A few months ago I went to a Pampered Chef evening which a friend of mine was hosting. These are fun evenings where a Pampered Chef presenter will prepare and cook some dishes for the hostess and her guests and while doing so show off many of the products in the Pampered Chef range, in the hope of course that you will be tempted to buy them. A lot of my friends had really raved about the Pampered Chef garlic press, and not seeing anything else that took my fancy, I thought I would try one of these.
Now I guess the most noticeable thing about it is that it is not cheap. In fact it costs a whacking £17 which is really quite a lot considering that you can buy a perfectly respectable garlic press in John Lewis for only £5. 'She must be mad,' I can hear you thinking, but this product was really described as the 'bees knees' of garlic presses so I don't really think I am such an idiot!
There are two things that it really has going for it. Firstly you can put your cloves of garlic straight into the press without having to peel them first so this saves a bit of work especially as peeling garlic is so fiddly. It is also quite a large area to put the garlic in so you can put in two or three cloves quite easily. It just takes quite a quick squeeze and lots of lovely smelly garlic is pressed through leaving all the skins behind. This aspect of the garlic press is very good indeed.
The second very enticing thing about it is that it comes with its very own cleaning tool (and as you know garlic presses are usually very difficult to get clean!). This tool stays attached to the press when you don't need it (so it won't get lost) and then once you have pressed your garlic, it will clean straight away. It's a little plastic pad which has lots of small plastic prongs which can be pushed through all the holes in the press and thus pushing all the excess garlic and skins right away. You do have to use this straight away though. If you forget and try and use it later once all the excess has dried on it won't work at all.
Unfortunately, a couple of our prongs got a little bit bent which therefore means they are all out of place which has rendered our cleaning tool pretty near useless. However, we are the only people we know who this has happened to and everyone else who has a Pampered Chef garlic press swears by their cleaning tool. I guess we were just unlucky! Also, the products do come with a guarantee so if they do break Pampered Chef will replace them. However, you do need to have kept your receipt which sadly we hadn't (so this is worth bearing in mind if you do buy anything from The Pampered Chef).
It is quite a sturdy tool but can be operated easily just using one hand. It can also be used for ginger as well as garlic which makes it a little more versatile. Also it is safe to wash it in a dishwasher which is a very big plus.
I think on this occasion I was probably talked into buying this tool and on reflection I do think it is a bit expensive for what it is. I might feel differently if my little cleaning tool was still working, but on the whole, although the garlic pressing side of it works very well, perhaps it is just a bit of an overpriced gadget which I did not need! I'm still giving it three stars though because everyone else loves it so much!
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