Kitchen Aid or Kenwood Chef

[Helenagrace]

I love baking and have been managing with a hand held mixer and a food processor for pastry. It's now time to get serious!

Can anyone tell me any pros or cons for these two - or indeed suggest anything else!

DH has offered to buy me either one!!

Thanks in anticipation

I don't know what they're like nowadays but the Kenwood my mum has (bought in the 1960s) is still going strong!!

The KitchenAid is a nice looking piece of gear bit I think that the Kenwood Chef is much more practical. The KitchenAid is really only useful just for baking whereas there are many useful attachments for the Chef - liqiudizer, cream maker, knife sharpener etc.etc.

Another one whose mum has the Kenwood and it has lasted 20 years and stll going strong. Whowherewhen is right about all the attachments, too.

Kenwood Chef is excellent. Had mine for a couple of years and use it 3 or 4 times a week. Ice cream bowl attachment was brilliant this summer!

Helena

Can I ask which Kenwood models you all have as I am fantasizing about getting myself one for Christmas!

I've been wondering about the various models. There's quite a difference in price.

Kitchen Aid id brilliant, and it does have loads of attachments too. I use the pasta attachments and the ice cream attachments too often. Horses for courses I think.

On another note, neither the present day models of the Kitchenaid or the Kenwood Chef are are good as their forebearers 30 years ago, but are still very good for the home chef - if you want a commercial standard, search for a Hobart (the company which used to make KitchenAid, then sold it on). £££, but worth every penny if you are making heavy doughs, doubling or tripling recipies, or expecting the machine to routinely produce brioche dough.

My new Kenwood Chef will be arriving on Wednesday for my birthday. We're getting the KM010 Titanium.

We did look briefly at getting a Kitchen Aid, but it seemed you pay a bit more for the same features to get "the look". But I would get sick of the bright colour after a couple of years, and if they last as long as everyone says, then I want a look that I've known since my childhood. ie. a Kenwood

I always assumed they were much of a muchness except the kitchen aid will look nicer in your kitchen (whilst retro is still in style) but cost you more. I have a Kenwood Chef which is brilliant for every thing I bake and because it's always on the side and is so easy I think I bake more often (not sure my waistline thinks that is such a good thing). I do also have a magimix which I use for all the chopping and slicing jobs rather than buying the attachments for the kenwood.

I have a 1970's kenwood chef and it rules - kitchen aids look sexier but i love my retro chef i really do

My mum bakes every week she has had the same kenwood for over 30 years. Mine is 20 years old and still going strong, but I don't bake anything like as often as mum.
The cafe I worked in as a student used to make as much cake mixture as the bowl would hold and their KW coped too.

Iirc kitchen aid has a much, much smaller motor on them like 600rpm in comparison to 1000+ on the kenwood depending on which model you by.

It depends on your budget. If you can only afford a smaller kenwood (same rpm as the kitchen aid) then get which ever has the most attachments you will use. If you can afford to get a bigger motor with a kenwood get that.

My mums kitchen aid lasted a few years then died making bread. Kitchen aid wanted almost as much as a new one to replace it. I'm planning on getting a kenwood next year even though the kitchen aid is soooo much sexier

I have a Kenwood Major. We got it a bit by accident as my mother said that the Kenwoods with metal bowls were much better (I think my grandmother melted her heavy plastic bowl a bit), and that's the one we saw with a metal bowl. It has a very large capacity and a big heavy motor. I'm very happy with it :) My big sisters have my grandmothers' mixers, so we are very much a Kenwood family. I'm sorry to hear that the build quality has done down. I'm expecting mine to last for 30+ years as I don't know anyone whse had a problem with theirs.

I love my Kenwood Major Titanium... I love the creaming beater and the whisk is super fast... and all the attachments... oh it's just too good! I love the look of kitchen aid but they don't look nearly as substantial - no experience though I'm afraid!

Another one with her mum's Kenwood. I think it's about 25 years old.

Thanks everyone. I think I'm leaning towards a Kenwood chef based on the motor power. There seem to be some good deals at the moment as well.

Yes me too Helena..... Might even get it as an early Christmas present to myself so I can use it to bake all my Christmas goodies

OOh this is exactly the question I wanted to ask! The motors on the KA are much less powerful than the KCs - I think I have read that they use a different mechanism though so they aren't really that much less powerful - anyone know?! Does the KA cope well with kneading bread despite the smaller motor size? Oh have just seen someone's mother's one died making bread. Hmm.

I am leaning towards a KC as it seems to have so many attachments. The KA just looks so lovely but I really want the potato peeler in the Kenwood and also the slicing/grating stuff.

Can you make pastry in a KA/KC without a food processor attachment? I wondered as I think the only KC with food processor is the Chef Titanium which is more expensive.

It's a bit like head vs heart with KC vs KA isn't it?

Have an old KC - must be nearly 25 years and thinking its time for a new one. Really like the new KMix handheld we have - only one with a decent metal body and going great. So probably going to get the KMIx KC in cream to match. Seems to me the KC have more powerful motor and hopefully the new one will last as long!!

Don't tend to use attachments much but the K beater makes pastry fine - don't have a big processor just a hand blender type for small chopping stuff. I wouldn't bother with a potato peeler - after all what are kids for??

Kenwood. My mum's got her original one from the '60s and I've got a hand-me-down '70s A901 Chef.

The good thing about these ones is that pretty much the only thing that can go wrong is if you blow up the capacitors which control the speed of the beater. And with a small soldering iron and access to the internet, you can get a new one for 3-4 quid and fix it yourself. (Done this twice for mine - when they go they stink!)

You can get old chefs on ebay for a fraction of new cost, too.

Never actually used the dough hook. Have bread machine.

My mother's favourite attachment was the mincer: every Monday it came out and minced up the leftovers from Sunday's roast, with onion and some bread, and it got turned into rissoles or meat pie filling. The liquidiser is excellent too - we used it for Yorkshire pud batter (and therefore pancakes as well!) so was used week after week after week.

It broke once - think it was the dreaded capacitors - and a chap across the road fixed it. One popped component in 50 years ain't bad...

Funny how we all own Kenwoods but think the Kitchen Aid is prettier. Is this a victory for substance over style for Mumsnet?

loubielou, no I do not think it is a victory of style over substance, simply that Kenwood is/was (now owned by DeLonghi) a British brand and KitchenAid is an American one. I grew up with Kitchenaids and never heard of Kenwood until I moved here. If you posted on an American forum and asked the same question, the answers would have been skewed in the same way in favour for KitchenAid.

On the power issue, the wattage of the KA is lower, but it is just as powerful as it is a direct drive motor. A commercial version of the same mixer used in bakeries is the Hobart (the original makers of the KitchenAid) and it is the same wattage as the Kitchenaid Artisan - however it is also £2000.

Mominatrix - that's interesting re the motor - thank you - that was what I was wondering about as I couldn't understand the huge difference in wattage. A couple of people have commented (on reviews etc) that it struggled a bit on kneading bread - have you found that at all? Would you say Artisan is the one to get rather than classic? Also what are the slicing attachments like? Thank you!

In terms of bread kneading, I have it on only very intermittently for short bursts, so no long kneads (I've been converted to Dan Lepard's "knead and rest method") so I have not had any problems. I also do not bake double or triple batches, so am not really taxing the mixer.

HOWEVER, I would not pick the kitchenaid artisan if bread kneading is the principal reason to purchase it. There is a version of a Kitchenaid mixer (the Pro 600) which, unfortunately, is not available here in the UK that is brilliant at kneading due to it having a pig-tail kneading attachment instead of the dough hook.

I don't use it for slicing as I have a magimix, and am not even aware if it does have a slicing attachment. I do have the roller pasta attachment (sooo easy to use and much better than the hand crank one as I could never fix it securely enough to my table to effectively roll the pasta), the pasta extruder (have even made home-made soba noodles using it), and the ice-cream attachment (LOVE this one).

Definitely Artisan over classic!

Thank you! I have a bread maker so not going to use it for bread all the time at all - but think I would make more bread by hand if I had a mixer.

I don't have a food processor so was thinking of the Kenwood Chef Titanium which has a food processor and loads of attachments. But, of course, the prettiness of the KA is a big attraction!