News that a student has been awarded £68K funding to study the success of Kenwood small kitchen appliances has resulted in tributes to the brand’s good design and durability.
A student based at The University of Portsmouth will be conducting research in partnership with the Science Museum, and will have access to Kenwood’s archives at its Havant offices. The title of the PhD project begins with a quotation from Kenwood’s founder, the late Ken Wood: ‘Eye appeal is buy appeal: The design, mediation and consumption of Kenwood’s kitchen appliances, 1947-2020’.
The Daily Mail (April 16) featured an article by celebrity cook Prue Leith. Prue speaks passionately about her own use of her Kenwood Chef (past and present) and states: ‘I’m glad someone has noticed what a life-changing and important invention the food mixer, spearheaded by Kenwood, was.’
The celebrity reflects on how Kenwood’s food mixer changed lives for women in the kitchen (hitherto ‘drudges’). In 1961, Prue bought her first Kenwood Chef Mixer A700 with the equivalent of a week’s wages. Her prize possession sat on the dressing table in her bedsit as she had no kitchen worktop. Nowadays she has one of Kenwood’s newest models with various attachments but misses her original Chef’s potato peeler.
Prue also acknowledges that the Kenwood Chef was unrivalled until the arrival of KitchenAid from the US. She applauds her Kenwood Chef’s outstanding mixing and beating ability in spite of the useful additions of both Magimix and Thermomix appliances to her busy kitchen.
Meanwhile The Times’ online coverage of the Kenwood PhD story (on April 15) applauds Kenwood’s longevity with its headline: ‘Kenwood Chef is a solid rebuke to our throwaway culture’.
Mark Welch, managing director of Kenwood 9 (part of the De’Longhi Group) commented on the PhD announcement: “We’re delighted to be working with the University of Portsmouth on this exciting project. The project will focus on design, marketing and consumer purchasing behaviours of Kenwood and how these activities have been influential in the success, consumer awareness and love for the Kenwood brand and its iconic products.”
The PhD student will also work with The Spring Arts and Heritage Centre in Havant, using research material from a recent Heritage Lottery Fund enabled exhibition and documentary film ‘Kenwood in Havant’.
* The Kenwood Chef is part of the Excellence in Housewares Awards’ Icon Gallery, having been a participant of the Icon Award.
Top: The Kenwood Chef Titanium KVC7300S Stand Mixer
