Home cooking: from Victorian tech to Kenwood Chef
The kitchen has long been at the forefront of technological innovation and is the room in our homes most likely to be full of gadgets.
Implements Animated (1811) by Williams (etcher) and Tegg, Thomas (publisher) Science Museum
Gadgets in the Victorian kitchen
We might associate culinary gadgetry with sleek, modern 20th-century kitchens, but the more well-to-do Victorian and Edwardian kitchens were already full of cleverly engineered appliances and utensils.
Mass-produced kitchenware was increasingly available in the 19th century, as were a new range of gas-powered appliances such as ovens.
The Reform Club Kitchen
One person especially keen to adopt new technologies was celebrity chef Alexis Soyer. The Reform Club Kitchen, redesigned by Soyer and Charles Barry in the 1830s was probably the most technologically innovative kitchen of its time.
Mrs Beeton
Around the same time, Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management described the kitchen as 'the great laboratory of every household'. As such, it needed fitting out with the right kit. Beeton's tome lists some of the necessary equipment for a 'family in the middle class of life.'
Downing College Kitchen (1901) by Edgar Tarry Adams and Science Museum Group Science Museum
Soyer, Beeton and the increasing availability of new household gadgets transformed the landscape of housework at the end of the Victorian age.
Arrival of the Kenwood Chef
The popularity of kitchen technology continued into the 20th century, in particular among middle-class households with more disposable income. Today many kitchen gadgets end up gathering dust. But others have become perennial favourites—perhaps none more so than the Kenwood Chef.
The A200
The first Kenwood electric mixer (the A200, precursor to the Chef) came onto the market in the late 1940s, the brainchild of a fruitful collaboration between wartime colleagues Roger Laurence and Kenneth Wood.
Their company Woodlau Industries operated out of a small workshop in Woking. The machine's clever multi-functionality promised to eliminate the need for a long list of kitchen utensils. But the Chef wasn't quite there yet.
The A700 Chef
After a thorough rethink and redesign to market the machine differently from others available at the time, the high-tech new A700 Chef was launched onto the market at the 1950 Ideal Home Show.
Its sleek design made it something you would want to leave visible in the kitchen. The new Chef was associated with figures such as home economist Marguerite Patten, who worked for the Ministry of Food and appeared on the BBC radio programme The Kitchen Front during World War II.
What made the Kenwood Chef so successful?
The Chef was designed for multi-functionality and simplicity of use. Its planetary action (which ensured the beater or whisk reached the outer parts of the mixing bowl) and various motor outlets for attachments made it very versatile.
Kenwood’s 1976 attachments for the A701 series Chefs included mincers, slicers, coffee mill, sausage making attachment, shredders, bean slicer and pea huller, can opener, liquidiser, potato peeler, cream maker and juice extractor — quite the list.
Kenneth Grange
Unlike many of the items we buy today, the Chef was also designed for longevity. Industrial designer Kenneth Grange—responsible for the 1960 redesign which resulted in the A701 model—commented that it was deliberately 'over-engineered' so that it would last for generations.
No surprise then that the Chef still has a large and loyal fan base, from people still using original 1950s and 60s family heirloom machines to those revamping machines bought today in a flourishing second-hand market for vintage appliances.
The impact of technology in the kitchen
What does the future hold for all this kitchen gadgetry? Trend forecasters are predicting more fluid styles of kitchen design, with free-standing units rather than the fitted kitchen which has dominated since the 1950s.
The future for kitchen gadgets
Even as smart tech expands, there's renewed appreciation for older technology. Apple peelers, bean slicers and grain mills have almost cult status. Time will tell if gadgets such as the Kenwood Chef still feature in pared-down future kitchens.
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