- [Mike] We are Sorted,
a group of mates who have your back
when it comes to all things food.
From cooking battles, to gadget reviews.
- Ben, it's not worth it!
- [Mike] And cookbook challenges,
to a midweek meal Packs app.
- [Jamie] Crack your eggs, bake.
- [Mike] We uncover the tools
that will help us all cook and eat smarter.
Join our community
where everything we do starts with you.
(upbeat funky music)
- Today we are reviewing and comparing
some chef recommended kitchen tools.
- Now James, you are a chef,
so what are the things that you look out for
when picking the perfect kitchen tool?
- We're looking for stuff like durability,
and precision, and ease of use, and that kind of thing.
- We're gonna ask Jamie to test each one of these tools.
We've got an affordable one and a more expensive one,
and we want to see from Jamie
which one is worth the money.
Jamie, are you ready for number one?
J, please turn around.
- Ooh, blenders.
- [James] Although they're not essential,
they're really, really useful,
and a lot of people have them
because smoothies are quite popular.
- [Barry] So our cheap option
is the Philips Blender that we got off Amazon.
It's 1.25 litres and has a 450 watt motor.
The more expensive version
is a Food Ninja foodie blender and soup maker.
That has a capacity of 1.75 litres
and has a 1000 watt motor.
- Blenders are really interesting
because they're not something that I use every single day.
But when I need to use one,
I need it to work, and I need it to do a really good job.
- So what are your first impressions of the two machines?
- The Philips one is obviously a lot smaller,
feels quite plastic-y,
but it also looks very simple.
It feels like I can't really go wrong with it.
Whereas this one, it's obviously a lot bigger.
That's gonna take up a lot more room,
either in a cupboard or in a work zone.
It also seems to be able to fly to the moon
with the amount of buttons and stuff on it.
- Jamie, would you be so kind
as to make us two smoothie bowls?
One in each blender.
One green, and one pink.
- You know I'm not good with colours, James.
(Barry laughing)
- So for my smoothie base for both,
if I use banana, milk, ice, honey, and a nut butter,
is that a good place to start?
- That is a great place to start.
- Right, now straight off, this is like,
the proper test here is how well it copes with ice.
(blender whirring)
- Whoa!
That went, yeah.
That sounded and felt a lot more powerful
than I was expecting for such a small compact machine.
Right, flavours?
Avocado, kale, and a squeeze of lemon.
(blender whirring)
- It sounds like it's got a thing, like a pulsing?
- Very pulse-y isn't it?
- [Barry] Yeah. - Very pulse-y, right.
- Sounds like it's made for smoothies.
- [Jamie] Well that is thick.
- Ooh, yeah, smoothie bowl thick.
Are you gonna decorate it?
I've got some little sprinkles for you if you want.
(Jamie sighs) (Barry chuckles)
- [Barry] Come on, care a little bit more than this.
Let me see, I can't see.
- [James] No, you don't want to...
You don't want to.
(boys snickering)
- Sure.
- [James] Should we move on?
- This is glass, this is very weighty.
- It's probably worth saying that,
although we're comparing these two,
this one does a lot more, so this is heat proof,
so you can make soups and stuff in it.
- I have to press the power button,
and it says "Hello."
Well, there's a smoothie button.
- It does makes sense to do smoothie,
right? - Yeah.
(blender whirring) (beep)
(blender whirring)
- That was vicious, wasn't it?
For this one, I'll do frozen berries and a squeeze of lemon.
(blender whirring)
It still shocked me. (blender whirring)
- So I think the first one is made for smoothies,
so it's got this kind of pulsing action, I guess.
Second one kind of goes high to low, to high to low.
Probably works for a lot of things.
- Two Instagram famous smoothie bowls.
- So flavour wise, they're Sorted recipes,
they're gonna be delicious,
but I guess here, you're looking at how smooth they are.
- This has made a great smoothie bowl.
It's thick, it's smooth, it's very tasty.
I'd have to say that the second one is much smoother.
It's more yogurt-y.
- Wow, interesting,
because that one had to work a lot harder
to get it smooth with those berries.
- What do you think, J?
What are your impressions?
- This one feels far more like statement,
but it does do a lot more,
think, like, the cooking element is unreal to me.
That's fantastic,
that feels like I'd love to explore,
actually, the capabilities of that.
Whereas this one feels more limited,
that feels more a traditional blender.
This is a blender for 2020.
- Ah, right, let's talk moolah.
- Hmm.
- [Barry] What are you reckoning for the cheap one?
- 40 pounds.
- 20 pounds, 82 pence.
And for the expensive one?
- Part of me wants to say 100 pounds,
another part of me wants to double that.
- I'll tell you what,
how about you find yourself in the middle,
because it is 149 pounds 99 pence.
Seven times more expensive.
- I think for 20 pounds,
the Phillips one is a really good price.
After our test, probably not.
I'd like to do more research
into how extensive the capabilities are.
- I think I'd buy that and hope it lasts
10 years or so. - Hmm.
- As a straight blender, I'm quite happy spending 20 pounds.
(upbeat funky music)
- Okay, J?
Ready for this one?
- Ooh, we've gone-
yeah, wow.
Whisks are important because you are using it
in that moment to do a job,
and if it's not helping you do that job quicker than a fork,
then it's pointless.
- [James] I don't think anyone can argue
that a whisk is not an essential thing in a kitchen.
- So in front of you, you have two balloon whisks,
they are called balloon whisks
because, well, they're shaped like balloons
and they fill whatever you're whipping full of air.
- That is sensational!
A complete and utter lie but whoo!
- I don't know if it is. - It is.
- I mean I made it up,
but it might be true. - 100% lie.
- [Barry] The one you have there is the cheaper of the two.
It's from Nisbets, it's their essentials whisk,
and the more expensive one
is the Schneider stainless steel whisk,
with a heat resistant handle.
- I'm in two minds, 'cause this one is nice and light.
This isn't going to weigh down
my wrist - My arms.
- and my arm whilst I'm whisking.
- You're gonna be whipping up some egg whites,
and we are gonna start with the cheap one,
so please grab a bowl, and you'll be up against a clock.
- [James] I think maybe you should do three?
- [Both] Three egg whites.
- Excellent.
What's happened there is not fun.
(boys snickering)
- So your challenge is to whip these into stiff peaks
and then lift it over your head.
We'll be timing you from start to finish.
Okay, your timer starts now. (alarm blares)
See here, how much of it is in the bicep,
how much is in the wrist?
- Oh, I think it's a whole arm workout.
- So is it like a wave action the whole way across,
or that? - Yeah,
like that, and sometimes like that,
and then I go back, and then like that.
Sometimes I'll swap hands if I get really...
- Swapping hands is important.
- It's worth saying that this is not a fair test
in any way, (Jamie giggles)
'cause he's gonna be knackered after this.
Do it! Do it! Do it! - What'd you mean, no?
- [Barry] Commit! Commit! - [James] Hold it over!
- [Barry] All right, okay.
- [James] All right, all right.
- You need to stand up straight, go like that.
- [Barry] One, two, three, passed.
- [James] You did not back yourself.
(boys chuckling)
- In terms of a whisking experience,
it was firm, it did the job.
It didn't feel like I was wasting any effort.
Round two. - Are you ready?
- Yes. - Go!
(alarm blares)
Oh my gosh, this is so much firmer.
- Oh? - Come on,
push through the pain, through the pain.
Come on, through the pain.
Almost, almost. - Commit!
- Little bit more. - Commit!
(Jamie screams) (Barry laughs)
- [James] Get it over your head.
- [Barry] Come on.
Well played, well played.
Right, how was that?
- Well, (laughs) this sounds ridiculous,
but that was instantly a much better whisking experience.
It was firmer.
Every stroke made a bigger difference.
It's longer and thinner.
- [James] Less balloon. - Less balloon-y.
- The cheaper whisk did it in one minute, 52 seconds.
- Quite proud of that, if I'm honest.
- Second whisk did it in one minute, 11 seconds.
- It's quite a lot different.
- Right, can we start with the cheaper one?
Where are you thinking, price-wise?
- Eight pounds, based on nothing.
- Pound 99. - One pound...
- One pound, 99.
Okay, so there's, there's, there's...
- There's the benchmark.
- Yep, now let's work our way up.
How expensive, your new favourite whisk?
- Eight pounds. (boys laughing)
- [Barry] This one is 14 pounds, 99.
- Okay, right.
Regardless of this being 15 pounds,
the fact that this is two pounds,
a ridiculously low price for the amount of times
that I whip up eggs or double cream, stuff at home,
I'd spend two pounds.
- My opinion has probably now changed,
and I guess you're looking for a slightly heavier one.
That is not necessarily a worse thing,
it's probably a better thing,
with thicker metal and quite stiff.
Not too much flexibility, right?
- Yes.
The firmality of the spindles
is one of the most important things.
- [Mike] Hello, Mike here, again.
Sorry, we've just paused the video
to ask you to subscribe and hit the bell.
You won't regret it, promise,
and it really does make a difference, so thank you.
Back to the video.
- Number three J, turn around.
- Ooh! (Barry exclaims)
Hobs. - Induction hobs.
- I've never thought about buying an induction hob.
- [Barry] Have you not? - Have you?
- Yeah.
For, oh no, I sound like Ben,
camping. - Camping?
- I know, sorry. - That's not camping.
- Camping? - That's not camping!
- I know, glamping.
You plug it in on the road. - Plug it in?!
- Camping?!
- Cooking on the road,
I could use one of those. - What road?!
- [James] So, induction hobs.
Some people might not have a full kitchen,
and might want to add to that kitchen.
Some people might have electric hobs,
but wants something that gets really hot, really fast.
So induction creates heat with a pan through magnets,
so it's never hot unless there's a pan on it,
and it heats up really, really quickly.
And you need special pans for it.
But most pans, I think now, are induction.
- This one feels very sleek and modern.
It's obviously more compact.
It also has a hook. - [James] That's kind of nice.
- That one is from Ikea. - Is it really?
- [Barry] Yeah.
This is the Tillreda, it's their portable induction hob.
So the more expensive one is the Buffalo touch control
single induction hob.
With it's strong stainless steel base
and large capacity ceramic glass top,
the Buffalo single zone induction hub is a perfect choice
for the professional kitchen.
10 temperature settings.
Should we test their power? - Please.
- I'm interested to find out how they deal with mushrooms.
It needs to be a really, really hot pan,
and they need to fry very, very quickly.
Right, so oil goes in.
See that, that is getting hot already.
- That is getting hot already.
- [James] Must be on for what, 10 seconds, if that.
- So mushrooms...
(Jamie exclaims)
- So, one of the drawbacks I've heard about induction
is the fact that when you take it off the hob,
it stops heating.
Whereas with a flame,
you can control that more by lifting up and around,
and you can't really use a wok with one of these.
- It's true, it's definitely true.
It's very hot, eh? - Very hot.
It definitely felt to me like the Buffalo got hotter.
- It looked like it got hotter.
- But it's not like this was far behind it at all.
- I think the real test here
would probably be durability
and the long-lastingness of them.
- Right, do you have a guess at price?
- I have no idea where to pitch this.
- We'll help you out.
The Ikea one is 39 pounds.
- [James] They've become really affordable,
haven't they? - That's really affordable.
- [James] That's really good. - Yeah.
- Bearing in mind all the added benefits
and additional features of the Buffalo,
How much do you reckon that is?
- I'm gonna say that that probably adds a hundred pounds.
- Oh, okay. - I'm going to say 140.
- This comes in at 155 pounds, 98 pence.
- For what I need at home, I'd spend the money in Ikea.
And also,
I wouldn't feel like if this went wrong after five years,
I wouldn't feel like I've been hard done by it all.
- Yeah, two different jobs.
Both good products. - Yeah.
- Last one mate.
- Ooh, ooh!
Ooh, ooh.
Interesting.
- So we are talking espresso,
and there were lots of different ways you can get it.
- [Barry] Right, so first up we've got the Moka pot.
This is the Bialetti Moka Express
aluminium stovetop coffeemaker.
- It is weighty and solid.
It's a nice big water reservoir compared to mine.
- Right, next up.
This is the Swan Retro Pump Espresso coffee machine.
- It looks quite smart,
and I think that retro design helps with that.
- Right, moving on. - This feels like a step up.
- [Barry] This is by Sage,
it's the Bambino Plus Espresso coffee machine
in a brushed stainless steel.
- I love the sound of that.
So, can I test them and see how we get on?
- [Barry] Please.
(funky big band music)
So how'd you find that?
- I already know how to use a Moka pot,
I've got one at home.
It's a bit of admin,
particularly when it comes to cleaning it out afterwards.
But it's very, very simple.
There's not a lot that can go wrong with that.
The Swan one, also very local that I have at home,
in terms of just a simple barista style machine,
you have to know when to switch it off.
You switch it,
you are still in control of switching that off.
It doesn't measure it out for you.
The Sage one, for making an espresso,
actually is a very similar process to the Swan one,
there's not much difference there.
I think you'll be able to tell a bigger difference
if we were using the milk wand
and we wanted the milk to be heated up
to a certain temperature.
This machine does it for you,
and I think that could be a really big win.
- Do you want to start tasting some coffee?
- Nice coffee, it's very nice coffee.
Very strong, nice coffee.
Number two, when it came out of the machine,
it was very, very frothy. - It was really frothy.
- Like there is, yeah, like,
there's a crema, which is the kind of the pale foam
that you get on top,
but it's usually a very thin layer.
When this came out of the Swan machine,
it was like pouring a Guinness.
- I was just going to say,
it's like a Guinness.
- And has left a type of crema on top,
but not what I would expect.
Very different from the Moka.
- Same beans. - It's thinner,
so it's got more water going through that.
I was in control of how much water
was poured into it.
So that could, that's probably down to me.
But flavour wise,
I'm getting far more coffee flavour from the Moka.
The Sage coffee tastes much better than the Swan coffee.
- How? - Interesting.
- I don't know how.
- It must be the pressure that it's pushing
through the grind.
- The Sage coffee tastes far more like the Moka pot.
- So that's a plus for the Moka pot.
- Yes, yeah.
In that respect, yeah.
They're all very drinkable.
Very, very nice.
I wouldn't be disappointed with any of them.
- So let's talk money.
Now bearing in mind that the two espresso makers,
they're not the highest end, they're not barista standard,
and people have spend 1000 pounds on these machines.
These are definitely at our sort of level,
and the Moka pot,
it's kind of just to prove how simple it can be
just to make a good pot of coffee.
- Moka pot, 20 pounds. - 23 pounds, 32.
- Really, really simple way of making coffee.
Well worth the money.
- That's my favourite way of making coffee at home.
- [Barry] The Swan? - 80 pounds.
- 90 pounds, 49.
- If you want to learn about how to make coffee at home,
that is probably a really good way to do that
without breaking the bank.
- I have questioned it.
I feel like if I was going that far,
I would probably spend a little bit more.
- Right, how much more though?
So Sage, have a guess.
- 172 pounds.
- 329 pounds. - Okay, cool.
(Jamie groans)
- It's the closest you'll get to being a barista at home
for a reasonable price.
- When it comes to the Sage,
if I'm looking at spending that much money,
I would probably look to take my craft of making coffee
somewhere new without the computer aided temperature
of the milk and stuff. - I totally agree.
So over to you guys,
what kitchen tools and equipment do you want us chefs
to recommend these normals to test next?
- (whispers) Comment down below.
- [Mike] Have you ever got to the end of a long day
with no ideas, ingredients, or energy to cook?
Takeaway?
Hmm, it'd be the fourth this week.
Well, that's why we built our revolutionary meal Packs app.
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cook, and eat a whole lot better and easier
while saving money as a result.
You can go and use it in its entirety for free
for a whole month and see if it's for you.
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(big band music)
And now for the blooper.
- You know when your wife's having a go at you
and you can't work out when to step in, it's like,
never mind. - Yup.
(Barry laughs)