The pampered chef -party plan

...Pampered Chef until I did the "move out of London" thing and discovered that my new town was a hot bed of home shopping parties. I had been living in my new area for under a month when I got my first invite, and they have followed with amazing regularity since. Should you be the "lucky" recipient of such an invitation I hope that the below will at least help you know what to expect and then make a judgement as to whether you are ...
...company that sell kitchenware through the party at home concept. According to their website their vision is "that someday families all around the world will know the joy and rewards of gathering together in the tradition of family mealtimes. To help make this vision a reality, we specialize in high-quality tools that make cooking quick, easy and fun." From their rather, in my mind, nauseating vision I would say they haven't spent much time ... more

Help! I've been invited to go to/host a Pampered Chef party - what is it?

I'd never heard of Pampered Chef until I did the "move out of London" thing and discovered that my new town was a hot bed of home shopping parties. I had been living in my new area for under a month when I got my first invite, and they have followed with amazing regularity since. Should you be the "lucky" recipient of such an invitation I hope that the below will at least help you know what to expect and then make a judgement as to whether you are otherwise engaged or eager to attend a Pampered Chef party.

Who are they?

Pampered Chef is an American company that sell kitchenware through the party at home concept. According to their website their vision is "that someday families all around the world will know the joy and rewards of gathering together in the tradition of family mealtimes. To help make this vision a reality, we specialize in high-quality tools that make cooking quick, easy and fun." From their rather, in my mind, nauseating vision I would say they haven't spent much time in my kitchen, however they apparently aim to make cooking more accessible and some of their products undoubtedly do.

How it generally works is like this - a friend or acquaintance gives you an invite to go to their house where a rep will demonstrate cooking implements and products, cook something and then give you the opportunity to buy items. The aforementioned friend gets commission in the form of points towards items and a gift for hosting. Invite received, you reply directly to the friend, or more recently by email to the rep.

How good the party is will depend on the rep showing the goods. I have been to about 5 of them and they vary. I am quite selective now about the invites I accept as over the time I have been to pampered chef parties I have been entertained, fed, but also made to feel I was about 5 as a rather over zealous rep suggested we all had a go with her whisk in which I had about zero interest, and kept telling us to listen!

Invariably you get plied with wine and the "party" goes on far longer than you think possible - expect at least one to two hours of listening to someone telling you about kitchen stuff. Maybe more.

There is also generally a competition to win one of the cheapest items in the catalogue which is a thinly veiled attempt to get people's addresses and to persuade them to sign up for their own party. I avoid this bit.

The products:

Through the cooking demonstration the rep will show you the items for sale and, generally, give you a list and catalogue, should you wish to select a product to buy as they are talking about it. I should say straight away that this stuff is seriously highly priced. An icecream scoop might set you back £13.00, or adjustable measuring spoons £6.95 (two plastic spoons).

To be fair to Pampered Chef all the products are designed to make cooking easier - so said scoop is self warming, the measuring spoons have a slide etc, but in my opinion they are just very expensive. This evaluation is perhaps not helped by once being told for 20 minutes by a rep exactly how lucrative being a rep was (that is 20 minutes of my life I will never get back), but even a quick check online at www.pamperedchef.com will give you some idea as to quite how pricey the items are.

Looking to spend "just" a tenner to participate is quite tricky and you might end up with some bamboo spoons or something just so you have taken part - though the pressure is not direct and everyone always says "just come, you don't have to buy anything" you kind of feel you should.

Things I have bought that are actually good:

As you can probably tell I haven't really completely bought into the Pampered Chef ideal - I can't get *that* excited about cooking gadgets, albeit being a keen cook. I know people who are quite evangelical about the products and have kitchen cupboards stuffed with the stuff, I have a couple of things that are quite good but don't quite share their zeal.

I have a mini-muffin metal dish that is actually very good quality, I paid £15 for it 2 years ago and the non-stick is excellent. I have a little "dobber" that goes with it, you roll pastry into a ball, stick the tool into it (or get a child to do it works for me) and you can make mini pies and the like. Pretty good.
I also have a stoneware baker (reviewed elsewhere by someone on this site) that was £37.50 - I blame the third glass of wine - but it is used a lot and makes great roasties with very little oil. Also a good product.

I also have a serrated knife for little ones that allows toddlers to cut safely - a couple of pounds, and this is probably the best thing I own.

There is also generally a special offer, such as "spend over £50 and get a free gift".

When you order at the end of the party you can pay by cheque or credit card and the person hosting the party will deliver the goods normally within a week.

Overall:

Pampered chef have clearly got a good concept going on and I think, prior to the economic downturn, were very popular, here at least. I would imagine they probably are finding it harder now to get people to part with quite a lot of money for something they could probably find at Cargo or Robert Dyas for cheaper. Pampered chef would say that their products are unique, but they do seem to be largely made in China and not dissimilar to things you can buy elsewhere, made of silicon or bamboo or whatever notwithstanding.

If you haven't been to a party I hope this will give you some idea of what to expect, it might be something you love, hate or in my case now accept about one a year invitations for and try to avoid too much wine consumption at.
I suppose a party is quite an experience, it is not one however that I am keen to have too often.

You can now order goods online without going to a party, or alternatively check out ebay which often has a lot of pampered chefs items for sale. Should you wish to host a party there is a link on the site to contact your local representative with a full explanation of how the rewards work - I haven't hosted a party myself as I am not personally comfortable with putting my friends in the position where they feel they have to buy stuff. You might like the idea however; some people seem to really love these parties.

Three stars as it is all just so expensive.

http://www.pamperedchef.com/

(also on dooyoo) 

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