THE ULTIMATE KITCHEN GADGET

Snaring the Elusive Thermomix
A food writer's quest to domesticate the go-to appliance of master chefs
By RAYMOND SOKOLOVGardiner, N.Y.
The best kitchen appliance on my countertop is ugly, overpriced and not for sale in any store. In fact, the Thermomix isn't for sale in this country. But at the risk of sounding like a vegetable-peeler pitchman holding forth in a supermarket aisle, I am here to tell you that this $1,400 German widget will do everything a blender, a processor, an electric mixer, a steamer, a Crock-Pot, a timer and a kitchen scale can do, but better, and all in one small spot. But for $1,400? This year? Jonathan Player for The Wall Street JournalThe $1,400 Thermomix TM31 processes, blends, steams and cooks.If you're buying appliances for a new kitchen, Thermomix may really look like a bargain. When you start adding up the cost of all those single-purpose devices, each demanding its own counter space, you'll see that Thermomix could actually save you money as well as work space. I did a rough tally in which Thermomix saved a hypothetical kitchen design around a thousand dollars. And that was in comparison with average-grade processors, mixers, coffee grinders and yogurt makers. Defenders of the Cuisinart processor and the KitchenAid stand mixer will point out that their containers hold more than the bowl of the Thermomix TM31. I say, ask yourself how often you actually put a gallon of stuff in your mixer, or use it at all. Then decide if the efficiency of the Thermomix isn't worth the trouble of a second batch of dough every once in a great while. Thermomix couples all the functions of the normal horde of space-grabbing appliances into one white machine that occupies roughly the same footprint as a Cuisinart. It weighs the food you put into the two-quart, stainless-steel container, and its processing blades chop or grate those ingredients at a speed you can set, from barely moving to a terrifying brutality, and at graduated points in between. Then its equally adjustable, timed heating unit will cook the food, while you play videogames or chew out your broker. The TM31, the latest model, also comes with a steaming unit, the Varoma (don't ask), which fits atop the main machine and lets you prepare up to two additional dishes simultaneously, while the original cooking project below -- perhaps a sauce for the salmon and potatoes steaming above -- follows the program you have punched into the machine's brain. View Full ImageJonathan Player for The Wall Street JournalThermomix has a special setting for kneading dough, with no extra hook or attachment necessary. You can reverse the rotation of the blades in mid-career, so that their flat back sides hit the food with blunt force. That is how Janie Turner, a former nurse from British Columbia and now Thermomix U.K.'s princess royal, taught me to peel garlic cloves. I visited Ms. Turner in January in her suburban London home-headquarters, where she demonstrated various techniques and tricks using this remarkable and game-changing invention. Take the garlic dodge. You fill the steel container with water, add the cloves and run the blades backwards in spurts. They knock off the skins, which float and can be easily removed. You strain off the water and, after seconds instead of the laborious minutes of hand labor this task used to take, you are ready to make the famous Provençal "pistache" of lamb with 50 garlic cloves that you might have otherwise shrunk from cooking. Like many of my foodie friends, I had lusted for a Thermomix. But by the time I decided life without a TM31 wasn't worth living, I found I had waited too long. Vorwerk, the German manufacturer, stopped distributing Thermomix in the U.S. in 2004, the year it replaced the old TM21 with the TM31. Even in the days when an alert consumer could buy the TM21 in the U.S., it required a householder to invite a Thermomix salesperson into his or her home.None of my European friends would agree to host a Thermomix demonstration, so I turned in desperation to eBay, where I bid successfully for a "slightly used" machine on offer from someone in the Canary Islands. He didn't respond until I threatened to complain to eBay and wreck his status as a bona fide trader. Quickly came the email explanation that he'd been on vacation, and the machine came soon afterward. The machine's European power cord, with a tubular-pronged plug, wouldn't fit into the 240-volt U.S. electrical outlet I have in my kitchen. So out came the needle-nose pliers. I cut off the male end of a heavy-duty extension cord and attached a flat-bladed U.S. 240-volt plug in its place. At the extension cord's female end, I attached a travel-converter plug ($2.85 at magellans.com) intended mainly for foreign travelers who want to use their appliances in U.S. hotel rooms. The round pins of the Thermomix power cord went into that plug's female end. My neighbor Bill the electrical designer assured me I wasn't in danger. Even so, I will confess that I put on rubber gloves before I actually plugged my Gyro Gearloose workaround into the wall. But, lo, the LED readout sprang to life. No sparks flew. I might have spared myself the effort and suspense had I spoken with Ms. Turner before buying. She revealed the open secret that Thermomix Canada (www.thermomixcanada.ca) is quietly eager to ship a U.S.-compatible, 120-volt TM31 with a two-year warranty to the U.S. for the competitive price of C$1,600 (a little less than $1,400); Nathalie Miller, the company's marketing director, says the lower voltage won't compromise performance. Still, with cybermoxie and modest DIY daring, I'd struck a blow against the insane chaos of international electrical standards. Now all I had to do was learn to cook on my transplanted Spanish machine. On the afternoon I spent with Janie Turner, she turned out whole meals by just adding and shifting ingredients from one part of the Thermomix to another, pushing buttons while barely touching food. Her soups were silken without straining. She waltzed proudly through mayonnaise and sorbets, steaming moussaka and grinding poppy seeds. Ms. Turner's site (www.ukthermomix.com) is the most complete recipe source in English, but Thermomix is an international phenomenon, and national Web sites serve user audiences everywhere from Brazil to Israel. On the French site, I found a recipe that shows how the machine streamlines the creation of a traditional pot-au-feu while actually enhancing the home cook's chances of aesthetic success.The idea with pot-au-feu, the French version of a New England boiled dinner, is to cook beef and vegetables so as to produce a refined broth, tender pieces of beef and vegetables that haven't been cooked to death in the process. Normally, this would involve a fair amount of juggling, testing, tasting and ultimately washing many pots and pans. The Thermomix recipe proceeds on several fronts at once. It begins by processing some of the vegetables in the stainless-steel bowl, then simmering them, alone and then with meat, in water added to the bowl, while the blades stir slowly. Meanwhile, other vegetables meant to be served as an accompaniment are steamed in the Varoma, which collects the delicious vapor from the simmering broth in the bowl below. The cook, having punched in the temperature, blade speed, direction and duration, can sit pretty or knit socks. When the alarm goes off, you just arrange the meat and steamed vegetables together on a platter, and serve the broth from the bowl separately. Even more spectacular are tricky preparations involving egg yolks -- custards and emulsified sauces such as Béarnaise, where even a bit too much heat can turn those yolks into scrambled eggs. By setting the TM31 at 80 degrees Celsius (176 degrees Fahrenheit), that risk is eliminated. The machine reliably cooks the custard just until it thickens, while stirring or whisking it with the "butterfly" attachment that fits over the steel blades. I exploited this feature to make the foamy Italian dessert zabaione for guests while I sat with them at the table, finishing our main course. In the bad old days, I would have been obliged to go to the stove and manually whisk together egg yolks, sugar and a dry Marsala or other sweet wine until the mixture evolved into a thick foam that didn't overcook into breakfast food. Chefs love this convenience. Ken Oringer, who operates several admired restaurants in Boston, does emulsions and purées in his Thermomix. Anyone who has ever tried to make a Génoise batter, with whole eggs delicately heated and lengthily beaten to stiff peaks, and ended up with a flat failure will be delighted to toss the Génoise ingredients into the Thermomix, set the temperature to 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and run the butterfly whisk at speed three for 15 minutes. Pour into a cake pan and bake in the oven. Yes, the oven. There's the dirty little secret of the Thermomix. It can grate Parmesan cheese and melt chocolate for brownies, but it can't bake a cake or roast a turkey. On top of the counter, though, it rules.