I have long been fascinated by the typical kitchen featured in my favorite design mag, The English Home. There, among the bespoke cabinetry and cut-stone flooring, one almost always encounters an AGA cooker.

Yellow Aga on a black-and-white floor (dog not included)

Aga (rhymes with “saga”) is a marvelous piece of  machinery. Totally impractical for Central Texas, the original concept for the Aga is an oven that is always on. The wood-burning stove is kept constantly stoked (by the servants, of course), with each oven compartment designed to constantly maintain a different temperature. The radiant-style heat is similar to a baker’s brick oven. Hotplates on the stove top offer an intense heat that promises to boil water almost instantly. Don’t you just love it?

Articles in The English Home abound with recollections of families gathered around the Aga as their hot spiced cider simmers. This would be your average May day in England; the depth of winter in these parts.

And here you have the secret of the Aga’s success. Not only is it “kind to food” as they say at www.aga-web.co.uk , it is the perfect foil against those cold, damp English days. Today’s Aga is gas-powered (although you can still buy the traditional wood-burner) and is quite energy-efficient. And check out the colors!