At home with Candace Nelson

Candace grew up in Indonesia and boasts a lineage in the world of baking; her great grandmother was a restaurateur in San Francisco during the Depression (and was particularly known for her desserts).

Candace initially pursued a career as an investment banker before transitioning into the culinary industry after the dot com bust. In 2005 Candace opened ‘Sprinkles Cupcakes’, one of the world’s first cupcake bakeries.

Close-up of hands using Gaggenau 400 series oven

“I feel that Gaggenau plays really well with my contemporary art. You could be one of those people who buy it for its aesthetic function, but it also works just as beautifully. It’s a win-win.”

Candace Nelson

Candace Nelson is a polymath: a former investment banker, pastry chef and culinary pioneer. It’s with little wonder that the celebrated chef chose Gaggenau for her Los Angeles home: “Gaggenau hits it out of the park in terms of design. It’s simply stunning,” she says, “I love contemporary art and I feel that Gaggenau is as close as it comes to contemporary art for your home in the kitchen. And the functionality is incredible, it’s really rare to find anything that functions as beautifully as it looks and Gaggenau definitely does.”

Baking chocolate brownies on a Gaggenau Vario Gas cooktop 400 series

Image of vertically mounted cooktop 400 series knobs being used by Candace Nelson

Candace’s kitchen needs to be versatile, it’s used regularly as a test kitchen for new recipes, as a hub for entertaining and a space where her two boys can cook and create new treats from their mom’s cookbook. Their most recent endeavor has been the fudge brownies from the Sprinkles Cupcake book.

Candace Nelson pulls feshly baked cookies out of her Gaggenau oven 400 series

“My husband and I are very hands on when it comes to the design and details. We are both very visual people. That was what initially drew me to food, too—not just how delicious it is but how beautiful it can be.”

“The kitchen is the heart of our home. Our home is very open and we did that because we never wanted to be too far away from our family members,” she explains while cooking one of her delicious cookie treats. Her favorite product? The oven! “I love the large window in the oven, I can always see everything that’s going on in there. I love when my hands are full I can open it with the touch of the pinky finger, it’s so well calibrated, there are so many options, I can go on and on, I love them so much.”

Collage of details including using a Gaggenau fully automatic coffee machine

Candace’s entire philosophy when it came to finalizing the design of her home was centered on bringing the outdoors in. “We live in the best climate in the world,” she explains and “we keep it casual, LA is very casual.”