MJT at Overclockers opts for Miele

On the Overclockers forum Mr Paul has asked for advice on the best provider of fitted kitchens. Although there has been a wide and varied response, MJT recommends Miele,

“Miele fitted kitchens are very solid and last forever, as do the appliances.

Ours is 20 years old this year and only the dishwasher and oven have been replaced, and that was last year. All the units are in perfect condition and nothing has broken.”

The discussion on the thread is a healthy one, so if you’re interested in seeing what else was being said click through.

Miele Masterchef Afternoon

On Monday afternoon we invited five fantastic food bloggers down to the Miele London Gallery for an exclusive Masterchef cooking event.

We set them a challenge to cook a two course meal in the fully kitted out Miele kitchens in just one hour.

Of course, no Masterchef event would be complete without the main men John Torode and Gregg Wallace there to taste the dishes and pick a final winner.

We saw some really great dishes on the day including Burmese breakfast noodles from MiMi, a goosegog and meringue pudding from Danny, hazelnut filled macarons from Sarah and Veal in a Mediterranean sauce from Helen.

There could only be one winner after the (noticeably stern) judging from John and Gregg, and that place went to Ireena from Not Another Food Blog for her delicious Indian spiced salmon main and nectarine crumble dessert.

She writes about her experience in her blog post about the day,

“My salmon and rice got some quite nice comments, though Gregg and John weren’t entirely convinced that it all went together with the raita. Gregg did seem rather keen on my incredibly simple nectarine crumble though, and even said he’d like to ‘stick his face in it.’”

You can now see all our photos from the afternoon on our Flickr site here.

BBC Summer Good Food Show with Miele (Part 2)

The first installment from the Forever Better day out at the BBC Good Food Show is here, but we’ve got some further updates on the day’s activities from those who attended.

Activities included, amongst other things, an invention test with Masterchef’s John and Gregg sponsored by Miele taking place in front of a live audience. In the previous post we heard from the excellent Kitchens of Jo and Meemalee, but now it is the turn of Feast with Bron and SimplySplendiferous.

Bron created chicken with crispy garlic and ginger over basmati rice and the dish received some serious love despite pre-match tension,

“Was very surprised to discover the Masterchef experience was first thing. The bloggers collected in the back room got a list of pantry items to check for a few minutes then a peek in the mystery bag with two minutes to decide what to make. It doesn’t get tougher than that! Remarkably difficult to think straight at that hour with a few hundred people sat watching, a man with a movie camera flitting about and lots of questions from Andi Peters.”

Ailbhe of Simplysplendiferous created herby lemon cous cous with peas, chicken (briefly) marinated in harissa and cumin with a zingy sauce.

“Although I didn’t win I was fairly pleased with the dish. It definitely needed more harissa and an extra 10 mins marinating for sure. But I did get good comments which was heartening.”

Also in attendance was James from Eat the Midlands and if you’re interested on finding a little more about the event then the post the BBC Good Food Show – Miele Master Chef Day is a great place to start. It also contains a host of images that give a real flavour (sorry) of the day…

The Strangest Kitchen Gadgets Ever Invented

The kitchen is usually the place you will find a few select items that are functional rather than funky, but inventors are always attempting to create new products that push the boundaries of what we traditionally associate with food preparation. Here is a quick overview of some of the most interesting and odd kitchen-related gadgets ever to fly from the drawing board into cupboards and drawers around the world.

The Spork
Sporks are as famous for their delightfully silly name as much as their supreme practicality and it is believed that the first attempt to patent a device, which combined multiple bits of cutlery into a single unit, was made back in the 1870s. In the UK the term Spork was registered as a trademark back in 1975 and an unsuccessful challenge to this claim occurred in 1999. To this day, people ‘on the go’ use sporks to eat meals and lunch times would not be the same without it.

The Egg Cuber
Some people are just not satisfied with the shape of an egg after it has been hard-boiled and the natural curved appearance can be modified if you buy this entirely strange kitchen gadget. The Egg Cuber does precisely what its name implies, which is to cook eggs in a manner that produces a square three dimensional cube of solid egg at the end of the process. You can then slice it or eat it as a normal hardboiled egg and presumably this process also makes it easier to slot the cooked egg neatly into a lunch box.

The Freshness Sensor
If you do not want to rely on your nose or the sell by date stamped on your shop-bought food, then this little gadget will automatically detect when something is still ripe and ready to eat, or a little bit past its best. You just hold the sensor a few centimetres from the surface of the food, press a button and wait half a minute for the device to analyse the freshness of the food with which you have presented it. Three LEDs let you know whether it is fine to eat or worth throwing away and it could save you getting rid of perfectly good grub as well as keeping food poisoning at bay.

Electric Fork
Whilst the Spork is perfect for portable eating, this gadget is the best kitchen device for people who are feeling a little lazy. It is basically a spinning fork with a battery-powered head that rotates in order to tangle up lengths of spaghetti into a manageable mouthful of tasty food. If you have trouble keeping the sauce from your sleeves when you eat Italian meals then this is probably a worthwhile purchase.

Cup Noodle Stove
If you cannot adhere to the instructions on standard noodle-based instant snacks, then this tiny little cooking device is an alternative. It lets you cook up a small pot of your favourite brand of noodle treat in a matter of minutes and it makes boiling a kettle or using the microwave a thing of the past.

Image Credits: Spork, Joe Shlabotnik; Egg Cuber, Andrew Huff

Miele at Grand Designs Live

Forever Better visited Grand Designs Live and two of our guests, Gary and Jenny have put together their thoughts on Miele’s presence at the show.

Gary, The Inspirational Geek, has provided an in depth and visually rich rundown of what the day involved, in particular the Miele stand,

“The Miele stand was once again showing off their new range of kitchen products. Steam ovens, coffee machines and induction hobs that look great and have the industry renowned function to accompany. It’s also credit to Miele that some of the smaller brand stands were even using Miele ovens and fridges to surround their own products, they are the industry level of association and image other people want.”

He also talks about the live demonstrations and especially enjoyed the ‘hilarious’ Nancy Lam who was demonstrating Miele’s induction hob and submerged wok work station.

Jenny, The Style PA, has written a post at Yell.com under the interior design section. There’s talk of all that the show entailed and how seeing the state of the art homes of the future was a real eye opener.

In regard to Miele Jenny lists the products that impressed her and gives her thoughts on the Miele appliances,

“[…] their appliances are the most intelligent I’ve seen. This is one company that really has thought of everything, and we’re not talking gimmicks. As a Miele representative gave me a demo of the range you could see how every feature was a real solution to a problem or a way to make people’s lives easier.”

One thing that Jenny really loved was the Miele collaboration with SieMatic. Together they’ve utilized wireless technology to create a multimedia system that is integrated with the kitchen and can all be monitored and controlled from a single head unit. Very cool.

You can read the full posts at Yell.com and Inspirational Geek (Gary also has a photo set of the day at Flickr) where you can leave your comments and let them know your thoughts.

If you’d like to get involved with Forever Better and Miele then let us know by getting in touch below.