The Kenwood Chef is one of the most incredibly versatile kitchen machines of all time, and also one of the most long-lived of brands. The Chef was introduced in 1948 as the A700, and the main selling point was the range of add-on attachments that the consumer could buy for it. Different attachments have come and gone over the years, and have varied from the ever-popular liquidiser and coffee grinder, to can openers, sausage makers, potato peelers and pasta makers. from the start, the Chef had four separate outlets driven from the motor, with a high-speed one at the rear, two slower ones at the front and top, and one for the beaters underneath. Coupled with eight speeds, this made the Chef an ultra flexible piece of machinery.

The design proved sucessful, although it was critisised for having an overtly mechanical appearance. This was rectified in 1960, when, inspired by the clean lines of a similar but less versatile mixer by Braun, the Chef was given a comprehensive restyle by Kenneth Grange, and became the A701, the machine you see on this page. All subsequent Chefs had styling based on this model, and indeed, apart from the introduction of electronic speed control in 1976, and various mild facelifts over the years, the Chef of today is little different in spirit to the 1948 model. It has always been a luxury item, with the basic machine retailing at around £300 today, but they are available secondhand for as little as £10, and as is the case with so many appliances, the older ones have a sturdiness that seems lacking in the more modern equivalents.