Hoping consumers will find their way back into the kitchen, appliance makers are bringing on the bling.

Names like Thermador, Viking and some new entrants are heating up the appliance industry, dangling high-end, high-tech equipment known as "kitchen jewelry."

Growing numbers of consumers, hoping to impress guests and take the drudgery out of cooking, are biting – and, in the process, scaling back on dinners out.

"People are constantly embracing technology to make their lives more convenient," said Richard Perlman, chairman of TurboChef Technologies Inc., which makes commercial speed-ovens in Carrollton and will introduce a premium consumer line next year.

"Technology has moved beyond the office and into the emotional spaces of the home, like the kitchen."

For decades, the nation's restaurant industry gobbled up an increasingly large share of the food dollar, as time-pressed working families replaced "Mom's makin' dinner" with "Mom's makin' reservations."

Now, Mollie Kuhn and many other moms are spending big bucks to bring restaurant-caliber equipment into the home.

RANDY ELI GROTHE / DMN

Mollie Kuhn and husband Joe spent about $45,000 on 'kitchen bling.'

Ms. Kuhn moved into her French chateau-style home in Dallas' tony Bluffview area in July. She outfitted her newly built kitchen and cabana with more than $60,000 in state-of-the-art appliances. They include a Viking range that grills, griddles and reportedly cooks 15 percent faster than a conventional oven, and twin stainless-steel Dacor microwave ovens with built-in recipes and sensor modes. (The second oven was added to preserve the kitchen's symmetry.)

Although her three kids still like to go out for pizza, Ms. Kuhn said, they don't go to restaurants as much.

"We still eat out a couple of times a week in terms of evening meals," Ms. Kuhn said. "We used to eat out a lot more, before we had this kitchen. We've added a lot more home meals."

U.S. consumers bought more than $5 billion in cooking appliances in 2004, not counting sales directly to builders, said Dave Stevenson, founder of Louisville-based market researcher Stevenson Co. That's up from $4.9 billion in 2003.

Sales of refrigerators and dishwashers have risen, too, according to wholesale figures from the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers.

While high-end goods are believed to account for less than 10 percent of the U.S. appliance market, sales are picking up, said Gerry Beatty, a senior editor with Home Furnishings News.

Sales in the "superprime" market – where a Wolf dual-fuel range with a "French top" center can set you back $10,000 – have grown by more than 30 percent a year for the last few years, said Mr. Beatty. He noted that some companies are seeing year-over-year growth of 35 percent in their high-end lines.

He attributes the surge in part to the entrée of more household names such as Sears Kenmore and General Electric into a space once populated by crème de la crème vendors such as Diva de Provence.

"We see more and more companies getting into it, so that's evidence that there is a market for high-end appliances," said Jill Notini, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based home appliance association.

Others see the growth as a desire by consumers – ever more sophisticated about food – to replicate meals from TV cooking shows or their favorite dining spots.

Still others chalk it up, at least in part, to "range envy" – the desire to show off decked-out trophy kitchens to friends and party guests.

"A lot of people use [the range] as a showpiece in their kitchen," said Meredith White, marketing manager for Milestone Distributors, the Dallas-area Viking representative. She was standing alongside the same style graphite gray Viking Professional series range that Ms. Kuhn bought.

"There are people who come in who have not cooked one stitch on that $10,000 range," she said.

Lamyen Chen and husband Richard spent about $14,000 to "splurge" on appliances in a kitchen remodel – part of a major overhaul of their Tudor-style home in Dallas' M Streets area.

The two, both 35 and both physicians, saw the high-end stainless steel appliances as an efficient way to accommodate the multiple cooks who gather in their 1920s-era home for visits almost weekly.

But Ms. Chen, who does most of the weekday cooking, admitted that there is a "superficial side of it. Otherwise, do you really need stainless steel?"

"The kitchen has become the unifying room for the family and the place where you welcome your guests," Ms. Chen said. "Before, when it was the living room and dining room, that's where you wanted things to be nice.

"Now, the kitchen is core for entertaining, and you begin to highlight the kitchen," she said.

Bill Long, president of Bill Long Custom Homes Inc. of Plano, estimates that he's seen a 20 percent rise over the last five years in what consumers are willing to fork over for kitchen appliances.

He recognizes that busy families are still eating out.

"It's psychological," he said. "They know they should be using [the appliances]. They want to have them there so they can use them" when time permits.

Consumers' lack of time – and the restaurant industry's ability to deliver serviceable food in a hurry – have dramatically boosted the role of restaurants since the days when we liked Ike.

In 1955, commercially prepared food accounted for about 25 percent of the total food dollar. That figure jumped to 47 percent by 2002, the most recent figure available, and is projected to grow to 53 percent in five years, said Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of research for the National Restaurant Association.

Mindful of that trend, appliance makers are poised for a goal-line stand, appealing to vanity and the cook's need for speed.

TurboChef, the Atlanta-based company with primary operations in Carrollton, plans to launch a premium-priced oven next spring that the company says can cook a 21-pound turkey in 75 minutes. A model will be unveiled to investors next week.

Both Thermador and Viking tout the timesaving properties of their high-end cooking equipment.

But even in a kitchen filled with high-tech appliances, Ms. Kuhn, the Bluffview homeowner, rarely finds time to cook dinner during the week.

Ms. Kuhn, 45, estimates that she and her surgeon husband Joe, 47, work a combined 110 hours a week. She manages the finances for his surgical practice. So most of the cooking falls to housekeeper Maura Casteneda, who makes crispy veggies quicker in the built-in steamer oven.

"We knew we weren't suddenly going to turn into gourmet chefs overnight and cook at home every night," Ms. Kuhn said of herself and her husband. But she added, "This does make it easier for people like me to be in the kitchen. You just push a button."

Ms. Kuhn said she plans to put the equipment through its paces during the holidays.

"It's been an excellent investment," she said, as the built-in Miele cappuccino machine gurgled out a fragrant cup. "This gives you a lot more options."

It's possible to spend more on a kitchen full of appliances than on a luxury car. To get a sense of typical vs. top-shelf models, we asked two experts to provide comparisons*:

*Figures are approximate

SOURCES: Larry Campbell, Jarrell Appliance Gallery; Jay Wysong, Belmont Homes

E-mail krobison@dallasnews.com