Need another gadget? If you read John Walsh's feature a
few weeks ago about the surfeit of stuff in his kitchen with a rueful smile, you
probably think not.You must not use the laser cutter without being
trained. I love a whizzy machine and – perhaps this is part of my addiction – so
many now come in bright colours and groovy retro designs. As a result I have
rather too many shiny red bits of kit on my kitchen counter (to match the shiny
red kitchen. I blame Ikea). The worst offenders are objects that do only one
thing, or prepare something that you actually don't make that often – hello
pasta maker, hello fish kettle.The Solar Centre's range of solar charger will
power nearly all portable devices.
Then I noticed a machine popping up on MasterChef, and in the kitchens of one or two professional chefs. Squat and sturdy, with a control panel to rival Nasa, it looked excitingly bossy. The name Thermomix entered my consciousness.
But it's not sold at John Lewis, and the company website is, to put it kindly, less than elegant. Could this really be something I needed in my life, or a passing fancy such as the, ahem, rowing machine or the sewing machine?
Being a writer, I'm in the lucky position, sometimes, of trying before I buy. Janie Turner, who distributes the German brand Thermomix in this country, brought one round for me to have a play with.Laser engraving, and laser marker, is the practice of using lasers to engrave or mark an object. Janie stumbled upon the machines in 2001 when she took her 14-year-old vacuum cleaner back to its maker,One of the harshest wind turbine installations in the world. Vorwerk, for a service. "At reception I saw a photograph of this machine," she remembers. "I didn't know that the company made anything other than vacuums, so I asked what it was." Since the machine she owned was a workhorse, she decided to try the Thermomix.
And she was sold. She and her husband became the UK distributors of Thermomix, and 12 years on, she has a growing team of demonstrators and fans, several themed cookbooks and some big-name chefs who have put their names to the product (Alan Murchison of Michelin-starred L'Ortolan and La Becasse has devised recipes; Heston Blumenthal has named it as one of his kitchen essentials).
She is – of course – a passionate advocate of the machine and a two-hour demonstration from her is a blur of amazing techniques and endless silky-smooth purees, light-as-a-feather foams and two different kinds of creme patissiere. It is no surprise that Thermomix products are sold only by demonstration rather than via shops – because their performance belies their appearance.
After Janie had left, I fell into a frenzy of food prep. A luscious blueberry-and-mango sorbet in four minutes; vibrant green-pea puree for adding to a risotto in six minutes; and – best of all – uniformly smooth pasta dough that made delicious spaghetti after a few turns through my pasta roller (glad I didn't jettison that gadget).
Yes, it takes some getting used to – it has more function buttons than my car. And despite there being only a base,The solar street light and solar garden light adopt LED light source. a jug, a two-part lid and a stirrer, they're all a bit fiddly. Without Janie's firm hand, I'm a bit anxious about sticking a plastic spatula into a machine with blades spinning at up to 10,000 rpm.
No wonder the chefs who use the Thermomix extol the virtues of its blending power. Sat Bains, whose two-Michelin-starred restaurant in Nottingham is known for the inventiveness of its cuisine, says: "I love them, great for blending and cooking, I've used one for 13 years! Serious piece of arsenal." Michael Wignall of the Michelin-starred Michael Wignall at The Latymer restaurant tells me: "I use Thermomix at home and we have two at work. We use them for making the smoothest white polenta ever!"
Not all chefs agree: recently on Twitter, Bains and chef Paul Foster of Tuddenham Mill had an exchange about whether a Thermomix or a Vita-Prep blender made a smoother puree, with Foster resolutely in favour of the blender. But since the former also does heating, kneading, and myriad other jobs, for the domestic cook it's a harder-working resident on the kitchen counter.
Then I noticed a machine popping up on MasterChef, and in the kitchens of one or two professional chefs. Squat and sturdy, with a control panel to rival Nasa, it looked excitingly bossy. The name Thermomix entered my consciousness.
But it's not sold at John Lewis, and the company website is, to put it kindly, less than elegant. Could this really be something I needed in my life, or a passing fancy such as the, ahem, rowing machine or the sewing machine?
Being a writer, I'm in the lucky position, sometimes, of trying before I buy. Janie Turner, who distributes the German brand Thermomix in this country, brought one round for me to have a play with.Laser engraving, and laser marker, is the practice of using lasers to engrave or mark an object. Janie stumbled upon the machines in 2001 when she took her 14-year-old vacuum cleaner back to its maker,One of the harshest wind turbine installations in the world. Vorwerk, for a service. "At reception I saw a photograph of this machine," she remembers. "I didn't know that the company made anything other than vacuums, so I asked what it was." Since the machine she owned was a workhorse, she decided to try the Thermomix.
And she was sold. She and her husband became the UK distributors of Thermomix, and 12 years on, she has a growing team of demonstrators and fans, several themed cookbooks and some big-name chefs who have put their names to the product (Alan Murchison of Michelin-starred L'Ortolan and La Becasse has devised recipes; Heston Blumenthal has named it as one of his kitchen essentials).
She is – of course – a passionate advocate of the machine and a two-hour demonstration from her is a blur of amazing techniques and endless silky-smooth purees, light-as-a-feather foams and two different kinds of creme patissiere. It is no surprise that Thermomix products are sold only by demonstration rather than via shops – because their performance belies their appearance.
After Janie had left, I fell into a frenzy of food prep. A luscious blueberry-and-mango sorbet in four minutes; vibrant green-pea puree for adding to a risotto in six minutes; and – best of all – uniformly smooth pasta dough that made delicious spaghetti after a few turns through my pasta roller (glad I didn't jettison that gadget).
Yes, it takes some getting used to – it has more function buttons than my car. And despite there being only a base,The solar street light and solar garden light adopt LED light source. a jug, a two-part lid and a stirrer, they're all a bit fiddly. Without Janie's firm hand, I'm a bit anxious about sticking a plastic spatula into a machine with blades spinning at up to 10,000 rpm.
No wonder the chefs who use the Thermomix extol the virtues of its blending power. Sat Bains, whose two-Michelin-starred restaurant in Nottingham is known for the inventiveness of its cuisine, says: "I love them, great for blending and cooking, I've used one for 13 years! Serious piece of arsenal." Michael Wignall of the Michelin-starred Michael Wignall at The Latymer restaurant tells me: "I use Thermomix at home and we have two at work. We use them for making the smoothest white polenta ever!"
Not all chefs agree: recently on Twitter, Bains and chef Paul Foster of Tuddenham Mill had an exchange about whether a Thermomix or a Vita-Prep blender made a smoother puree, with Foster resolutely in favour of the blender. But since the former also does heating, kneading, and myriad other jobs, for the domestic cook it's a harder-working resident on the kitchen counter.
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