Category: kitchen gadgets

I’ve reviewed a couple of the items in the Sage by Heston range: the deep fat fryer and Kitchen Wizz Pro (twice). There are features common to all of them: they are presented in a brushed chrome finish with matt black details, packed with features & modes and very solidly made. They do also share a high price tag to match. How does this Grill and Press sit in the lineup?

It’s obviously trying to muscle in on the George Foreman grill territory (did you know it could have been the Hulk Hogan grill?), simultaneously offering sandwich pressing into the mix. I’ve had a George Foreman for a couple of years and use it fairly regularly so I have a good idea of what it’s capable of (I’ve made a whole roast on one before!). The key advantages of this type of appliance is having heat from both plates to speed up cooking, plus the slant of the device encourages excess fat to drain away into the fat tray.

What can you cook with it?

I tried a few different things with it. First up was a sausage muffin – pretty straight forward. I used the SEAR setting to cook the sausages in about 7 minutes (pretty fast!), then split them and put them back into a muffin before grilling the lot on the SANDWICH setting.

My second experiment was similar, roast beef and mustard in a poppy seed roll again squidged and toasted. Both came out as a tasty as a pressed sandwich should do. I then tried burgers, butterflied chicken breasts and other meats and all came out cooked very well. Despite the fat draining the fast cooking time leads to succulent, tender meat as it doesn’t cook long enough to start leaking juices. In that regard it works exactly as it should and cooks meat and bread very well.

It’s also dead-easy to clean. As it has a non-stick coating it’s easy to wipe down with kitchen towel and it’s good to go. If there’s anything stubborn on it I trickle boiling water on it and that shifts the rest.

The downside

I have a couple of niggles with the device. The instructions are unusually poor, lacking crucial detail. For example, there’s a dial on the top where you point it towards SANDWICH or SEAR. And there are some dots in between them to indicate some gradation between them. But what’s the difference between them? The manual doesn’t make this clear. And what if you’re not cooking a sandwich of a chicken breast? How do you cook a piece of bacon? Further experimentation reveals that SANDWICH is effectively a cooler setting, while SEAR is the hottest. This is not explained anywhere in the manual, and would make such a difference in exploring how to use it. As another example of the manual’s shortcomings, there are some feet under the grill to stabilise it when you want the food to be level as opposed to slanted. But it doesn’t explain how they pop out. I’d already turned the grill on to get warm so trying to fish around underneath was a tricky. It’s not difficult, but a little diagram here would make all the difference.

There’s a disappointing amount of recipes too. Whilst I wouldn’t slavishly make each one of them, they do give you avenues of inspiration to showcase the tool’s talents. They can push you towards trying something new especially when you think of the device as only capable of certain things.

On a practical level I have a couple of reservations. Because of the large black handle, the device pivots very high. I can only fit it in one place in my kitchen, and not in my usual countertop places – it simply won’t open when underneath my wall-mounted cupboards. This limits what I can do with it. Also – and this is a bit of a silly one – the plastic mould on the plug isn’t deep enough. I can’t get enough purchase on the plug to pull it out of the wall confidently. I have to wiggle the plug and lever it cautiously until the pins ease free.

Most of these are trivial and personal details, but we are talking about a gadget that costs just shy of £100 and has many, many competitors on the market at all different price points and feature sets. At the price they are charging every feature of it should be refined to perfection.

Verdict

It’s a great type of gadget to have around, especially if you are limited in hob space or don’t have a grill. It’s also a great way to control your fat intake as you have a lot of visibility on what oil or butter you’re using and how much drains away.

While I can recommend others in the Sage by Heston range despite the price – the Kitchen Wizz Pro is the best in its class – I wouldn’t plonk down the money on this one. There are many similar items available riffling through the Argos catalogue that offer much better value for money. What it does it does extremely well, but not at this price. If you can pick it up on offer or with vouchers, go for it. I don’t think it’s worth paying full price for.

The Sage by Heston Adjusta Grill is available from Amazon, priced £99.

Thanks to Sage for sending me a device to try.

What else could you buy?

Helen at Fuss Free Flavours has reviewed the Tefal OptiGrill.

2020 update: I posted a video review of this product. Click here to view.

This is an update from my original Sage by Heston Blumenthal Kitchen Wizz Pro food processor review. To see the original click here.

When you first get a new toy, you can get quite giddy about it. You’ll use every feature, you’ll tell all your friends about it, you’ll use it non-stop for two weeks.

But do you keep using it? That’s the trick, isn’t it. Kitchen gadgets are notorious for gathering dust after the initial excited flurry, leading to an elephant’s graveyard pockmarked with bread makers, ice cream machines and electric spaghetti forks. Food mixers can be really bad for it. Will this suffer the same fate?

I received my (deep breath) Sage by Heston Blumenthal Kitchen Wizz Pro food processor (and exhale) in August 2013 and I was very positive.  Here’s what I said last year: “It’s fair to say I’m besotted with it and it’s one of the best kitchen gadgets I’ve ever used. Ask everyone to give you vouchers for birthday and Christmas and save up for one. It’s superb.”

One year on, does it still get used? Or is it resigned to a dingy corner of my loft?

What’s good about the Kitchen Wizz Pro?

• Wide range of blades. There’s a tool here for every job. The variable slicer blade is my favourite: most processors give you two blades of different thicknesses but this one has a genius disc with a variable dial on so you can get your ingredients sliced to the millimetre from 0.5mm to 8mm (very Heston).

And your regular food processor blade has 4 blades on it, rather than the usual two. And yes, I’ve sliced my finger open on it, so I testify that it was sharp. Mrs. Spud swears by the dough blade for making cake mixtures.

• Very stable. It’s weight ensures it won’t go walking off the countertop.
• Tremendously powerful. Previous mixers and processors I’ve had can get jammed on a swede. The Kitchen Wizz pro has a little chuckle as it blitzes it. FYI the motor is 2000 watt with a 25 (!) year guarantee.
• Very fast. Cuts down many chopping / grating / blending kitchen jobs to almost nothing.
• Large hopper. This is one of those things you don’t realise you need until you use it, then all food processors seem inadequate in comparison. Save time slicing veg into pieces before you process – because at 14cm wide it allows you to chuck in say, 4 or 5 carrots side by side. Or 2 potatoes. Genius.
• Smaller mixing bowl accessory. Smaller items, say making a garlic and ginger paste, can rattle around a large bowl and not get mixed efficiently. Having a smaller inset bowl option gets this job done.
• Smart appearance. As I commented last year the brushed chrome and greys are quite masculine, but you can’t deny it’s a classy look.
• Cleanup. Nearly all of it can go in the dishwasher, so fire and forget.
• Quiet. Given the power, it’s surprisingly quiet.

What’s not so good about the Kitchen Wizz Pro?

• Lack of variable speed. You get cyclone or stop. There’s your two speeds. You can pulse but it’s not the same as building up to F-5 speeds. There are occasions when you want to ratchet down to a lower speed to add more items.
• Eats cupboard space. This is true of all appliances of this type, but this one has your base unit, your 2.5L mixing bowl and your box of blades. In my kitchen they are spread over three cupboards to fit them all in.
• Not all blades work that well. The plastic blades let the side down. This ’emulsifying’ disc – a piece of corrugated plastic – seems to do nothing. I’ve tried it whisking egg whites and the disc just spins through them merrily doing nothing (and yes, I made sure the bowl was spotlessly clean). Same with whipping cream, it just kinda pushes it around without thickening. And the dough blade is alright (see note above) but for bread not a patch on a proper dough hook from an overhead mixer. Because the plastic blade sits at the bottom it shoves at the dough sitting at the base of the bowl.
• It’s heavy. It needs to be, to stop it hurling itself out of the window when you switch it on. But this could be limiting for some people as the thing does weigh a ton.
• The price. It’s £399 (RRP) and I can’t ignore that. It’s not at the cheap end of the spectrum – but none of the Sage by Heston range are.

Is the Kitchen Wizz Pro Food Processor worth it?

See that last point in the negatives? Go back and read it.

Yeah, so the RRP is £399. It’s a lot of dosh. But when it comes to a gadget like this, I don’t see the point in buying the Tesco Value food processor. It’s got to work hard, and replace a whole bunch of tools in your kitchen, and save you time to earn it’s keep.

And if you’ve decided to get yourself a food processor, you’ll be looking at the alternatives and some will be similar in price, and some much cheaper. But the sheer power of this model, along with it’s wide range of tools (even if not all of them are perfect), plus the other features make it the perfect kitchen accessory. It is absolutely worth it.

I bust mine out at least once a week, sometimes more often, whenever I have a bunch of chopping to do on a weeknight for a casserole, pie or stir fry. Or to pull together pastry. Or to grate stuff for coleslaw. Or blitz onion, garlic and ginger for a puree.

If you are after a proper kitchen food processor, that can take on a load of dull jobs, this is a very serious contender. My advice is as before: ask for vouchers for birthdays, Christmas, whatever and put it towards this bad boy.

Any other options?

• For another view of the Kitchen Wizz Pro food processor, check out Ren’s review. Very interesting.
• Jo’s Kitchen recently road-tested the Magimix CS 4200 XL. See what she thought.
• Helen’s story with Magimix is an encounter with poor customer service.
• Checking out the Russell Hobbs Illumina range? Camilla’s chilled picante soup has the low down.

The Kitchen Wizz Pro is available from Amazon.