The cult of the fancy blender

A strange cult is recruiting members amongst the women folk where I work.  So far, to the best of my knowledge, men seem largely immune to its siren song, but one-by-one women I know are being seduced into its clutches.

They call their idol “Thermomix”.

As far as I can tell, it’s an exceptionally fancy food processor that doubles as a mixer, an actually-quite-speedy slow cooker and an icecream maker (“doubles” may be the wrong word).

People I know and respect are gushing about this thing as if it the saviour of cooking.

I don’t think I’m in any danger of joining the cult, though.  For one thing, I am exceptionally tight-fisted when it comes to things that aren’t musical instruments or bicycles.  I just have real difficulty parting with sums over $250 for any one toy.  As Thermomixes cost decidedly more than that, I think I’m safe.

For another, it seems to me that Thermomixes take the cooking out of cooking.  

I mentioned this to a cult member, and she assured me one is still "cooking" when one uses a Thermomix, but from what the cult members say when they get together, it's a bit like they've hired a maid to do most of the work for them.  They cut up a few onions to pretend they're still taking part of the cooking process, and then take the credit for what comes out the other end.  But who's actually doing the cooking here?

I know I’m not much of a cook.  I rarely get the opportunity when I'm living at home, and when I'm living by myself I tend to gravitate towards stir-fries, stews and pasta.  Occasionally I'll get fancy and make an omelette.

Basically, my idea of a perfect meal involves chopping up a small number of ingredients and stirring them around a pan for short period of time.  I enjoy cooking simple meals, and I enjoy eating simple meals, so it all works out, really.

A device that relegates me to being the kitchen helper while it gets on with the cooking doesn't seem like a great deal of fun to me - and if I want to cook an omelette, let's be frank:  I'm just going to ignore the dang thing and cook a normal omelette.