The Turbo Thermo

Another one of my rare rave posts, yay! See, I don't complain all the time.

This is a rave over a kitchen appliance that my French mother in law owns. Its called a Thermomix and its absolutely wonderful. Its an appliance about the size of a food processor or a mixer. What it is, though, is a food processor, a mixer, a blender, a bread maker, a steamer, a sauce maker, all in one. It takes the place of all of these appliances and then some.

What's wonderful about it is that it will stir your soup, sauce, mashed potatoes (after you simply slice in the potatoes, and add butter and milk) while it cooks them, so you don't have to. Instead of having to hover over a saucepan constantly stirring the hot cocoa, soup or sauce, or cooking the potatoes then mashing/mixing them yourself, the Thermomix does it all for you. It stirs and cooks at the same time. It doesn't have to cook, so you can still use it to mix cookie dough or cake mix. The latest model has a steamer attachment on the top, so you can cook your veggies or fish at the same time the sauce is cooking below. This saves you from having to "time" things just right to have the sauce done when the veggies are done.

Its a very versatile machine that won't take up all of your counter space. Sounds wonderful. There's one problem, however. Its not that the machine isn't sold in the US. One can order it from Canada with a US power cord/adapter. One does wonder why such a wonderful machine is generally only available in Europe and Canada. Well, I'm pretty sure there's one reason. Cost. The Thermomix is quite expensive. Not just a few hundred dollars, but in fact $1,400. Eeouch!

I was totally in shock when I heard that my mother in law spent 900 Euros for her Thermomix. Its really hard to see how its worth it. Definitely wonderful machine, and takes the place of several other appliances, but really, how much is that worth? A food processor, mixer, blender, steamer, altogether cost what $500 for top of the line items? Maybe $700. That's still another $700 for the convenience of having them all in one, plus being able to cook at the same time.

Still, someday I'd love to have one. Certainly won't be any time soon at that price. Unless it comes to the US massproduction, the price probably won't ever go down. Someday, I just hope to have more discretionary funds.

Here are some links to check it out.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124112844457074685.html
http://www.thermomixcanada.ca/en/