{YOUTUBE:mlshf9h3-QQ} Looking for stylish kitchen gadgets designed by a Michelin-starred chef? Nick Harman actually wasn’t but now finds himself totally consumed by desire.
A celeb chef putting his or her name to a kitchen appliance is not that unusual or surprising. The money is probably very good, the effort required pretty minimal and it certainly beats sweating over a hot stove all day. Walk around John Lewis and it’s almost an A-Z of chefs, George Foreman excepted of course. But, as the marketing people no doubt say, when Heston Blumenthal puts his name to a product it has to be good.
Which leads us to why despite it being a wednesday, we are in the Saturday Kitchen. Sageâ„¢ kitchen appliances hail from Australia and are things of beauty. More importantly each of the 16 machines in the range that’s being shown has benefitted from Heston’s input, experience and common sense and now, as the Sage Ice Cream maker churns in the background and we all keep a nervous eye out for James Martin who has his own range of appliances, Heston explains and demonstrates each one.
Because the leaves come out of the water, the tea can stay hot in the kettle without brewing any further. And for those of us who like a lie in, the Tea Makerâ„¢ has a programmable’start’ feature so you can wake up to a fresh brew every day.
Heston missed his vocation as an in-store demonstrator, his flow of patter, jokes and information would have made him ideal. Even as we taste the tea he’s already into the next gadget – a blender. Now we all know blenders can be irritatingly inefficient, most work only by sucking ingredients down toward the blades but this can leave some bits of denser ingredients like sugar or honey unblended.
The demos go on with the 3.7 Litre combined searing slow cooker, rice cooker and steamer that pulses heat around the base and so can actually cook a risotto without it being watched. Heston explains that contrary to lore you don’t actually need to constantly stir a risotto and the dish he produces is indeed perfect with the pleasing acidity that is such a trademark of Heston’s cooking.
Particularly cool is the double decker blade for mincing meat, which has its own special cover for keeping it safe from small hands and harm in the dishwasher, and the small processing bowl for smaller tasks which sits inside the larger bowl during use. That’s smart thinking.
The instructions and recipes come with hints and tips from Heston, who is by now enthusing over a toaster. It is indeed quite a toaster. Different breads require different amounts of cooking time – sweeter breads cook quicker. The setting times on some toasters will under or over toast depending on the bread. They also leave you guessing when it’s done. The Sageâ„¢ Smart Toastâ„¢ has a silent motor that lifts the toast up enough to check how your toast is getting on without interrupting the heating cycle.
Heston then juices with the Sageâ„¢ Nutri Juicerâ„¢ Pro that only transfers two degrees of heat which means, as he explains, that each glass of juice has the maximum nutritional value as well as taste.
If you’re into kitchen cool as well as the appliance of science for perfect results, these chef designed and endorsed gadgets from Sage really are the business. They make not make you Fat Duck perfect, but they’ll make everyday life a little smarter.
Selected Sageâ„¢ appliances are available at John Lewis, Selfridges, Harrods, Debenhams, House of Fraser, Amazon and Lakeland
The 16 launch products for Sage by Heston Blumenthal are the Citrus Press, the Scraper Mixer Pro, the Smart Toast 2 slice, the Kitchen Wizz Pro, the Smart Toast 4 slice, the Smart Kettle, the Tea Maker, the Multi Cooker, the Barista Express, the Nutri Juicer, the Kinetix Control blender, the Nutri Juicer Duo, the Control Grip All-in-One, the Nutri Juicer Pro, the Smart Scoop and the Soft Open Kettle.
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