THERMOMIX vs VITAMIX vs KENWOOD COOKING CHEF

Hey everyone, I haven't written in a while. Life has been a bit crazy and I have had so much to do, blogging just had to take a back seat for a while.

I have been wanting to write this post for a while now. Earlier this year I attended a Thermomix demonstration. It was not my first introduction. Checking out blogs one day I came across a fellow blogger who wrote of how much she loved her German made Thermomixer and how it made her life easier. My first thoughts were, wow! This thing sounds awesome. So, you can imagine my delight when a friend became a demonstrator and invited me to her first demonstration. It is really best to take a look at the website to get a real idea of what it does. You should also go to Youtube and check out some of the demonstrations that people have put together. Its a very impressive cooking appliance. It weighs your food, it cooks, it steams, it chops, dices, kneads dough, and mills. You can make sorbet in seconds, ice slushes, hot chocolate, mousse, custard, rice puddings, effortless risottos, and so much more. I was sold and it was all that I wanted. It was, until I found out it costs $2000AUD. I thought maybe I could make this work, but when my husband asked what the warranty was, I was somewhat embarrassed to tell him it was only for 2 years.  One would think, if you were going to spend a lot of money you would want to know you had a longer warranty than this.

Anyway, I wanted to sit on this for a little while. I had kinda made up my mind that this would be the appliance for me and I just had to have one. My tax return was going to pay for it, until I attended the Sydney Good Food and Wine Show and discovered the American Vitamix. The Vitamix does everything a Thermoix can do except for cook foods and make hot meals. It can however, make hot soups. Again, its best to check out the website to get a better understanding of how it works and what it does.  So, now I was thinking maybe I should consider one of these. The price tag for one of these was $1000AUD and you get a 7 year warranty, which I thought was impressive. It does quite a lot of things, the kind of things a blender can do, but this was like a super blender! I just want to talk about the hot soup for a moment. Basically, you are getting a hot soup but is not thick and chuncky, its pureed soup, which is nice sometimes, but not all the time. It is a good appliance, but still it did not cook.


So here was my dilema, should I get the Thermomix which is more expensive, but can cook, or the Vitamix that can't cook like a Thermoix can. I then did what most people do, check out Ebay and see if any Thermoixers were being sold and what price they were going for.  I really shouldn't have been as suprised as I was to find that if people were selling they were going for anywhere between $1600-$1800 second hand. Why is it like that? That some items that sell on Ebay go for almost what you can pay brand new? Anyway, I realised that if I want to get one, I may as well pay full price and get the warranty.

A couple of months ago I happened to be having a chat with a friend about the Thermomixer. She had used her mother-in-law's and while she was impressed with what it can do, she wasn't impressed with the 4L capacity bowl. She said for a small family, it can work but for a bigger family, you would need to make 2 batches of most meals and desserts. We have 6 people in our family, 2 adults and 4 kids and as the boys get older and bigger, so do their appetites. So this conversation put another strike against Thermomix. I started thinking back on the Vitamix as my best option.

Then, today, my sister-in-law told me about the new Kenwood Cooking Chef appliance, which is like the Thermomix, but.....wait for it.....it has a 6.7L capacity bowl! Wow! What a machine. It had my name all over it. So I researched a little by going to the KENWOOD website. I do have to say, there are a lot of attachments involved, but it still looks impressive, and with a bowl size like that, its very attractive for a family like mine. I suppose I should tell you at this stage the price. The RRP is $1999AUD, but I have come across cheaper prices around $1678 through a google search. One thing the Kenwood can do that I know for sure the Thermomix can't do, is make pasta! It is an attachment that costs extra, but its pretty amazing to be able to make your ravioli filling in the bowl and also rolling out the pasta using the same machine.

So now my dilema deepens! I open the door to anyone who has any of these appliances and can tell me what they think of it, even if you don't own any of these, if you know of someone who has, or if you have done as much research as me and would like to share their thoughts please do.