You can get colour change LEDs to create any colour and change to create different moods. Alternatively you can have more than one set of lights. For instance you might prefer warm white under your cabinets and plinths but put coloured LED strips above your cabinets. In a former house I had amber coloured lights above the cabinets which I loved. In my current dining room I have spotlights set into the floor with orange lights on a dimmer- they spill light into the wall and everyone seems to like the atmosphere they create.

Haven't seen any nice fan/light combos? I agree ruling out the recessed lights are the way to go. There's the maintenance issues and also the chance the light behind the fan will strobe. Horrible to live with.

A venting hob like the Bora is the best solution, especially if you plan to use an induction hob. A ceiling extractor is discrete, but, if you enjoy cooking and making fumes, a ceiling extractor is not likely to work as well as a good ventilating hob. If you do speak to Westin, I think they will tell you that a ceiling extractor is not the best solution for cooks who like to make lots of vapours, especially with smokey cooking. A ceiling hob is usually too high to be effective for serious cooks, unless it has a very powerful motor and has a deep inclined baseplate, which does not help your issue. A venting hob can extract outside (with forward planning) or, in most cases, recirculate. The expense isn't that high given that you get a hob and extractor in one.

Having looked at other high valued ceilings many are using fitted lights into the beams (you'd want these on separate lighting switches) - see examples in image 1. This helps create light above, particularly good for evenings and grey days. I see almost 3 levels of lighting here - high to ensure light at the full height (for when dark/grey/create mood), middle level normal height lighting for day to day use and then low level mood lighting (to create atmosphere etc). The lower lever could be achieved with lamps and low hanging pendants e.g. breakfast bar (as suggested above). The mid could come in with the wall spotlights and hanging pendants. I would consider how it will look to have hanging pendants from the ceiling - if you are hoping for lighting above the table area, often this type of look is low over the table, to create the focus, but it might mean having very long cords (I don't know the height of the ceiling so just assuming here) and whether you don't mind that. I found this image below that might give you an idea of how having long cords might look. Therefore you might want to keep the cords thin and unobtrusive as possible. As someone already said, you might want to consider having pendant lights across the whole room rather just dining area - this could mean they would not need to sit as low. You could then use low lamp lighting for the dining area (situated in corners) if you didn't want something on the wall. I found the below images that demonstrated high vaulted ceiling hanging lights. What stands out is that they make a statement - they are big and purposefully used as a statement piece. I actually then looked at restaurant lighting to see what they do - as often they have similar issue of having high lighting whilst wanting to create atmosphere focused light at each seating area. This example is a bit bold - but thought was an interesting example. What often is the case is that the lighting is purposeful around each seating area and you could choose very specific wall sconces to create a defined dining area.