A range hood, even an inexpensive under cabinet one, will provide the best lighting while handling the byproducts of cooking. Any other type of lighting would not work as it would quickly become covered in grease and dirt from the cooking without a vent to handle that.

Are you planning to install a stainless steel hood or are you going to buy one to match your cabinets? I have a Broan vent/lighting fixture above my cooktop that has two bright halogen lights inset on either side of the vent. Nice and bright, except that it shows all of the stuff on my cooktop. I had my cabinet installer make the hood to surround this Broan unit, and surprisingly, it was an inexpensive project. All I did was buy a sheet of the veneered wood that matched our cabinets (which I already had on hand to cover the island with, so this was extra), and he quickly made the three sides to cover the venting unit. This cost about 25% of the price of the KraftMaid wooden hood, which looked cheesier in my opinion. It is trimmed in the 4" high tile I have in my backsplash. There are no windows in my kitchen (it looks out to my sunroom), so having a good vent was important. I was lucky that the lighting is so bright on this broan. However, the halogen bulbs are sort of a pain to change.

Thank you both. Guess I didn't make myself clear though. I'm not going to have a hood vent. Don't like the looks of the inexpensive ones and want to save for a quiet one.

Live Wire Oak - I have almost no grease/dirt build-up. Painted my cabinets two years ago and now am prepping them for repaint. Know I haven't cleaned the soffit moulding these past two years and it isn't dirty. The only place I see evidence of grime is a small area on either side of where the OTR microwave was.

So, back to finding the right kind of light.

Cupofkindness, would love to see pics of your hood cover. Bet it's great looking.

Rosie