BEST Designer Cooker Hoods website

Best is a brand of good quality cooker hoods - originating from Italy - but now part of the American group Nortek Inc. (a big player in domestic and industrial ventilation). The hoods are currently made both in Italy and in Poland and they were introduced into this country in 2010 by range cooker specialists Britannia Living who are the UK distributors.

There's a big advantage to having such a specialist distributor. You can contact Britannia with any technical questions about the hoods, before buying, and Britannia also have their own engineers for any after sales servicing that becomes necessary.

It was the Double Vertigo cooker hood, pictured above, that first caught my attention - at the 2010 KBB trade show at the NEC. That's one eye catching hood! It's like many pendant cooker hoods, in that it can only re-circulate the air (removing any smells at the same time) but it would certainly create a statement in your kitchen.

There are a wide range of cooker hoods in Best's new 2011 brochure ... visit their website to request a copy. You'll also find lots of news (not surprisingly!) but also lots of useful information in their News section ... it's good to see a kitchen brand making such good use of the internet.

I think my favourite Best cooker hood is the "Secret". It too can be used as a pendant island hood ... but it has an optional steel chimney section - which allows it to be vented to the outside. The two pictures on the left (below) show the standard finishes for the Secret hood: black and white (without and with the chimney section). I mocked up a CAD picture of the white version for some clients (bottom right) ... but the hood also takes custom glass panels, so you could match the hood to the rest of your kitchen ... or you could get creative and have artistic glass panels made (like the blue one - shown at this year's Homebuilding and Renovating show).

There are lots more Best cooker hoods worth a mention - like the circular Equinox and elegant Surf, wall mounted models. If you're looking for a stunning effect, though - how about a ceiling hood? The Phobos and Enigma hoods (pictured below) would make a subtle but forceful statement in your kitchen.

As you would expect from a high quality cooker hood brand, Best also do worktop mounted, downdraft extractors and they have a remote and an external motor which can be used in conjunction with some of their hoods.

Well worth a look!