We are in the middle of a major renovation (read that as EXTREME MAKE OVER) of our kitchen including taking down some walls and replacing the entire hardwood floor on the first level. However the center piece of the renovation is the Lacanche Pianos Gastronomes, in a deep Rouge Bourgogne.
The Lacanche brand is manufactured by Société Industrielle de Lacanche S.I.L, which is located in the village of Lacanche, in the department of Côte d’Or. The origin of the business commenced in eighteenth century when the owner of the land decided to combine the local iron ore that ran under his property and use the local wood and water to produce cast iron products.
Originally the produced all types of cast iron stoves (for heating not cuisine) but then in the early 1900s migrated into wood fired stove/ovens. The factory remained in the family until 1972 when it was sold to the Valéo Company, however by 1981 Valéo decided to divest of the business.
That decision created the opportunity for André Augagneur, a former employee to acquire the property who with his son Jean-Jacques have transformed the Lacanche line to a world class manufacturer of Pianos Gastronomes.
When we placed our order for our piano we were informed that they only manufacture the products to order and that it would take six to eight weeks for the piano to be produced. Thus we decided that we should take a trip to Burgundy and visit the factory. Boy are we glad we did ask for a tour.
Upon arriving in the village, you see a town that looks like time has past by, and we had a hard time trying to find the factory. However we finally found these small signs that lead us to the main entrance.
We were given a tour by the sales manager for International Operations so it was great that we could have him explain to us the production process in English. Almost the entire product line is manufactured in this factory and the only process performed elsewhere is the enameling of the pianos.
The factory uses many state of the art techniques including robotics but you still can feel the Artisan pride of the people who manufacture the various parts and for those to handle the assembly. The final step of the process is a computer quality assurance process that tests every combination of usage and only once the piano passes, is the piano given its serial number.
We are now anxiously awaiting the completion of our piano so that it can be shipped to Le Bugue and installed in our cuisine.
You can get more information about Lacanche from their website or from their International website.
One of the Lacanche Pianos in the showroom.
The entrance to the Lacanche factory.
The machine that cuts out the stainless steel pieces.
One of the many stamping machines that form the walls of the Lacanche ovens.
Another one of the machines that cut out the stainless steel pieces.
The factory is highly automated using what looks like state of the art robots.
One of the processes which can not be automated, where the edges of the walls are ground to form the perfect edge. These edges are curved and not straight which provides a stronger joint.
The standard models assembly line. The difference is that for the standard models, the oven travels from station to station and multiple people will work on the oven.
One of the rouge bourgogne pianos that is almost fully assembled.
A completed Lacanche piano ready for quality control testing. This is the same model that we are buying, but ours will be Burgundy Rouge.
The Lacanche Rotisserie, one of the many options that you can choose from.
One of the original furnaces that the Lacanche factory used to melt the iron ore.
The Lacanche Logo.
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