The performances given by the world’s best kitchen tools in 2009 were exemplary. But the Yuppiechef judges have spent many hours behind closed doors and have finally decided on their winners. Victors had to be top sellers in their category, had to receive only compliments from customers in 2009 (and no complaints), needed to be top of the ‘most wished for’ items in our gift registries and had to score highly on in-house product tests. Here they are.

Best Knife

In the category of best knives, the winner is… (drumroll)… the Wusthof Classic Chefs Knife 20cm!

No kitchen should be without this manual food processor. It is the most essential of all knives used in the kitchen. Slicing, mincing and dicing of all kind of food. Perfectly balanced, it’s an extension of your hand.

Best Gadget

In the category of best gadget, the competition was fierce. And the winner is… the FusionBrands IceOrb!

The patented vertical design engineering allows you to make 21 uniquely shaped ice cubes and store 30 cubes within it simultaneously. It can be used to chill wine or as a mini cooler at picnics and is very useful when you’re ‘on the go’. You can also use the lid under the IceOrb® while serving to catch condensation.

Best Tea & Coffee

When the time came for a call to be made in the tea and coffee category, the Le Creuset Traditional Kettle took the honours.

You will no doubt fall in love with this beautiful, cast iron kettle – available in a choice of colours that complement the Le Creuset cookware range.

Best Cookware

More and more people, including the judges, are being converted to Swiss Diamond every day and the Swiss Diamond Frypan has come up trumps in the cookware category. Well done, Swiss Diamond!

Best Appliance

The final prize in the 2009 Best Kitchen Tools awards goes to KitchenAid for their world class Ultra Power Blender.

And that’s a wrap! Thank you all for coming. We hope you enjoyed your evening.

Popularity: 15% [?]

We’ve been meaning to tell the world about this knife sharpener for an age but life being what it is, today is this blog posts’ fateful day. Below you will see Exhibit A: The truly brilliant Scanpan 3 Stage Knife Sharpener.

Much scouring of the world of kitchen tools has eventually led us to this sharpener – and what a find it is. Not only does it do a great job on your professional knives but it is perfect for that black-handled, often-used, incredibly-blunt knife every body owns (currently sitting either in the top drawer or among the recently washed up items in your kitchen). The real beauty of this 3 stage knife sharpener is just that: three wonderful, glorious, essential and nation-changing stages.

If your knife is so blunt it makes a barn door seem like a razor – this is the tool you need. Not only will it bring back that knife from the grave but it will (with the help of stages 2 and 3) give it an edge – and a good as new one too! But wait there’s more… ok, that was actually mostly it, except of course that it has a trusty handle, which ensures that both the knife and the sharpener won’t slip out of your grasp as you hastily bring your knives back to their former glory.

Take a look below and give your eyes a treat: A magnificent specimen and prime candidate for ‘product of the month’ – Wow!

No time to waste…

See if it’s real.

Find it in haste,

This is a deal.

The Scanpan 3 Stage Knife Sharpener

Popularity: 5% [?]

Last night I used my newest addition to my kitchen cookware – the Typhoon Large Reversable Grill Plate – for the very first time!  As a cooking fanatic and food lover – I have been on a personal mission lately to master the perfect steak – and it seems that I just may have found the solution!

The Grill plate fits perfectly over 2 plates on top of my stove.  Because of its weight (yes, it is HEAVY), it doesn’t move around at all when you are cooking on it.  Before using it – I “seasoned” it by heating it up slowly with a light coating of oil on it.  I let it warm up for a good couple of minutes while I seasoned the steak.  I used 35 day matured Rump Steak, lightly coated it in oil and generously sprinkled coarse salt and a fabulous new barbecue seasoning mix that I bought from Woolworths.

The sound that the meat made when it hit the grill put a smile on my dial.  It seared the meat beautifully.  There was no splattering of hot oil that normally comes with cooking in a pan.  I cooked the steaks for about 10 minutes on each side, turning them a couple of times.  I landed up with four perfectly cooked “medium” pieces of steak that tasted just as good as they looked!

I am super thrilled with this new addition to my kitchen and forsee many fantastic meals being cooked on it!

Popularity: 4% [?]

Designed by the non-flying Wright brothers for Joseph Joseph, the spring loaded Smasher turns any mundane mashing chore into a World Pogo Stick championship.The ‘Smasher’ has been specifically engineered to speed up mashing.Its efficient mechanism cups and traps the potato firmly in place, while the unique pump action plate mashes the potato. Also ideal for mashing fruit and other vegetables and it’s Dishwasher safe.

The Joseph Joseph Smasher coming soon on Yuppiechef…

Popularity: 4% [?]

The Tefal Quickcup will give you hot or cold filtered water in 3 seconds!

Press the red button, and within 3 seconds 220ml of water (about the capacity of a mug) is drawn up through an integrated filter, heated and then dispensed directly into your cup.

Traditional electric kettles require a lot of energy to fire up for your morning caffeine fix. The Tefal Quickcup will in comparison to a standard kettle, reduce your energy consumption by 65%.

Available on Yuppiechef

Popularity: 4% [?]

We were thinking about Mezzaluna's today, namely because they exist and that we could; and putting the two together (and the need to occupy the mind for a time) we did some research and wrote this little article.

Now a Mezzaluna is a very different way of cutting up your herbs (or equivalent) on a chopping board. While most people will pick their herbs all daintily from the garden and place them on their board, grab a normal knife and proceed to hack, stab and chop away at them, the Mezzaluna allows you to do it with dignity, style and some reserve.

The Mezzaluna's name comes from the Italian word for half moon (spot the half moon in the picture) and the motion of your 'chop' will be a light swishing back and forth resulting in more placid and happy herbs that will be of more benefit to your digestion. You wouldn't want those herbs to be entering your stomach all bitter and angry would you?

Anyway we thought it was fascinating that you can get such an interesting looking chopping device for your kitchen and have so much fun at the same time. All we want to see now is a miniature guillotine for taking the ends off of carrots, cucumbers and the occasional courgette – now that would be exciting!

If you don't have a Mezzaluna you can find one here.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Yuppiechef has recently obtained the exclusive rights to sell the Stelton Bread Bags in South Africa. The bread bag is designed by Klaus Rath, who among other things has designed a range of minimalistic, elegant solutions for headsets, flat screens and signs. The bread bag is made of 100% cotton, approved for food and also features two magnets which "seal" the bag to keep the bread fresh before serving.

Available from Yuppiechef in two colours.

Popularity: 3% [?]

New to Yuppiechef is the CorkPops Wine Bottle Opener. Insert the long needle through the cork and into the bottle, then press the top… POP! Your bottle is opened.

The whole process (including foil cutting) takes about 5 seconds! Super easy and very similar to opening a bottle of champers.

Check out the demo video.

View range here.

Popularity: 3% [?]

How this? This stylishly looking food preparation studio was the outcome of a design collaboration between Porsche and luxury kitchen designer Poggenpohl.

The last thing we heard of a Poggenpohl designing, it had something to so with a braai and wors. Anyhow – this attempt looks far more pleasing on the eye.

The design is abundant with sleek and functional aluminum profiles and frames, glass, integrated lighting, and comes with your choice of driftwood or dark oak fronts to set off the other, more technical and steely materials. All of the doors incorporate innovative mechanisms that dispense with the need for handles – which is good if you're needing to load up more food while your hands are full.

Just imagine how radical a Kitchenaid blender or a Jamie Oliver pestle and mortar would look on that brushed aluminum.

Check out: Poggenpohl design website 

[via Josh Spear] 

Popularity: 3% [?]

How cool is this little gem of an espresso machine aptly named You&Me. Yes…because it makes just enough fine caffeine for you & me to enjoy on the couch.

It's made by the guys from Ariete and would be the perfect little machine for the man-about-town bachelor…or bacherlorette for that matter.

[we found this over here] 

Popularity: 4% [?]