Oi! I'm an Aga lout

Published on Monday 26 May 2008 20:55

Much loved by farmers' wives and yummy mummies, the iconic range is battling to prove its green credentials

THERE was a time when the Aga cooker was synonymous with doughty farmers' wives who would spend all day in the kitchen producing gallons of jam and mountains of scones.

More recently, however, it has become a status symbol. Obviously the price itself does some of the snob-factor work – at 6,757 for the basic two-door oven, most people would work out that you could probably get several fully fitted kitchens from IKEA for that. A marketing campaign called Love Aga, which made them look sexy, with cool new colours, helped as well.

The fact that Jamie Oliver uses the same cooking appliance on his latest TV series as was seen on Two Fat Ladies more than a decade ago says it all. Get rid of that image of the pinny-wearing members of the Woman's Institute, think instead about former Blur bass player Alex James and Elizabeth Hurley, who are both Aga owners.

Of course, I'm biased, as I own what my friend Amanda calls "the ultimate cooking machine". I'm supposedly the envy of every yummy mummy the length and breadth of Britain who is still cooking with convection.

But there's a cloud on the horizon: for the first time in eight years, sales of Agas are falling. The green brigade like these fuel-guzzling cookers as much as they like Hummers on the school run. We have been branded Aga louts – I'm expecting Jonathon Porritt at my door brandishing an ASBO (anti-social baking order) any day.

Stuart Hay, the head of campaigns at Friends of the Earth Scotland, says: "Despite being an understandably much-loved part of many people's homes, environmentally speaking Agas really don't cut the mustard. Those wanting to make a big difference to their environmental impact are unfortunately advised to go for another option."

Adrian Brewer from Sussex recently wrote in a Sunday newspaper about deciding to ditch the Aga in his farmhouse. The main reason was taken on an environmental stance, but budget also came into it when he calculated that it used 40 litres of kerosene a week, 2,080 litres a year. Oil prices are going through the roof, so bills have almost doubled in a year – above 1,000 per year at current oil prices.

But I'm not giving up without a fight. I've got an emerald-hued conscience: I recycle and reuse; rarely fly and even have an "e-cloth" for cleaning. When it comes to carbon footprints, mine is about the size of pink-attired dancing mouse Angelina Ballerina's.

And over at Aga they have an answer to the accusations heaped at their door by environmentalists. A spokesman for the company says: "Not only does it have a far greater average lifespan than conventional domestic cookers and other appliances, but its main components are made from waste-recycled iron – literally old car engine parts, pipes, gutters and so on."

The first part of this is an understatement to say the least. When my parents bought a farmhouse around 50 years ago, it came with an Aga. Since then my brother and his wife, a professional cook, have moved in and still have that same oven. In half a century goodness knows how many regular cookers would have come and gone in an effort to cope with the amount of food that the trusty old Aga has churned out. The production and destruction of these cookers is a huge environmental problem. And I doubt that they could multitask: could orphan lambs be revived under a Hotpoint electric grill, as they can be in the warming oven of an Aga (with the door left ajar)?

An Aga may always be on, but can be efficient if you use the constant heat correctly. The cooler ovens are fabulous for leaving a casserole in for hours on end, rather than on the top hotplate with the lid up, wastefully pouring out heat. Also, Aga owners have no need for an energy-guzzling tumble dryer. When it comes to drying that pair of jeans, there's no faster way than hanging them over the bar at the front of the cooker. And the really organised Aga lover will have their machine linked up to the hot water system, also keeping bills down.

Jamie Landale, the managing director of Wilde Thyme catering in Perthshire, inherited his Aga when the family bought a house in Crieff in 2003. "Not having owned one before I found it a bit difficult to begin with, but now we wouldn't be without it," he says.

"It's more than just a cooker, it's a piece of furniture which is infinitely nicer than any other cooking appliance on the market.

"We do turn the heat down in the summer and generally barbecue everything. People are amazed that we don't have a microwave, but with an Aga we've never felt the need.

"One thing that frustrates me is that everyone wants to stand around it; it's great to have it as the hub of our kitchen but sometimes I want them to get lost so I can get on with cooking,"

It's difficult to find an Aga owner who doesn't wax lyrical about them. A few years ago, Frances Miller and her husband decided to leave the rat race and bought a large house in East Lothian.

"When we moved in the first thing on my list was to get rid of was the big hunk of cast iron in the kitchen," she says. "However, I didn't get round to it and within a few weeks I vowed never to live without one again".

Indeed, when the rodent-running life beckoned them back to living in Edinburgh once more, out went the top-of-the-range appliance that had been installed by the developers and in went an Aga.

For those for whom the price is a problem, it's not difficult to track down second-hand Agas. I bought mine for about 3,000; still quite a hefty investment but as I plan to live in my flat for as long as the children are around I should get at least 15 years out of it. What's more, there's nothing like an Aga to make an Edinburgh estate agent's face light up, so when we do sell up it should add to the value.

Back at Aga they are going all out to appease the Save The Planet posse. The 13 amp electric model, which was launched a few years ago, now accounts for more than half the sales. And, they add: "Already Aga models are available with special pressure jet burners, which can run on kerosene oil or diesel (gas only). They will be capable of utilising biofuels once they become more widely available and Aga is working with several key industry players and leading universities to remain at the forefront moves to bring this new energy source into domestic homes."

But what of the woman who introduced me to the joys of Aga so many years ago? She is still living in the countryside, but my 79-year-old mother has gone green on me and whenever she visits, she eyes up my Aga and tells me she now switches hers off from May to September. Instead, she has invested in a Remoska, designed in pre-war Czechoslovakia and able to cook anything she wants using only 300 watts, powered by the solar panels on her roof.

This is of course very laudable and very environmentally-friendly, but I bet she has an awful lot of damp socks lying around.

THE AGA SAGA

THE Aktiebolaget Gas Accumulator was invented in 1922 by the Nobel Prize-winning Swedish physicist, Dr Gustaf Dalen.

Dalen lost his sight in an explosion during an experiment with pressurised liquids and gases and was forced to stay at home. It was during this time that he noticed his wife was exhausted by the constant need to watch over food as it was cooked, and he thus set himself the task of developing an easy-to-use stove capable of handling every cooking technique which would also be powerful enough to heat the whole house.

Working around the principle of heat storage, he combined a small, efficient heat source, two hotplates and two ovens into one compact yet sturdy unit. The cooker was introduced to Britain in 1929 and became very popular with owners of large country homes, later inspiring "Aga Sagas", a literary genre featuring stereotypical Aga owners.

The modern Aga differs very little from the original model, and that's exactly what appeals to the company's customers. The iron castings in the cooker are made at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, where modern iron smelting was invented, and the iconic stove design remains essentially the same.

However, for the more adventurous Aga owner, the modern model is available in around 14 different colours.