I knew almost as soon as I arrived in the Electrics Hall, I hadn’t allowed enough time to give a full coverage of the culinary products. I won’t make that mistake next time. Nevertheless, I will give my summary of the fun machines I was able to see. I apologize for the lack of photos from the show floor, I had a brain freeze and never pulled out the camera in between note taking sessions.
The first victim, err company, I saw was Jura Capresso, makers of fine coffee machines. For the most part there were no new coffee machines (I had already worked with the C9 model), but I did see two other items that I liked. There was a neat electric cup warmer. It has two pull out rows stacked on top of each other, which made for a sleek, easy to accommodate footprint. Each row holds up to 4 cups and the machine kept them perfectly warm and ready for espresso or cappuccino. Yes, it is a bit of an extravagance but if you already own one of the Jura Coffee Centers, it should be a very manageable accessory.
The other new item from Jura was a stand alone electric frother. You pour the milk into a coated aluminum pitcher and set it on the base. The frothing is driven by a magnetic drive under the pitcher, not connecting cogs. It was very efficient and quiet. The foam produced was really nice. The machine can froth cold, medium and hot liquids, depending on the type of drink you want to make. There was room underneath to store the extra frothing “blades” when not in use; the storage area was handy feature that would help someone like me from losing the small frothers.
Next stop was DeLonghi. DeLonghi has a redesigned coffee machine called the Latissima, which uses Nespresso coffee pods. The new model, the Latissima Premium, has many improved user functions, including simpler labeling of the coffee types one can make with the machine. In the earlier model, it was frustrating not to know when the water container was empty or the pod collection bin needed to be emptied. This has gratefully been remedied in the Premium model; two new light indicators tell the user when action needs to be taken on the water or pod bin. An auto shut-off function was also added to help save energy. Beyond that, there were some aesthetic changes in the exterior which make it a more attractive unit overall. It is good to see consumer feedback was taken into consideration.
And speaking of Nespresso, well, not much new to report. After 2009’s wildly successful introduction of the Citiz machines, Nespresso is trying to build on that solid foundation. However, there will be limited release models of the Citiz models called Signature. These will feature two stylish designs, one with a colorful Parisian scheme and the other done in a New York style. They are the standard Citiz machines with custom, tricked out paint jobs. Depending on the success of the launch, Nespresso will determine whether other Signature lines will be released. Nespresso has initiated a detailed educational campaign to help consumers understand the exacting processes used to bring quality coffee to each cup. On the recycling front, the trial program for the return of used pods is underway in New York.
From Chef’s Choice, I saw a nicely designed electric “Smart Kettle” which allows the user to set the temperature of the water, from temperatures low enough for the most delicate white and green teas to a full rolling boil. Also got a look at the Hybrid Sharpener. The hybrid function consists of the ability to use the electric motor to sharpen your knives while also using a manual slot for honing and maintenance. Both elements should be used only with Western Style knives.
Zojirushi, the Japanese electric manufacturer, has introduced a new high end rice cooker. The latest model combines induction heating, a function introduced in 2009, with a slower vacuum pressure cooking component. The machine automatically sets the pressure level based on the type of rice being cooked. I can attest to the fact that the rice cooked in these machines is sublime. It is moist, perfectly cooked, with a delicate texture and wonderful flavor, even without seasoning. What I would have liked to see was a side by side comparison of the pressure induction made rice and rice cooked in a simple pot or value rice steamer. This would have given us a chance to really see the difference. I guess I will have to do that experiment on my own in the future.
Passing by the Waring Pro booth, I got my first look at their 3.5 Hp professional quality blender. This machine competes directly with the VitaMix brand. For less money, it seemed to produce very similar results as the VitaMix, at least in the limited test runs I saw.
And finally, I met with the folks from Technivorm, makers of the Mocca Master coffee machine. We had a good talk and I was able to see the machine in action and sample the results. While I won’t go into detail here, it is a quick smooth functioning machine that definitely makes a good, hot cup of coffee.
In the end, I found the show to be a culinary geeks heaven and hell. Heaven in that there were so many fun things to see and hell in that there was so little time to give proper attention to all the innovative manufacturers and inventors.
Thanks again to all the staff who make all the show enjoyable for the attendees and to all the manufacturers who took the time to talk with me and tolerate my pressing, probing questions.
———————————————————————————————————
At the show today, I spied many fun tools for the kitchen.
For instance, I saw a well made mandolin by Edgeware. It had very sensitive adjustment capabilities of the cutting blades. The best features were the steady handling, the ability to keep the blades parallel to each other for even slices and the ability to order a replacement blade when the original becomes dull.
There was also a good mezzaluna cutting blade and board with a bowl shaped indentation from Bon Jour. The bowl shaped indentation allows for more effective chopping of herbs and vegetables.
Bon Jour also had a very nice machine for brewing tea. This new machine was fully programmable with 7 different preset tea settings. The machine heated the water to the proper temperature for each tea type, steeped the leaves for the proper amount of time and dispensed the water into the carafe when ready. A heating element below the carafe kept the tea gently warm for no more than 30 minutes, after which time you could add more water to the leaves for a second brewing or begin the process anew. The quality of tea produced by this machine was sublime. It is on the pricey side, but if you are a tea lover, you should seriously consider purchasing this machine.
Le Creuset has redesigned their line of silicone spatulas and tools. The handles were engineered with new ridges which ensure a firm, yet comfortable grip.
The silicone heads are better aligned with the wood handle to prevent food and water from getting underneath. Several of the tools had extended silicone on the handles to allow any striking motions on the side of a pan to contact silicone and not wood. These are the best version of these tools I have seen yet.
I had a good time with the fine folks from Vinturi, the makers of wine aerators. I have been very skeptical of this product, but after talking with inventor Rio Sabadicci and his team I may become a convert. I want to run my own tests and experiments on wine and the effectiveness of the aerators, but after tasting the results with them today, my eyes opened to new possibilities. Don’t worry Rio, I will be, as always, fair about my tests.
I also spied a new product from an up and coming company called Perfect Portions. These guys produce a nutritional scale that has a great new design. The display area matches the nutritional labels on food products making the dietary information more digestible (pun intended). It also functions as a kitchen scale, but I will post a more detailed review soon.
I saw fine products from Fissler, makers of excellent pressure cookers and Chef’n, who introduced a new corn zipper and a well designed green bean slicer.
And a special shout out goes to the small and talented team at Baker’s Edge, makers of a great brownie pan, which I reviewed. They recently introduced a similarly shaped lasagna pan. There are new products in the works which I eagerly anticipate.
As with Day 1, there was more seen than can be detailed in one post. I will be providing more updates in the coming days and weeks.
———————————————————————————————————
First of all, I want to thank the staff at the International Housewares Association. As someone observing from the “front of the house”, I can say the show is well organized, with plenty of online and printed information available. It has been a pleasure working with Jay and Debbie, thanks guys.
The first day of any big trade show has a lot to digest. I can’t begin to detail it all but will give some key first impressions, after all I’ve only seen about a third of the culinary tools and equipment. It should also be understood that most of these items are not yet ready for sale in retail outlets. This show allows manufacturers to present prototypes and “first looks” for upcoming lines.
AMCO Houseworks had two items which jumped out at me. The first was a set of angled spiral liquid measuring cups. There were 1, 2 and 4 cup sizes. They were nice to hold, a good pouring spout and clear inside markings.
The second item was the Stalk slicer. A scissor like slicing device for long vegetables like carrots, celery, chives, scallions and the like. I normally am a knife wielding guy with my vegetables, but this tool can really save you time. It gives four even 3/16″ slices with each cut and can easily be used by right or left handed people. It borders on “gadgety”, but if you are looking for even slices done quickly you will find this tool useful.
Tovolo had two new squeeze dispensers for kitchen use. One was designed for pancake batter, the other for thicker batters like cupcakes. They were stylish, cylindrical containers with lids that snapped tight against the pour spout to prevent dripping when closed. They both can hold around 24 ounces of batter, which can be squeezed out in careful portions. You can easily store the batters in the refrigerator so quick preparation at a later time. If you owned more than one, you could use different colored batters for creative designs.
Bodum had several new items that were interesting, including an immersion blender, a burr grinder, a flexible knife block and microwave save bowls with silicone lids. The most interesting item was the electric tea and coffee brewing machine. The device heated water and immersed either tea leaves or ground coffee in a carafe on the other side. If making coffee, the tea basket in the carafe is replaced by a French Press plunger. Like the latest Bodum designs, this product comes in a great new color. Still waiting for the sales rep’ to get back to me concerning what temperature the water is heated to for brewing.
Finally got a chance to taste and try the Aeropress coffee maker. I must say it brewed a nice, rich, full flavored cup of coffee. I will post a full review in the future, but like I said, I was impressed.
MicroPlane had a new herb mill for cutting fresh herbs. It had a two blade action powered by a twist of the hand. It produced a nicely minced herb, but I wonder if it might not be a bit difficult to clean.
I saw a new corn peeler from OXO. This version looks like a hand held vegetable peeler with a curved blade to hug the cob better. A design which reminds me of the Kuhn Rikon model. I think this new OXO could work very well.
One final product for tonight was from Lamson & Goodnow. This fine American company makes high quality knives and tools, but are soon coming out with a line of cutting boards made from a combination of phenolic resin and 100% recycled consumer paper. I believe these boards will be equal to the Epicurean line of cutting boards available today. The difference being that the Lamson boards are using completely recycled materials, not wood fibers like Epicurean. Lamson is also using this material for the handles of some lines of knives and kitchen tools. The competition between the two companies will be fun to watch.
Well, as I said, there is a lot to cover and will definitely post about more companies and products over the next couple of weeks, but this is a good start. Stay tuned.
———————————————————————————————————
Affiliate Partner
Avocado Bravado
A frequently purchased item at the shop is the avocado slicer.
As I am prone to do, I will explain the simple way to open, remove the seed and slice an avocado using a knife and then I will discuss the tools one can buy.
The Easy Way
You start with a sharp kitchen knife, I like a 6″ Utility knife. Hold the avocado lengthwise in your hand, start cutting at the stem, slice down to the seed and follow all the way around. Then twist the avocado open by turning the two halves in opposite directions. You should now have one half with the seed inside and one without.
To remove the seed, chop into the seed with the sharpened side of the knife blade and twist. The seed should twist right out.
Next, using the flat edge of the knife, make slices in the soft flesh of the fruit. Take care – if you use the sharp side as you can easily pierce the avocado skin and cut yourself. If you are afraid of a sharp knife, use a butter knife or other dull blade to make the slices. If you want to make cubes instead of slices, make cross cuts width-wise.
Now just grab a tablespoon and starting at the wide end of the avocado, scoop out the flesh. It couldn’t be easier.
Using a knife, you can cut slices as thin or thick as you like and you already have the necessary tools in your kitchen.
The Other Way
However, if you are a tool lovin’ monkey, there are some models you might like.
Avocado slicers share similar designs which have inherent positives and negatives.
Positives
Negatives
Models
There are two basic designs, plastic and metal. I prefer the slicers with wire tines for cutting the avocado flesh. The stainless steel wires make smooth, cleaner cuts. The plastic models generally have thicker plastic tines which push rather than cut the avocado, particularly when working with riper fruit.
After that, the handle is really the only other feature to consider. I like a no-slip grip as opposed to the plastic handle, but that is a personal preference.
After slicing open the avocado and removing the seed, just press the rim of the slicer firmly against the skin and pull toward you. If you keep even pressure on the slicer, it should scrape the skin cleanly and present you with slices that easily slide out.
The wire tine slicers achieve thinner slices, but that may not always be your goal.
The Amco and Progressive International avocado slicers are the most effective and well made of the bunch.
Both have metal wires firmly secured into the handle and rim. The Progressive model has a no-slip handle. The Amco version has a comfortable metal handle, plus a seed removal tool at the opposite end. I prefer the comfortable feel of the Progressive handle and am not impressed with the seed remover of the Amco. The seed remover can dig into the flesh unnecessarily, because sometimes seeds don’t want to come out easily. For pure slicing capability, I lean toward the Progressive slicer.
Amco Avocado Slicer
Progressive International slicer
The Norpro slicer is all stainless steel, but has blades and not wires for the slicing element. The blades are not as efficient as the wires and avocados may stick a bit. This can also happen with a knife of course, but the possibility of mashing the avocado is more likely with these slicers than with a knife. I am not fond of the way the lower end of the tines attach on the Norpro.
Norpro avocado slicer
Chef’n makes two models of plastic slicers – one has plastic blade tines, the other has metal blades. The model with the metal tines is the better model. The plastic blades just don’t cut as cleanly or smoothly. The Tovolo slicer suffers the same problem because it has thick plastic blades. The Tovolo does offer one interesting feature: it can stand upright on the handle. This feature doesn’t make up for the thick blades, but it can keep your counter a little cleaner.
Chef'n metal tine slicer
Tovolo avocado slicer
The last model to look at is the Van Vacter avocado knife. It uses a different approach in its design that takes us back to my non-gadget method. The knife has a serrated edge for slicing the skin and a concave spiked portion on the other side of the blade for removing the seed. You then use the serrated side to slice the flesh of the avocado like you would using a normal kitchen knife. Which begs the question: if I use this product like I would a normal knife, why buy it? I give the manufacturer credit for creative design. You may find this product struggles to cleanly cut tough skinned avocados.
Van Vacter avocado knife
Summary
If you make copious amounts of guacamole, a slicer will save you time. For those of us who eat one or two avocados at a time, the easy knife and spoon method will do just fine.
In the end, I will stick with my knife and spoon method. However if I went on a guacamole diet, I’d buy the Progressive International avocado slicer.
———————————————————————————————————
Affiliate Partner
Coffee Taste
The single most popular reason people return a coffee machine is they don’t like the coffee produced by the machine. I would say 99.9% of the time the complaint is that the coffee was too weak or not strong enough.
With that in mind, I want to look at the variables in coffee brewing that affect what we call strength or taste.
The main variables are these:
Coffee type
Coffee roast
Coffee grind
Brewing style
Water Temperature
Brewing (Extraction) time
read more…
Tired Pizza Argument
Today I watched the umpteenth program debating/arguing about which style of pizza is best – Chicago or New York? While this is a uniquely American argument, it is in my opinion, a pointless one.
I grew up in northern Indiana where I learned to love Chicago style pizza. While serving in the Marines, I learned from New York buddies to love a good thin slice.
I enjoy eating the finest expressions of both styles of pizza. Arguing about which is better is like arguing about which fruit is better, a peach or a mango. They are completely different creations.
You can argue about who makes the best type of Chicago deep dish or who makes the best New York pie, just please don’t try to say one style is better than the other.
Rather, let’s learn to appreciate the merits of each.
Please, no hate mail from New Yorkers or Chicagoans 
—————————————————————————————————————————-
Affiliate Partner
Changes at Kitchenboy.net
Over the next couple of days, KitchenBoy is going to be making some changes in the background operations. You shouldn’t notice these changes for the most part. There will be a temporary suspension of email subscriber functionality, but that will resolve when the upgrade is finished.
