Kenwood Chef (Prospero)

Never got one myself - I look at the price and think, wow ;)

Still got my Kenwood Chefette going strong- got with Greenshield stamps in 1971...

I just bought this one

www.amazon.co.uk/Kenwood-FPM250-Food-Processor-Brushed/dp/B006WYVEYE

because it was half price and shiny and silver and I thought - I want it! My smaller one, like granjura's, had lasted for 20 years before dying on me last week.

I have a huge mistake (I don't know if yours has got as many attachments as mine) to confess to - I left the plastic protective cover on the cutting blade the other day. I had to throw the whole lot away. But I can assure you that it chops lovely neat shiny plastic slivers.

I have made pastry, a shredded veg salad, a biscuit mix and a sauce. All great. But all you can do is experiment, I made a horrible mushy mess of grated carrot because I used the potato rasping blade by mistake. So I also ended up making soup.

I haven't tried the dough attachment yet, I have a breadmaker, but for smaller quantities for things like Danish pastries it will be useful.

I had always wanted a Kenwood chef and finally bought one on retirement with some money which came with retirement. It looked lovely on the worktop and I thought I will join the WI and make lots of lovely cakes and bread. Not so I find that creamed butter sticks around the side of the bowl and I can do it quicker and fluffier with a hand mixer. the bread hook was Ok but again I'm better with my hands. So I bought myself a JL food processor and use that more then the Kenwood and have put that away in a cupboard. I don't bake much anyway now as I'm always struggling with my weight. I will be making the Xmas cake next week so not sure how I will approach that yet. I think if funds were limitless I might buy one of these trendy looking things you see on bake off etc BUT the price is extortionate. My friend who bakes a lot has one but I still think her sponges are heavy.

We bought our Kenwood Chef back in 1966 with Kensitas coupons, before we were married.

The gearbox packed up a few years ago. Found one for a pound at a boot sale, swapped the gearbox over. Been running fine ever since, still got the boot sale one in the loft in case I need a motor sometime.
Amazingly, the rubber feet, which do wear out every few years, are still available online.
Mrs.P uses it all the time.
Would a modern one last 48 years ?

I doubt it very much. One of the fitments cracked on my old one, that's all, so liquidising is out, but my daughter will have it as she wants it for grating. I forgot to say, I had it for 20 years but my mother had it before me!

I've got a Kenwood Chef Major. Used to make bread with it (dough hook) before I got a breadmaker. Like you, I use a hand mixer for cakes, and for pastry too. The Kenwood Chef is good for large things like Xmas puds and cake.

Oh, and I mix home-made beefburgers up with it. V good for that.

I don't keep it on the worktop any longer.

I think it probably makes better pastry than a processor. (which I think would bash the air out too much) Good for rich Xmas pastries.

Once, in a fit of security consciousness, I hid my small collection of 'good' jewellery in a safe place. Three days later I couldn't for the life of me remember where I had put it. Panic. I kept quiet about it but kept racking my brain to remember. One day, going to make a cake, I took the cover off the Kenwood Chef and there in the bowl was the jewellery box. I know if I had gone under the proverbial bus during those few days DH would have sent the mixer (which I got second hand for £15) to the next jumble sale without looking at it. The next time I hid the family jewels (in a broad bean seed packet) I rang my mother and told her just in case.

Hiding the "family jewels" in a mixer sounds painful [ouch]

I have a Kenwood Chef that was a wedding present in 1982. I very rarely use it. I make pastry in my food processor and bread, in the bread maker. The bread pan has sprung a leak, there are rivets in the bottom where the dough blade is attached and around one of them the liquid seeps out. I have tried to find a replacement without success. I think I may have to buy a new breadmaker as I use it a lot.

The Kenwood Chef was consigned to a cupboard a long time age.

I grow a lot of veg, I think that's why I use mine so much. Carrot cake, beetroot cake, borscht, coleslaw, all that sort of thing get made. The new one has a much more powerful motor so whizzes around a bit fast even on the slower setting, that takes a bit of getting used to. The short-crust pastry was fine, as was the shortbread.

Wouldn't it be nice if they let you borrow one for a week before buying one. I fully understand the op's dilemma, I looked at all the new implements and just wanted my old one back. I knew it so well I was on automatic when I used it.

I've said it before, I love my Kenwoods. First one, 1974 era still going strong in semi retirement at holiday house. Second one, Major, alive and well on daily duty.
They make superb all in one cakes, are the only thing for whisking meringues and quickly make pastry, without too much handling.
Some users are unaware that the K mixer, whisk and hook can be altered in height which may be the reason for contents sticking around the bowl.

I feel sad for all those unused Kenwoods! X

Mmmm......oh dear. Bit of a mixed response. My dilemma now, is whether to give it a go at pastry etc, or sell it and get as much money back on it as I can while its brand new.

I'm not normally this indecisive. I just think old habits die hard.

Thank you all anyway.

I wouldn't be without mine for the jobs I mentioned - mostly larger quantities. Depends on the kind of cooking you do really.

I use my KitchenAid every few days and keep it on the worktop. Use it for bread and cakes mostly, but I've used it for large amounts of mashed potatoes and even home made butter from left over cartons of cream last Christmas.

I have a Chef Major and it is brilliant. OH bought me a beater attachment that has a rubber edge so it gets right to the edges of the bowl. Beater

I bought a Kenwood Chef Prospero from Lakeland a few years ago. I've used it pretty regularly for cakes and such. I want to use it to make bread with the dough hook, but haven't worked up the nerve yet. I've also used the food processor but I am pretty certain that I haven't used it nearly as much as I could be using it.