The Chef's Assistant By Kenwood (Kenwood Food Proccesor FP570)

Name: Nar2

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Product:	Kenwood Food Proccesor FP570
Date:	22/06/08 (217 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Relatively cheap price, good array of equipment, easy and safe to use.

Disadvantages: Slightly heavy, noisy, some poor smaller attachments, spares are costly from Kenwood.

Purchased from the now defunct Index catalogue store in 2004, the Kenwood FP570 now remains a second hand or supply stock bargain purchase on online sites such as EBay. Four years on how has it faired? This is a long review based on use.


One of the main advantages of buying the FP570 is simply because of its myriad of attachments that, for the most part the more experienced baker in the home may well appreciate. At the time of purchase we made several decisions on several different food processors not least Kenwood who had three other models on offer and the opposite end of the market, Magimix, which came with great recommendations from friends. However the purchase had to be cost-effective and the FP570 seemed to have it all at the time without being over-priced.


Generally the design of the FP570 is functional though not overly smart. Controls consist of only two controls and a push button for the pulse. One control by the left hand side of the machine shows a slide bar with "1" and "2". This slide bar is essentially reserved for the liquidiser jug although it can be used for additional speed when the main acrylic food processor bowl is used; however it can become confusing unless you use the food processor all the time. The controls for the liquidiser for example consist of another slide bar and it too is marked similarly with "0" and "1". Above this slide bar is the push button Pulse function button and any time it is used, it must be held down manually - so like other makes and machines, the pulse button can be used for quick blitzes. If however you want a quicker speed, flick the left hand slide bar to "2" and you'll get an additional burst of speed. This is all made simply with good and large decals to know exactly what you are doing rather than just pushing a switch and hoping for the best. In general the controls do work well after you get used to them but their design means washing them down can be tricky after use due to their basic design. As with most food processors there is also a quick look attachment chart with suggestions to what speeds are best, located around the side of the main machine.


Let's get the nitty gritty aspects out of the way; the attachments. The Stainless steel knife blade is made up of two wings of knife blades and is very sharp. Kenwood do supply little acrylic ears that can be put on each blade after use but over time we have lost these and whenever the blade is used, we put it out of arm's reach on the window sill in the kitchen. Now as this blade is considered to be extremely sharp, we use this blade to slice and chop up onions. It excels at this and at general chopping and slicing prep work although for more precision cutting the shredder and slicer discs come into their own. It must be noted though that whilst the knife blade is great at slicing it does play an extra role of also being a universal whisk. I find that it also excels at making pastry, dough, chopping meat, vegetables and nuts. I damaged this blade however trying to grind down Parmesan cheese and damaged the blade - cost of part? £14-49 from Kenwood.


Next up is the fine slicing and shredding discs only the FP570 features three discs for slicing and shredding. What is more apparent with the actual attachments on this machine is the simple fact that they are actual discs which only have to be fitted on top of an additional separate spindle that comes with the machine. Simply attach the spindle to the machine, via the central neck of the bowl and drop the chosen disc in - it's as simple as that! So, you have a fine slicing disc, swap this side over and you have a fine shredding disc; this produces excellent lettuce strips and celery much finer than I could ever chop! That other disc with a normal shredding plate design has a similar slicer blade that can be swapped over if you want to normally slice foods. All vegetables get sliced evenly and quickly with this machine, regardless of what disc you decide to use and most of the time its all down to the general design of how the discs have been professionally made as well as being made of tough stainless steel and are all dishwasher safe. This also applies to the Julienne fine chipping disc for making chips and fries. The results have always been finely professional looking potato chips that we ended up doing for parties. This is one disc that cannot be flipped over although it is coloured in yellow that distinguishes itself from the white discs included.


So whilst you've chosen which disc to use, and dropped it onto the spindle into the main bowl (which by the way you just put on anti clockwise and twist to clockwise to lock into place) fit the lid on and ensure the safety lock has met the lid tooth. Once this is done, your machine can be ready to use.


What I love about this machine compared to my basic Kenwood food processor is the fact that there are two feeder tubes. One tube is the standard large tube and inside this is another tube - a smaller tube which enables thinner vegetables such as celery, thin carrots etc to be pushed down the feeder. This means there is less wastage on carrots for example that are about to be shredded let alone anything small that you want to use such as cheese which is often a food product which gets wasted on food processors. Shove a block of cheese in the larger tube without the smaller pusher fitted and there is some considerable waste, which usually finds a way into my mouth! The spindle is only suitable to be used for the discs.


Another similarity between my Kenwood and the FP570 is the maxi-canopy disc. I can see Kenwood really thought about Magimix at the time when it comes to the general design; most Magimix jugs have larger capacities, so to double on the graduated measurement, Kenwood supply a plastic lid with a hole in the middle. This is called the Maxi-canopy disc and it actually allows liquids to double up in volume. It fits above the main stainless steel blade attachment before the top safety lid can be put on and cannot be used with any other disc. However, given that the main capacity of liquid is generally 1.3 litres, you can actually double the volume of liquid using this disc. We normally use this disc when for example; blending down soup mixture and it's fascinating to watch how it keeps the volume of air back that so often blots the full capacity use of a bowl. No liquids escape either unless you take the push feeder tubes off.


The twin-geared whisk is a motorised attachment that once again fits to the neck of the main motor spindle. This is an ideal attachment if for example you want to whisk light foods and products such as eggs, milk, cream and sugar. Generally however it's an attachment we seldom use unless we're doing mixed batch baking prep that employs the use of quick whisking of food whilst also doing other prep work. Heavier mixtures such as fat and flour will damage this mechanism so best to use the stainless steel blade instead. Generally I'm not happy with the performance of the geared whisk attachment, it is noisy at high speed and also entirely made of plastic aside from the motor unit, which means that it can stain badly. It serves up a limited purpose when we have a perfectly good separate Kenwood hand mixer. However for general whisking of light liquids, this whisking attachment is a welcome gesture for those who don't have a separate hand held mixer, although generally I prefer to use the stainless steel knife blade "whisk," as it performs better and is much quieter in use.


Like my Kenwood FP100/110/101 series the citrus juicer attachment is the same. Made up of two parts, one part is a perforated bowl to allow the juice to flow through into the main bowl whilst the other part is a reamer that allows you to get the juice in the first place. This reamer is suitably ridged and fits to the top of the spindle. Align the strainer into position to meet the safety lock and go. When you do this, you basically hold half cut lemons, limes, grapefruit etc in your hand and push it onto the reamer that turns at speed and juices the desired citrus fruit. This has been a great way of getting basic juice but watch your hands - if you let go of the fruits at any time, the fruit will fly off. At least your hands get a massage though when you hold the citrus fruit down though although for those with Arthritic problems, my mum can testify that this attachment is best to be avoided.


The liquidiser has its own place sat at the left hand side of the machine and a plastic recess, reveals the motor spindle when you take this off the top of the machine - those who are familiar with the Kenwood Chef kitchen mixer will feel right at home, here. Now the liquidiser, I would say is one of the most basic designs that Kenwood included on this machine. There's nothing special about the jug other than the fact that it is a 1 litre capacity jug with metric measurements located in the middle on the main plastic "glass" and a cap located in the middle of the lid you can twist off to drop things into when blending. It can't handle ice as the blades are particularly cheap although it is great at blending soups, drinks, pates, mayonnaise (add the oil last through the filler cap) chopping nuts and chocolate whilst also making crumbs from biscuits and breads.

What this jug cannot do is crush ice; the blades simply aren't up to the job and they were not designed to be used with the hard nature that ice employs. Infact I damaged the jug trying to crush ice and had to order a new jug which came in at £21-99 excluding P&P charges!


The liquidiser is easy to twist off the base but there is no interlocking action on the base, so if children must use this as well as the main unit itself, you should always accompany your child when they are using this machine in the kitchen. However what the manual doesn't tell you is that the base of the blender jug isn't really dishwasher safe. We noticed for example that the base actually comes off by unscrewing it and over time when it was used in the dishwasher the cheap plastic ring at the bottom discoloured somewhat and is due to the heat in the dishwasher.


Include in the whole package is a cylindrical white and clear acrylic storage box known as the "Kenstore," storage bin. Effectively this is flip down plastic covered box that allows the user to store ALL of the metal slicer/shredder discs safely and there is even a location for the spindle to store. Although this box is not wall mountable it does have a flat surface and everything can be seen clearly thanks to its acrylic see through flip down lid. It may be a gimmick but it works incredibly well and saves time going through drawers and cupboards looking for blades - although in the past we did have an old ice cream box that kept everything we needed for our last food processor.


The manual is an eleven page A4 size paper booklet that has everything you need to know including pictorial diagrams and key note information regarding the attachments that come with the machine. Additionally there is also a footnote regarding to the maximum capacities this machine can take, which is handy for the amounts of food you can do in one go with this machine. Despite this model being (at the time in 2005) slightly lower from the top of the model range, the manual isn't so helpful to include everything that is supposed to come with the machine although an inlay card that has been stapled to the book shows what actual attachments you do get included in the another booklet, the "Accessories guide " which is an all colour affair that allows you to choose other discs and gadgets you can use on the machine but you have to optionally buy these at extra cost. Similar to the main Kenwood Chef kitchen mixer other gadgets that are cost options range from a baby blender which doubles as a coffee mill, a centrifugal juicer, a potato peeler bowl and a myriad of optional whisk attachments. There is even an optional steel rod tool called "Metal Continental Dough Tool," for dryer types of bread dough. 7 recipes can be found at the back of the manual that does seems a little mean - but you do get an additional colour recipe book included that has been licensed by Kenwood.


After so many positives of the FP570 you'd think there would be very little to complain about. However, one of the least appealing factors of the FP570 is the motor noise. Only sporting 450 watts, the FP570 has one of the loudest motors I've ever experienced on a food processor. At speed 1, it's just about acceptable but at the next speed (and being the highest) it howls quite badly accompanied by a lot of high pitched whine. This is not helped by additional attachments that are just as noisy on top. The blender in particular is noisy when you chop hard things such as chocolate or walnuts, so best to use the main stainless steel blade on the first speed in the main jug instead. If however Kenwood had not supplied such a cheap, poorly insulated jug I believe the noise would be reduced.


Whilst the capacity of the machine and its versatile uses excel, the overall size of this food processor is quite bulky. If you have minimal workspace you can't really angle the food processor around any angle unless its face on with the bowl to the right hand side. Luckily on the rear side of the machine, there is a cord storage area where you can wrap the excess wipe clean rubber protected 0.5 metre cord around and the machine feels planted on four of its main feet underneath helped by suction feet caps. It is however around 1kg in weight, so the FP570 isn't exactly light when lifted.


Another design fault and one I don't appreciate is the main bowl handle; it is made with one side of matt white plastic on the outer part whilst the inner part is clear acrylic. Through washing, dirty water accumulates in the handle that is very off-putting. Although there are known screws you can see you can't actually unscrew them because the screws are plastic bonds. This is annoying when you want everything on the machine to look clean. Any time the machine gets dirty however it can be wiped down with a minimally damp clean cloth - all other parts are dishwasher safe as mentioned already - including the feeder tubes.


Cost parts and spares from Kenwood themselves are atrocious. I've commented on this fact before and was shocked to discover replacement blades and discs could be bought for a quarter of the price off EBay. I couldn't care less if these spares were second hand or are from a bulk supply stock; just as long as they work properly, may well be reconditioned, are clean and in a tidy condition. Kenwood however charge ridiculous prices for what is supposed to be a British company name and should be lower in cost.


So after all is said and done, the Kenwood FP570 is an admirable food processor IF all the attachments are supplied and is a very practical machine based quite literally on the myriad of attachments it comes with. However as a second hand purchase it should deliver a generally good performance whilst buyers should walk away if the second hand price is more than £50; I recently saw the same FP570 for sale at £40 on EBay for example whilst £60 priced ones are often ignored. Given that there are newer products out there that may be higher in power, the FP570 just about makes it for serious consideration. Kenwood however need to stop pricing their models too highly retrospectively of the equipment they offer. A baker appreciates tools but also a machine which is quiet at the time of using! Thanks for reading. ©Nar2 2008

www.kenwood.co.uk

Summary: Lots of discs and tools for the experienced baker. However Magimix is beckoning!