One of the best kept secrets in the Professional Quality residential appliance industry is the fact that Surjit Kalsi is the creator of high-end, all stainless steel ranges and all stainless steel barbeques. Perhaps this is because he never made a lot of noise about having anything to do with the very first "Viking Range" or that he is the founder of "Dynamic Cooking Systems, Inc. (DCS)" - which private labeled its products to many of the leading appliance brand names in the industry.
For whatever reasons, his career story remains a mystery to most people and is not as common knowledge as say Steve Jobs is to Apple, Bill Gates is to Microsoft, Lee Iacocca is to Chrysler, Jack Welch is to GE, or Fred Carl is to Viking, etc, and that is a shame because knowing the person behind the product gives us a better understanding of: What the product is, Who is responsible?, Where did it happen? Why did it work? and How it became a reality.

Knowing the heritage of any particular person, product, or company, brings a greater sense of trust, confidence, and respect to a relationship. It says something about their ability to adapt to change and grow over a sustained period of time. It’s a tradition of demonstrating their leadership ability and their integrity for delivering quality products, which provide meaningful results to their “more than satisfied” customers”. Having such a heritage is an important aspect of any company’s brand. Capital’s proud tradition of setting new standards of innovative excellence in the design and manufacture of professional quality ranges and all stainless steel barbeques dates back to 1956.

That’s when Surjit Kalsi graduated from Bombay University in India. Armed with a degree and a pocketful of dreams, he arrived in London (UK) to begin his career as a lab technician in the research & development department of Main Gas Appliance Company in London.

By creating the world’s first dual flow gas burner, self-cleaning gas oven, universal burner, and electric ignition system, Surjit, an immigrant from India, made his mark in the UK appliance industry and climbed to the top of the corporate ladder as a member of the Board, in record time. Such rapid success stirred Surjits’ entrepreneurial spirit and his dreams of riches induced him to launch his own gas appliance manufacturing company in India. Unfortunately, his timing was wrong to establish such industry in India during the ‘70’s when the shortages of raw materials, propane gas (cooking gas as it is called in India), and power to run the industry, plagued the country. A ten year struggle against a tide of economical and provisional uncertainties followed. The unfortunate circumstances eventually motivated him to cut his losses and migrate his family to Baltimore. There his fall from grace in the corporate world officially bottomed out as he landed a job of design engineer for a commercial appliance manufacturer at a salary of a mere $20,000 a year. He could not possibly accomplish his dreams at this salary.

It took almost 5 years for Surjit, with his dreams, to work his way to Los Angeles, CA. where he became Vice President of Engineering & Research & Development for U.S. Range. Here another person with a dream came looking for Surjit. He had taken his dream from one manufacturer to the next and the next until he ran out of manufacturers. He had parted with lots of dollars when he finally he came to U.S. Range to meet with Surjit, who had travelled half way around the world to have his dream of riches come true. His name was Fred Carl. He wanted Surjit to develop a commercial range certified for household use. No manufacturer in the USA could make his dream come true. Surjit saw no major difficulty undertaking such a task. Fred wanted to have domestic type burners, an electric ignition system, domestic type of top grates (a package developed by Harper-Wyman) and maintain the commercial range type of square look landing ledge. Surjit had no problem with Fred's requirements. He immediately agreed to undertake the project. This project was completed at the end of 1986 or thereabout. It is today known as Viking Ranges, a several hundred million dollar range company.

The overnight success of Viking Ranges opened the door for Surjit to once again, launch his own company.
In 1988, he left U.S. Range, recruited Roberto Bernal, a consummate Engineer, Raul Chita, purchasing Manager,
Porfirio Guzman, Production Scheduler, Rafael Romero, a fine Project engineer and Alejandro Bernal, an experienced
Plant and Production Engineer to make a team of consummate engineers and founded Dynamic Cooking Systems - DCS.
Which went on to become a leading manufacturer of Professional Quality Gas Ranges for the home, and also the first
company to design an All-Stainless Steel Barbecue. In twelve years, sales reached over a $100 Million, as DCS became
the preferred Original Equipment Manufacturer that private labeled for such industry leaders as: GE, Jennair, Thermador,
William Sonoma and Costco.

It was also during this time that Surjit’s son, Rich Kalsi joined DCS. Surjit made Roberto Bernal and another engineer his
equal Partners owning 1/3rd each of DCS shares.

At the height of their success, Surjit’s other two partners decided to sell the company. Surjit had no choice but to comply,
and the pending sale forced him into signing a Non-Compete Agreement for a period of five years, in order to complete the
transaction. Roberto was also bound by the same Non-Compete Agreement. The third partner changed his mind and decided
to stay with the new owners of DCS. Roberto was let go at the conclusion of the sale and Surjit was forced out soon after.

It was during his forced hiatus that Surjit’s son, Rich Kalsi, Raul Chita, Rafael Romero, Porfirio Guzman and Alejandro the key employees who contributed a great deal towards DCS’s success, out of fear of losing their jobs, walked away from DCS, and started Capital Cooking Equipment Inc. in 2001. Surjit and Roberto could not join in because of their Non-Compete Agreement.

Rich Kalsi assumed the position of Capital’s President and Director of Sales and Marketing in 2001 and played a major role
in developing new innovations into the new company’s product line, and designed the Product Catalogs and Sales Sheets to complement the new line. Rich went onto solidifying the customer base, by establishing customer base in the USA and world markets in Australia and New Zealand.

He also initiated a new website for Capital before he left in 2008 to pursue his Masters degree in english literature,
creative writing and fine arts at the University of San Francisco.

Surjit and Roberto remained unwilling spectators up until 2004, when DCS was sold, yet again, to another company from
New Zealand releasing him and Roberto from their Non-Compete Agreement. Capital’s Board of Directors quickly moved to
invite Surjit and Roberto to become partners in Capital. Surjit was elected Chairman/CEO and President of Capital Cooking
and Roberto was elected Co-Chairman. Whereupon, Surjit immediately went about redesigning the off-the-shelf sealed
burner system that Capital was buying from Germany and designed the New Sealed Burner System which far
exceeds in performance than any of the Burners in the market.

This Burner can be rated from 19,000 Btu to 25,000 Btu/hr and yet capable to turn down to give the consumer wide range of 
performance. He and his new team gave a new and improved look to the Precision line of Indoor and Outdoor products, and put their finishing touches on the Maestro Series Electric Wall Oven and the Drop-In-Cook-top products.

There are several new projects in the Capital product pipeline, as Surjit strongly believes that the future growth of any company is dictated by their investment in Research & Development. That’s the Capital Heritage Story. It’s fair to say that the heritage stories of the other Professional Quality Appliance Manufacturers would only be able to date back to the time when Surjit Kalsi created the first Professional Quality Range in 1985 and founded DCS in 1988.

For over half a century, Surjit Kalsi, Chairman of Capital Cooking Equipment Inc., has developed the finest quality cooking
systems for people’s homes and patios. And every time he undertakes a project, he not only continually improves upon them,
but also actually takes them to the next level of being the most useful, attractive and reliable Cooking Appliances on the
market today. Is it any wonder that the overall appearance and performance of Capital’s line of cooking products is far
superior to any others on the market today? No one else – but Surjit Kalsi - can claim to be:
“The Founding Father of Professional Quality Ranges, and All-Stainless Steel Barbecues."