Kenwood Electronics MWM20.000WH

From the outset, the kitchen-appliance brand has combined utility and reliability with a strong design ethos. Serious home cooks have long viewed the Kenwood Chef as an essential piece of kitchen equipment. With its chunky look and impressive durability, the multipurpose food mixer is used by professionals and amateur cooks alike, and has become the flagship product of the domestic appliance company that gives it its name. The mixer was designed by the company's founder, Kenneth Wood - an electrical engineer who worked on radar systems during World War II. Wood set out to produce domestic appliances for the growing post-war market at his Woking factory. His aim was to identify tasks that gave housewives the most work and produce machines that helped. The initial food mixer designs faced stiff competition before the product was redesigned and relaunched at 1950's Ideal Home Exhibition. At a cost of £19 10s 10d, the machine was expensive, yet the first consignment to Harrods sold out in a week. Although the design is now seen as a classic, the original A700 model was criticised by some as too industrial-looking. A redesign in 1960 by the future InterCity train designer, Kenneth Grange, produced the more streamlined A701, which was superseded only when the A901 was launched in 1976. The modern machine can be equipped with up to 20 attachments, including a potato peeler, blender, pasta maker and sausage maker. This versatility and reliability are important aspects of the Kenwood Chef brand with tales of the machines being passed down through the generations.