Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum - I'll be back when its finished!
Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum - I'll be back when its finished!
Member since:24.08.2003
Reviews:93
Members who trust:73
Pampering the chef? Well to my mind any idea of pampering the chef, well me is basically taking me out for dinner with plenty of wine and I don’t have to do the washing up, but we all know its not like that very often.
The Pampered Chef is an American company that sells kitchen goods through a party plan system. Now I have never been much for party plan type parties, where you are invited along get a few nibbles and a glass of wine then feel obliged to buy something you will never use (and for all those of you remembering your last Ann Summers party, take that smirk off your face!) so when I was invited to a Pampered Chef party I accepted only because it was a very good friend of mine.
The company itself has been going since 1980 and was started by a lady called Doris Christopher. It has been operational in the UK now since 1999. If you read the blurb on the company web site it is like reading an advertising board with phrases like ‘high quality products’ and ‘committed to fostering entrepreneurship’ but the reality is the products
that they offer are very good, more about them later and you do get good deals for hosting a party and from what our host was saying you can make a reasonable living, or simply some extra cash from doing the demonstrations.
The party plan itself is very simple, it differs from most party plans in that you get lunch, The idea is the hostess carries out a cookery demonstration in your home, very carefully scripted naturally so you know exactly which of the company products they are using to do each stage of the process, they then cook the dish that she has been preparing and gives you chance to look through the catalogue to decide what you want to order and complete your form, before lunch is served and you all get to chat. Simple but effective.
The products are very good and very normal, which makes the parties so successful. They have a range of stoneware which I find really good, I don’t know if its just me being incapable of looking after things properly but I get through non stick baking trays like there is no tomorrow, the fact that I have always bought cheap ones probably hasn’t helped but in no time at all they seem to loose their non stick and then starts the battle against the rust. The pampered chef have a range of cookery stones that you use instead of baking trays and you oil them the first couple of times then they absorb oil so become naturally non stick and have completely solved my problem. They are great for Pizza as well.
They have the usual gimmick type products that you might buy on a whim, but this is backed up with really decent ideas. Their knives all come with covers for the blade that makes them safe in the drawers and keep them sharp by having an integrated sharpener. So on the whole the products are very good and I like kitchen gadgets and have never yet bought something for the kitchen on impulse that I don’t use. They are fairly reasonably priced as well and there are plenty of cheaper items if you do just feel obliged to buy.
Anyway having discussed the party experience with a couple of my friends afterwards I was, against my every instinct, persuaded to actually host one. Just for hosting the party you get a certain number of points to ‘spend’ in the catalogue and then more for any sales you get. So I actually did very well and got around £25 worth of products from the catalogue just for hosting the party and the food didn’t cost anything like that.
The food served at the party is made of very easy to prepare ingredients the first party we had a ‘Christmas chicken and cranberry ring’ and at mine a smoked ham and apple roll, which as with many of the dishes prepared at the parties has a pastry base because it is easy to prepare, the rings are made from croissant dough (so no good for anyone on Atkins)
Pampered chef products are only available in the UK for sale via the parties and to arrange one, the contact details are on the website www.pamperedchef.com.
So am I a party plan convert, most definitely not but I had a good lunch with a few friends and now have baking trays that I’ve managed to keep for longer than a month.
Thank you for reading and I look forward to your comments.
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