And just like that, it was the last day of our EPIC Designhounds “Design for the Senses” NYC tour. 

Our last day was spent with sponsor SKS appliances learning, eating (of course!), cooking, and, in keeping with the sensory theme, sculpting blindfolded?!  AND having a blast doing it all with this fabulous group of new friends! 

We started bright and early with breakfast at the hotel and boarded a coach bus to take us across the river to the NJ LG campus that houses the SKS showroom.

The LG campus is huuuuge and thoughtfully and sustainably designed.  We finally pulled up to the front entrance lobby and were greeted by a green moss wall and a set of stairs declaring the LG motto “Life’s Good”.  And indeed - this day, this week, it most definitely was! 

SKS stands for Signature Kitchen Suite and is a line of luxury kitchen appliances that marries technology with a passion for good food. Appealing to the “technocurian”, their motto is True to Food.

We started our tour with a presentation in the SKS showroom by Danielle Perrone, SKS Senior Brand Marketing Manager, and the unveiling of a brand new product, a wall oven with AI features. We watched the magic as the SKS rep slid a tray of carrots into the oven and the oven identified them and offered the best cooking options.  

The internal camera sees whatever food you put in and offers the various options for the best way to cook it?!   It will, over time, learn your preferences for how to cook things and remember what you like.

Making Mozzarella

Our next stop was down the hall for a cooking class with Vinnie, of Vinnie’s Mootz on making fresh mozzarella.  Part chef, part stand up comedian, Vinnie was so much fun.  We each made our own container of mozzarella to take home in a process that was surprisingly simple.  

A huge spread of charcuterie was laid out for noshing - God forbid we EVER be hungry on this trip! Vinnie sliced up his own bowl of mozzarella and plated out samples for us to try with sliced tomatoes, bread, olive oil, and balsamic cream. Yummmmm.

SKS Showroom Tour

Then we headed back for a tour of the showroom with Eric Oveson, Senior District Sales Manager, and all the appliances on display.

I have a longstanding love affair with cooking and baking (and eating!) and my initial thought was “I don’t want an appliance telling me how to cook”.  But the more I learned, the more I loved how precise and convenient that technology and thoughtful design can make the process.  

Induction burners can measure the magnetic content of your pot or pan so you know how efficient the connection will be. 

Gas cooktop grates butt to create a contiguous surface or individual burner grates can flip to reveal a recess for use with a wok.  

Burner controls offer not only precise heat control but also built in timers so you can keep track of individual pans with ease.

And SKS is the first company to offer a range with built-in sous vide cooking which is the ultimate in precision and the method used by most of the high end restaurants for perfectly cooked meat, fish, eggs, and veggies. 

Ovens have simple intuitive touch screens that save looking up how to roast your poultry or cook your beef to the desired doneness - it already knows all that - you just tell it what you want and it will set the optimal conditions for you.

Features like speed ovens, steam cooking, and air fry are all available in a single appliance…imagine the counter space you could reclaim!  

SKS refrigeration has features like drawers that can convert to freezer or refrigeration mode depending on your needs on any given day.  

Freezers can produce regular ice and craft ice spheres for cocktails which can be dialed in to produce 90% clear ice.

Thoughtful details like removable drawer inserts and adjustable door baskets and engineering that keeps the temperature constant even when you open the door make a difference in performance.

Wine columns are similarly precise to keep your wine in optimal condition for enjoying. 

Their dishwasher has a number of desirable features as well and will dry even the interior of your water bottle perfectly.  It seems the only thing it doesn’t do is put away the clean dishes!

But MOST notable is that SKS has one of the best warranties in the industry, including a 5 day repair promise with a responsive, dedicated US team that aims to have resolution to whatever the issue within 5 days, even promising a 2 hr repair window. 

In spite of being on the cutting edge of technology, SKS is very service oriented so your call will be answered quickly and by an actual person here in the US, NOT a bot with an interminable phone tree to wade through that requests everything including your blood type before you get to - maybe - talk to a human!

Lunch with SKS

Our tour concluded with a delicious four course lunch prepared by Executive Chef Sakari Smithwick of Chopped and Hell’s Kitchen fame, using the various SKS appliances and offering cooking and recipe tips along the way.

I learned that brining salmon in half salt, half sugar, takes the fishiness out…I have definitely been rethinking my relationship with salmon this week LOL! It was delicious. 

Gazpacho was topped with fresh peas, grated lemon rind, and broiled scallops. The salmon course had a delicate sauce perfectly simmered. The chicken course was accompanied with asparagus and delightfully crispy roasted potato, and the dessert featured a sous vide cooked berry compote and Sakari’s grandma’s cake recipe.  

LG Experience Center

After lunch we did a quick jaunt through the LG experience center - an interactive exhibit museum where many a field trip of children visit.

We designed our own digital fish and sent it to swim in the OLED screen digital aquarium, watched an AI robot draw a portrait of one of the designhounds, and saw a green screen demo featuring 3 volunteers from our group running from dinosaurs and discovering a cave of treasure.  

SKS is the MOST gracious hosts.  We left the building laden with our fresh mozzarella containers and gift bags with all sorts of goodies from aprons and olive oil to wine stoppers and pourers.  

Art Experience

Our hosts accompanied us back to the city to our next sensory experience, blindfolded sculpting at the Unarthadox studio.  Trouble with bridge traffic made us late, but we arrived to yet another table full of food…lest we be peckish having not eaten for at least two hours?! 

The blindfolded sculpting experience was accompanied by a curated soundtrack and aromatherapy.  Drinking wine blindfolded proved slightly tricky, but not impossible LOL. 

There were mixed results with the sculpted heads - mine was less than stellar, but it was a fascinating experience.

A quick impromptu stop at the vintage pop-up shop downstairs and we were on our way back to the hotel.

Designhounds Farewell Dinner

Our final dinner at Anejo with Designhounds and was a wonderful way to finish the trip.  The food was delicious…favorites of mine were the cauliflower tacos and the flan, of course…But the best part of the trip was the new friendships that were forged through all the shared experiences and conversations.  

I met some of the most delightful people from all over the country on this trip and I will treasure this memory forever! 

THANK YOU to all our sponsors, SKS, FreePower, ICFF, and Mr. Steam and to the Designhounds team Veronika, Florence, and Ellie for this unforgettable experience!