Kitchen range for serious cooking?

My husband's a chef and we have a vintage O'Keefe which I love so much. Two ovens, two broilers, six burners, and a clock and salt and pepper shakers and a light and it's dreamy. I found it on Craigslist, didn't need any work, looks cool. Cost me about $300.

We have the Capital Culinarian rangetop (http://www.capital-cooking.com/product/381). Capital was founded by the founder of DCS. We really like it! Apparently they now have a dual fuel version (http://www.capital-cooking.com/product/401) if you want an electric oven. All burners are identical and are open burners. Each is 23k BTU, so more power than I think any consumer grade (other than the dual fuel version, which has 25k BTU burners if you pick the open burners), and I've never had a problem with keeping a simmer (though before we got it, I did read a few negative comments relating to older models' simmer ability). The surface is not quite continuous, but the grate corners nearly touch, so it should be good enough -- for me, I only notice with my smallest pot, and of course, it's a small pot, so I never have any problem just lifting it and moving it. I can't speak to the oven-related features (we have a Wolf wall oven), though I think it hits all of your wants.

Yeah, http://ths.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/appl/2004064556019303.html http://www.bankrate.com/finance/real-estate/commercial-range-in-home.aspx

I may be misunderstanding what you are asking for, but these are all incompatible: -- gas cooktop -- continuous level cooktop surface -- all burners identical -- decently low simmer -- decently high BTUs (high-end of consumer?) Gas means you'll have some type of grate, not a level cook top surface. Identical burners means you cannot have both a decent low simmer and high BTU. If by level, you mean burners are recessed, and the grates are flat (vs the inclined), I've only seen that in commercial (because cleaning/servicing that's a pain). Though they've also had all the same burners, just VERY LARGE, so the decent simmer would work if you're putting a 200 qt stock pot on it)

Just a word of warning: I've had Viking applicances (range, dishwasher, and fridge) and have never been more disappointed in my entire life. Every single one of them either has broken completely (e.g. dishwasher that relies on a motor that is no longer made by anyone) or has intermittently been on the fritz for a decade (e.g. a fridge whose freezer has needed four expensive repairs just to keep the freezer from turning into a solid block of ice). The range has been a nightmare as well--issues from the door not being installed tightly to horrifyingly poor temperature regulation. I've since learned about Viking's bad reputation for reliability and will never recommend nor purchase anything they make again.

I've never seen a residential gas range that has identical burners. That doesn't mean it's not out there somewhere, but I too am a serious cook and renovated my kitchen a few years ago; that range didn't exist then and I haven't seen it since. http://www.dacor.com/Our-Products/Cooktops/Renaissance-Gas-Cooktops.aspx is the cooktop I have and I absolutely love it. It's incredibly durable and is a work horse. I know you said you want a range: http://www.dacor.com/Our-Products/Ranges/Discovery-iQ-48-Inch-Dual-Fuel-Range.aspx a range with more burners than I have, and http://www.dacor.com/Our-Products/Ranges/Discovery-iQ-36-Inch-Dual-Fuel-Range.aspx another one. The Dacor ranges linked above all have continuous platform cooktops (which is what I think you mean by "continuous level cooktop surface." I cannot recommend Dacor enough. My husband did hundreds of hours of research for my cooktop and I couldn't be happier with it. I can only assume the ranges will be as good as the cooktops.

Please don't go with Viking. Coincidentally before I even saw this question I had a service call out this morning for our gas range. Not our first. Or the second. I still can't believe this is made in USA. I will be watching this thread-at some point we will have to stop fixing it right?

It's been several years since I remodeled my kitchen, but at the time thehttp://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/kitchbath/ was the go-to place for things like this, and it looks to still be quite active. Staying away from electronics and getting four identical burners capable of simmering and high heat is going to eliminate every current consumer-type stove I've seen. A quick bit of searching suggests that the Bluestar RCS (http://www.bluestarcooking.com/images/pdfs/bluestar_rcs_30.pdf) might tick your boxes pretty well.

My model doesn't have a "continuous level cooktop" since there's a gap between the grates, but take a look at NXR. My husband (the household chef) wanted high-end performance without all the repair issues that seem to come with a high-end range. We've had our NXR for ~5 years and adore it. It's been trouble free, works great from searing to simmering, and is easy to clean. Plus no touchscreen or buttons, just expensive-feeling knobs.