Woody's Product Reviews: KitchenAid Professional 600 Series 6-Quart Stand Mixer

Qualifications: (If you're not interested in this please skip to the Product Review section below)

My first career was as a cook. While I ended up managing a 375 seat restaurant, I always, and still, consider myself a cook, or chef, or whatever they call it nowadays. I started as a prep-cook, was promoted to a line cook, then to the kitchen manager, and eventually to the training cook for then entire chain.

After that I became a manager, which was a huge mistake because I hated it. As an added bonus, the Execs in the main office hated me as well, because I spent all my time in the kitchen. The waitresses, bartenders, and cashiers all loved me because the knew that I knew nothing about what they did, and most importantly, didn't care. I eventually quit (after 8 years) out of boredom, because I missed pure cooking, and because I hated tell people what to do, especially when it was obvious. Thank God, my staff was largely honest and trustworthy, and the few that weren't were idiots and therefore easy to catch stealing, otherwise misbehaving.... and obviously fire.

So, what does all this have to do with a mixer? Well, every piece of heavy-duty food prep equipment we had in the kitchen was made by Hobart. Everything from the buffalo-chopper, to the slicer, to the huge floor-standing mixer. The mixer was a great machine. You could mix anything from 5 or 10 gallons of pancake mix, dressing, sauce or whatever. You snap on an attachment and and grate 30 lbs. of cheese, mountains of cabbage (for slaw), and any other kind of vegetable.

All the attachments were made for heavy-duty use, and constant mistreatment, by some of the people you find in restaurants. Not to denigrate anyone, after all I worked in restaurants for years, but the fact is that you don't always find the brightest bulbs in the box working there. Not to mention all the ones that simply don't care... but we can get deeper into all that later in a "Woody's View".

So, what ever happened to the Hobart that myself and my hard-core cook-friends so dearly loved?

To quote from "Wikipedia on Answers.com":

"KitchenAid is a home appliance brand owned by Whirlpool Corporation. The company was started in 1919 by The Hobart Corporation to give restaurants a countertop alternative to their industrial sized mixers. The first model weighed 69 lbs. Each unit is still assembled by hand in Greenville, Ohio. The mixer is one of the only consumer appliances trademarked specifically for its unique shape. The company was acquired by Whirlpool Corporation in 1986. KitchenAid is now a division of the Whirlpool Corporation. KitchenAid major appliances compete against products from GE Monogram, Fagor, Bosch, and Electrolux."

Product Review:

So, for all practical purposes, the home-versions of the great Hobart mixers we knew and loved are now Kitchen Aid stand mixers. I've also purchased and use the slicer/shredder attachment, all of which is reviewed below.

This is one heavy-duty machine. The 10-speed, 575 watt motor and general heavy-duty construction combine to make it a "must-have" for any family that enjoys cooking and has hearty appetites.

My family loves cheese. We use it on everything from Pizza's, to Mexican food, to baked cauliflower and broccoli, to sandwich's, to potato's, and on and on. We go through a couple pounds of cheddar, mozzarella and jack, each week, easily. We tried buying the pre-shredded stuff but it's just horrible. Each little shred has a hard exterior and none of it melts right. It's kind of tasteless and I just can't stand it. It was always a real chore to grate cheese by hand, and even in the food processor we have. The grater has a bunch of dinky parts, you have to cut the cheese (pardon the phrase) in to little pieces or they won't fit in the feeder to the grater, and it's really more of a pain to use than a help.

So, in comes the Kitchen Aid Professional 600 and the KitchenAid RVSA Slicer/Shredder . It's utterly simple and obvious how to put together, you can cut a 2 pound block of cheese in thirds and grate it in literally a under a minute, closer to 30 seconds. Then you just turn if off, pop the assembly out, remove the slicing/grating cone (read the instructions, it takes about 10 seconds if you follow them), and throw it all in the dishwasher.

So, I grated a block of cheese, but wanted to make some cornmeal cakes. No problem. Once I detached the shredder, which messed nothing else up, all I had to do was throw the ingredients in the mixing bowl, attach the whisk (which literally takes about 2 seconds), and mix. I love the slow start feature, so even if you just crank it up, it'll start slowly so as not to splatter food all over the kitchen. I wish we would have had that back in my restaurant days, it would have saved a LOT of cleaning!

There are attachments for everything from sausage-making to juicing, to ice cream making, you name it. They all appear to attach and work in the same simple, well designed, heavy-duty way. I haven't tried those, so I can't say for sure, but from the pictures and knowing Kitchen Aid that's how it appears.

So, I absolutely LOVE this thing. It sort of takes me home to restaurant days and the 'serious' food prep machines we used to use. It's simple to use, simple to clean up, and has tons of power to prep big portions of anything it's designed for. It's so well built and designed, I just can't recommend it enough after using it, both now and it's cousins in my past.

It really brings out "the joy in cooking for my family" in me, because it's a tool that's so familiar to me, so simply to use, and so easy to clean. It's so diverse, considering all the attachments you can get. Not to be a sap, but it's just a machine that makes me happy and comfortable in the kitchen.