Kenwood cooking chef - alternative to Thermomix?

[Nik2WIN]

I'm watching this thread with a great deal of interest.

I have had a Kenwood (not cooking) chef for several years and love it especially for its mixing functions with large quantities.  From what I know of the Kenwood chef and the TMX (and I've only had that for a few weeks!) they're really two different machines.

The TMX is often a "one-pot" cooking machine - soups, chicken and vegetables etc and I can't see how the Kenwood could do that.  It utterly excels as a mixer, in my opinion, nothing beats it but its adapted to do everything else, and it doesn't do them as well, eg food processing functions

I've never managed successful bread in my Kenwood but managed it in the TMX within a week (thanks to this forum  )

At the moment my Kenwood is in the loft, along with my breadmaker and my food processor as we are marketing the house but the TMX has taken the place of all three of those appliances and often the stove top too   Whereas the Kenwood chef sits alongside them all and the cooking chef would only replace the stove top sometimes

Nik

[Renlor]

It is great to see other peoples opinions on this topic.  I begged my husband for a kenwood chef (not cooking one) for ages.  Well I finally got one and then went along to a mates thermomix party.  I went there with a very firm opinion that this so called magic machine couldn't come close to my dreamy kenwood.  Then of course I went home from that demo flabbergasted and harped at my hubby for over a year before I was able to get one.  Since having Thermie sitting on the counter the kenwood hardly comes out to play.....but I do agree that these machines are totally different.  When it comes to whipping up a pav I prefer to whip it up the old school way in the kenwood.  The bowl is much bigger than the thermomix and I think does a better job at mixing...but the need for all the attachments is what lets it down.  I spent the extra hundred odd dollars to get the glass blender attachment, and it also came with the mincer...which I have used once.  I used to sit there drifting about all the extra attachments that I wanted to get...now I don't need to worry about it 

[Nik2WIN]

I didn't even ask my dh for the Thermie - I just ordered it - if he ever finds out how much it cost I am one dead woman!!! 

To be fair, to myself, generally all my kitchen machines get very good use!

Nik

[andiesenji]

In my opinion, the TM31 excels at some tasks that simply can't be easily prepared in another single machine.

I've been doing a lot of holiday baking and I have prepared five batches of marzipan with little attention while the machine was processing the almonds and sugar. 
At the same time I was using two stand mixers, a KA 600 Pro and my trusty old  Electrolux DLX 2000 as well as three bread machines - one with two pans, all just mixing and kneading dough.  I rarely bake in the bread machines, I use the dough settings and let them handle the process up to the shaping and baking.

I also roasted and skinned some cocoa beans, then ground them in the TM31, although the end product was still grainy, that was the texture for which I was aiming and what I have is a sort of cocoa paste which is going to be incorporated into some cookies.

I also used the Varoma basket to steam dried fruits and I had another electric steamer going at the same time plus my extra-large couscousiere on the stovetop.   (I had a lot of dried fruit to steam for stollen, panettone, steamed puddings and mini fruitcakes, as well as cookies. 

There are some things the TM31 can't do, mainly handle larger amounts.  Many of my recipes are scaled down from either commercial recipes from my days of catering, or very old recipes when people had larger families and things were prepared in larger batches and I scaled them down to fit bakeware that I have been using for many years. 

The TM31 can't handle enough batter to fill a half-size sheet pan.  I don't like the way it beats egg whites, the volume is much less than when I use my KAs - especially the old 5-qt with the copper liner.   I've tried it several times, same size eggs, same amount, in a side-by-side test and the result I got was about a fifth less volume in the TM. 

That being said (or written) I wouldn't part with the TM because it is perfect for some tasks.  I just wish it had more capacity. 

[Renlor]

It would be so much better with a bigger capacity....I have five in my family and find that it's easier to cook most of my mains on the stove.  I love that I can steam heaps of vegies though or whip up a yummy bechamel for lasagne or corned beef 

[stacelee]

I made a large Chicken Biryani dish for dinner last night in Ken.  It handled it well although not having a recipe book I had to guess on the conversion.  It took longer than I would have liked because I didn't have the temperature set high enough....and then I got impatient and set the temperature too high and scorched the rice on the bottom.  Trial and error . It was great having the large capacity....we had enough for three for dinner and I have another four servings for lunches this week.

I don't like the fact it didn't come with a recipe book....the website is good...but I have been spoilt by being able to look up a similar recipe in the thermomix books and then use it to convert a normal recipe.  My other "dislike" of it is the design of the base of the bowl, it tends to get food caught in the ridge where it locks into the mixer when you put it through the dishwasher...I had to rinse rice out of it this morning because someone didn't bother rinsing their plate before putting it in the dishwasher (gotta love teenagers)

I'm going to make chilli con carne for dinner tonight so will probably try using ken for the main dish and tom for the rice (can't go past tom for cooking rice).  I'm going to use ken so I can make a large batch and freeze some of it for lunches....I'm being eaten out of house and home as my son has been on school holidays for a week now.

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

It would be so much better with a bigger capacity....I have five in my family and find that it's easier to cook most of my mains on the stove.  I love that I can steam heaps of vegies though or whip up a yummy bechamel for lasagne or corned beef 

I can see that capacity would be an issue for larger families.  I would be really annoyed if I had to make two batches of dinner each night to feed the family with the TM.  At the moment our boys are little so most mains feed the four of us with lots of leftovers.  I am hoping we can still manage when they are older. 

[Meagan]

It would be so much better with a bigger capacity....I have five in my family and find that it's easier to cook most of my mains on the stove.  I love that I can steam heaps of vegies though or whip up a yummy bechamel for lasagne or corned beef 

I can see that capacity would be an issue for larger families.  I would be really annoyed if I had to make two batches of dinner each night to feed the family with the TM.  At the moment our boys are little so most mains feed the four of us with lots of leftovers.  I am hoping we can still manage when they are older. 

I am hoping the same Chelsea  I figure they can always have more rice and sides of veg or bread etc

[Nik2WIN]

I'm going to stop reading this thread - I can see me needing a TMX and a Kenwood Cooking Chef!

I can picture my kitchen now - Thelma and Ken .... 

Nik

[stacelee]

Maybe I should take a photo of the two of them, Ken and Tom together for you.  They are developing quite a friendship.   Ken made the Chilli Con Carne last night while Tom very helpfully cooked the rice to go with it....it was supposed to be dinner the night before but the teenager who I stupidly didnt send away for the week with his grandmother (the other female one is currently hanging out with MaMa at Hastings Point) decided to make Nachos for dinner.  I'm still trying to work out why his father made them instead of him and I go stuck with the cleaning up.  I've discovered that the TMX recipes work very nicely in Ken, so long as you remember not to turn the speed up on the food processor attachment when you have a stirring paddle sitting in cooked mince and tomatoes in the bowl.....and you are too lazy to put on the splatter guard...just a few tomato droplets to clean up.

[NICKY 74]

stacelee that would be great to see them side by side, i havnt checked out the link yet so dont even know what it looks like.i am also a bit concerned that tmx will be a bit small once the kids get bigger, however i made gnocchi a couple of days ago and froze too much so there wasnt really enough for dinner (especially as my 2 year old kept asking for more, so was giving him some of mine) and my dh asked was i still hungry? i said its ok i will just have some chocolate later! nicky

[faffa_70]

Nicky, you shouldn't have any problems feeding them when they are older from your TM. I feed 7 and 3 of them are teenage boys! 

[earth mumma]

Me too.  We are a family of 5 BIG eaters.  One teenager, one 11 and one 7.  The 7yr often eats as much as his dad .  I haven't had a problem with the capacity, except I would like it if it did more rice as sometimes 400gm is not quite enough.  If kids are still hungry aftrer dinner I usually make up some custard and bananas and that does the trick.  I sometimes use my Thermomix to help create a bigger meal on the stove top if capacity is an issue ie: chicken curry (tm makes paste and rice but I cook the curryit on the stove top).  The other night I made chicken pie so the Tm make the pastry, chopped carrot, celery, herbs and garlic/onion and then cooked the chicken along with the vege.  I did make the white sauce on the stove top as the chicken was cooking just to save a bit of time, but could have made the white sauce in the Tm too.   

[Nik2WIN]

I was looking at the cooking chef online the other day and it just doesn't seem to have the versatility that the TMX has.  I adore my Kenwood mixer and DH really took the mickey out of me when the cooking one was introduced, expecting me to beg and nag for it but I've always been underwhelmed.

If I had £1000 to spend I'd probably buy another TMX    Now THAT I could use, imagine two of them working away in your kitchen at the same time .... bliss!!

Nik

[Miranda]

To me, the best features of the TMX are its really strong motor and superior cutting blade.

I've had the old Ken repaired more than once for burn-out and the repair man said someone who used them for small scale retail baking of cakes was regularly getting hers repaired.

the TM is just a brilliant machine in terms of design and quality. 

I'd buy another TM before a Kenwood.