Kenwood Cooking Chef

thelawnet

Ok, so this is NOT thrifty, but as this seems to be the de facto cooking forum here, I'll post the details.

Just bought one of these.


What is it?

It's a Kenwood Cooking Chef. It's basically a Kenwood Chef Major with an added induction heat function.

Why would you want that?

Well two reasons really. Firstly is just to cook your dinner (curry, porridge, whatever), and second is for making certain desserts, which require a specific temperature. For example, there are up to fourteen different stages that sugar goes through, according to its temperature, and being able to control this makes life easier. Swiss Meringue requires heating, while chocolate tempering, like sugar work, is sensitive to temperature.

The Kenwood Cooking Chef has a controllable temperature dial (20 degrees Celsius up to 140, so you can use it for anything from proving dough, bringing butter to room temperature in a cold room (!), slow cooking, or boiling sugar) and a temperature probe, so you set the temperature using the dial and the LCD feeds back the actual temperature inside the bowl.

What you get in the package is:

Kenwood Major Cooking Chef unit (including special splash cover, heat guard, induction cooking bowl, and height-adjustment spanner)

3 Standard stainless steel Kenwood Chef tools:
K-beater (for folding, etc.)
Dough hook
Power whisk

2 special stainless steel Kenwood Cooking chef tools:
Metal stirring tool
High-temperature beater (with removeable rubber sheaths, presumably to be gentler on the food)

Various nick-nacks: a pastry scraper, heat-resistant mat, and a spatula

If you buy the commercial package, KM069, that's all you get.

If you buy the retail package, KM070, you also get:

metal Kenwood Cooking Chef-specific steamer basket - cost otherwise is £12.99 http://www.partmaster.co.uk/cgi-bin/product.pl?PID=2197711

standard Kenwood Chef stainless steal 1.5 litre blender, part number AT339 (this costs about £35-£40, if you buy it separately)

standard Kenwood Chef food processor AT640, with 3 cutting discs, and a knife blade; this costs about £50, separately

The extra accessories are therefore worth about £100. The package differences reflect the fact that a Kenwood Chef or Kitchenaid is a part of a commercial kitchen, but they would probably use a standalone blender and food processor.

The KM070 retail package has an RRP of £995 and is available for that price from Ideal World or John Lewis.

The KM069 commercial package goes for prices varying from £720 to £799. This is the cheapest I've found, www.clicknorder.co.uk/kenwood-cooking-chef-p-2333.html

Obviously KM069 is a better buy, since you can buy all the accessories separately (or not!) and it will still be cheaper than the KM070.

I just bought KM070 off ebay, it was apparently an unwanted prize, and seemed to come from the Kenwood Store in Havant, so that's another place to buy. I paid £690.

Basically the heating function adds about £400 to the cost of a Kenwood Chef Major.

I unpacked it and did a risotto, it did a nice job, induction works well because the bowl is locked into place (with an induction hob I'm forever lifting the ban off), it melted the butter very quickly, added some onion, it cooked that quickly, chucked in rice then wine and stock, put it on a timer for 18 minutes and it was all done, very nicely.

Basically because it's stirring continuously (or every minute or every 30 seconds, at your option), it won't burn your food. So you can toss it in, turn it on, and go play on the internet without worrying about it much.

You could use it for sauce bechamel, as well as the standard cake making functions.

It takes all the standard Kenwood Chef (Major) attachments except the Major flexible beate (the Cooking Chef has its own).

Here are some recipes from their website

http://www.kenwoodworld.com/uk/KenwoodCookingChef/Home1/Recipes/My-1st-Recipes/Mashed-potatoes/
http://www.kenwoodworld.com/uk/KenwoodCookingChef/Home1/Recipes/My-1st-Recipes/Beef-Bourguignon/

kittycat204

it is beautiful, and i am extremely jealous but i don't think it's worth £995

http://www.johnlewis.com/231235562/Product.aspx?s_kwcid=ps_pla

me stood over a stove with a whisk will do, thanks tho, it is gorgeous.

Oliver14

I must admit i really can't see the point. For the reasons you state there are other methods and most people wouldn't temper chocolate etc very often. I cook sugar to tempreture with no problem with a saucepan and a thermometer. I could no way justify the money. My Normal Kenwood chef is my most useful thing in the kitchen this though just feels like adding a function that no one new they needed.

thelawnet

kittycat204 wrote: »

it is beautiful, and i am extremely jealous but i don't think it's worth £995

http://www.johnlewis.com/231235562/Product.aspx?s_kwcid=ps_pla

me stood over a stove with a whisk will do, thanks tho, it is gorgeous.

Well it doesn't cost £995, as I said in my post. Ok, still £720 though....

cooking-mama

Wow...im a kitchen gadget addict,that looks like an impressive piece of kit....enjoy.:)

thelawnet

Have made a few things in it, it's quite a nice toy....

Anyway, it seems it's the top-selling mixer in France by value, and to that end the French Cooking Chef website has rather a lot of impressive recipes on it.

http://www.cooking-chef.fr/idees_recettes.html

All in French of course, but not too hard to understand with the aid of a little Google Translate.

Felicity

Looks like a nightmare re space in the kitchen and wow at the cost! Hope you get the use out of it.

Toxic_Lemon

I've got a non-cooking Kenwood with a number of accessories and considered getting this but decided to go for the Thermomix as it was far more versatile.

If you want recipes for your Kenwood, I'd recommend you look at the Thermomix UK website as they will be very easy to adapt. Risotto was the first thing I made in mine.

thelawnet

Felicity wrote: »

Looks like a nightmare re space in the kitchen and wow at the cost! Hope you get the use out of it.

It takes up less room than the microwave, and gets more use.

Naf

I just bought my wife the Propsero machine; their much cheaper model with fewer available attachments. No way could I afford the £500+ price tag on the other machines.
If I could affor4d it, I probably would go all out on the top model.
Enjoy your cooking OP - I do hope you make good use of it, though!

thelawnet

Here's a recipe for Whisky Souffle

around 6 small souffle dishes/ramekins, or a smaller number of larger ones

For the souffle dishes:
20g softened unsalted butter (salted is ok too really)
20g icing sugar

Crème pâtissière
2 * 125ml milk (250ml total)
40g flour
50g caster sugar
150ml whisky or other liquer (baileys, grand marnier, whatever)
150g egg yolk (this could be 7-8 eggs)

Egg whites
90g egg whites (should be just a little less than 3 egg whites)
75g caster sugar


Method:
0. Preheat oven to 180C.
1. Grease the souffle dishes with the softened butter, then refrigerate for around 5 minutes. Grease again, and add the icing sugar all over the dishes. Shake off any excess icing sugar
2. Mix the first 125ml of milk, sugar and flour in a bowl.
3. Heat the second 125ml of milk until it reaches 70C - in a saucepan or in the Cooking Chef using the flexible stirrer at 'mix' speed 3.
3. Add the warm milk to the cold milk mixture, beating vigorously using a whisk.
4. Put the mixture into a saucepan or the Cooking Chef, heat to 100C (aka boiling), then cook for one minute, stirring constantly ('mix' speed 1 on the Cooking Chef, using the flexible stirrer).
5. Remove the mixture, which should be like a thick white sauce, to a bowl, and allow to cool.
6. Whisk the alcohol into the cooled mixture, little-by-little, using a balloon whisk, then do the same with the egg yolks.
7. Place the egg whites into the mixing bowl, and using the whisk, whisk on maximum speed, adding the sugar as the eggs start to rise up. The eggs should be firm but not stiff. (image: http://www.bonappetit.com/blogsandforums/blogs/badaily/2012/03/michel-richard-souffle-recipe.html) Be sure to have the sugar to hand before you start whisking, as the eggs will get overwhipped very quickly.
8. Very carefully fold the egg whites into the creme pattisiere. Retaining egg white volume is more important than mixing perfectly.
9. Pour the mixture into the dishes, until they are nearly full (the souffle should rise over the top of the dish), then cook for around 10 minutes - until the souffle has risen and is browned on top.
Video, in French:
http://www.francechef.tv/recette-Souffle_au_whisky.html