ENO Le Gascogne

General Description

This is the upmarket version of the ENO Open Sea cooker which is £100 cheaper and is fitted to new Bénéteau and Jeanneau boats. The ENO Gascogne comes in two versions, with or without a grill. The grill is situated in the top of the oven. Both have two hotplate burners and an oven. Neither has a thermostatically controlled oven but both have electronic ignition on all burners. The exterior faces of the cookers are Stainless steel, while the oven interiors are made from enamelled coated steel.

Effectiveness and functionality

The large hotplate spillage tray will catch the contents of a boiled over saucepan easily. The hotplates are surrounded by a splash guard to keep spills contained. The grill burner runs front to back and produces fairly good toast, but it will require to be turned several times. The grill (A) takes up nearly a third of valuable oven space. The oven has a powerful horseshoe-shaped burner that can deliver temperatures in excess of 300°C. The grill deflection plate pulls out from the top of the oven to stop the plastic knobs melting. The pan clamps are solid and easy to adjust. The harbour gimbal lock (B) is simple and effective.

Cleaning

Cleaning is made easy, as the pan support and clamp assembly (C) unlatches and lifts up, a support leg holding it in place. There are a few places for grease and dirt to collect. The markings on the screen-printed facia panel will not survive vigorous or prolonged cleaning.

Installation

This is a 500mm-wide cooker that comes with mounting plates. It comes from a very long line of cookers all of which are the same dimension, so if you are replacing an old ENO or Optimus cooker, this one will slip into the same mounting points with no adjustment required.

Servicing

The cooker is held together with screws so it is easy to take apart. This makes replacing thermocouples, burners and valves fairly straightforward provided that the screws in the burners are not badly corroded. The common parts to fail will be thermocouples, burner crown rings and caps. The oven thermocouple can be accessed by removing the spillage tray and side panel.

The Verdict

This is a smart and attractive cooker. The large burner boils a kettle quickly. It is of a reasonable build quality, certainly better than its cheaper Open Sea, but does have a few sharp edges at the rear. The oven does not have a thermostat, and you would expect to see one in a cooker of this price. But on the whole it makes a good replacement for an older ENO or Optimus cooker.
If previous models are anything to go by it should give good service.

Buy the ENO Le Gascogne from the Marine Shop