last year, its customers focusing on LG, Fisher & Paykel, Samsung and Siemens. The partnership’s entry-level Samsung, costing £999, is out of stock (johnlewis.com). Of the bestsellers at the online specialist AO, the £606 (reduced from £869) Hisense American fridge-freezer is available, but the £549 (reduced from £689) Fridgemaster sold out before my eyes while I was marvelling at its palatable price tag and 24-bag capacity.
For the mega-rich, an off-the-shelf statement fridge cuts no ice. The next step for the massively moneyed is a walk-in — adding upwards of £20,000 to the cost of a kitchen design. Mike Fisher, the founder and creative director of Studio Indigo, says: “I have one in my house in the country, and we put them in every big project now. They are just so useful. Part of it is practicality. These are big houses. If you have 20 people staying for the weekend, they’re vital.”
Advertisement
Homeowners with walk-ins see these cold rooms, often located in the “catering kitchen” rather than the family kitchen/dining area, as trophy features. “People like to show off their houses. You get the guided tour. They are all completely bespoke. Instead of stainless-steel racking we try to make it a bit more interesting. We mix in some marble and stone shelves.” The future of top-flight home refrigeration, Fisher says, could be pink. “Glass-fronted salt larders: refrigerated spaces lined with Himalayan pink salt bricks.”
What your fridge says about you
Chest freezer in the garage
There are three possibilities. You are a prepper who has stuffed your extra capacity with supermarket ready meals. You are a fan of nose-to-tail eating and have a whole organic pig from the local farm shop on ice. You live in the 1970s. Mine’s a Mivvy, while you’re out there.
The double-door US-style fridge-freezer
It is the stainless-steel centrepiece to your new kitchen, and what it means, my friend, is that you are living the American fridge dream. Friends and family will definitely want to know about its every feature, so memorise how many bags of groceries it holds and whether it has a holiday mode, and tell them about the door-in-door bar. This was truly the best way to spend your stamp duty rebate.
The Instaview fridge
Tap twice on the door of LG’s sci-fi fridge-freezer and it turns transparent. The official explanation for this most fanciful of features is that it keeps cold air in and saves on energy bills, because you open the fridge less often. It says you probably pretend to the kids that you have a magic wand and are likely to own a voice-activated robot vacuum. You are clearly having wizard fun, but we worry you are overeliant on Alexa for your parenting.
Your mum’s old fridge
Dating back to the era when white goods were white and fridges sat quietly under the kitchen counter, this cast-off cooler is the polar opposite of a statement fridge. It doesn’t link to the internet and occasionally needs that most old-timey of attentions: a manual defrost. Above all, it refuses to die. It says you are saving up for a Fisher & Paykel.
Advertisement
A brightly coloured fridge
You are a nostalgic type who loves the retro vibe of a Fifties-look Smeg. Or maybe you have restyled your fridge doors with orange wraps from Vinyl Revolution to jazz up your old grey units. It seemed like a good idea at the time. What you need to know in summer 2022 is that cream is now by far the bestselling colour in Smeg’s FAB range. We beg you to trust in the wisdom of crowds.
A Union Jack fridge
See above regarding colourful fridges and multiply by 100. Fine in 2012, when we were experiencing all the London Olympics feels, but post-Brexit a red, white and blue fridge is just trolling your Remainer friends.
