I have a secret, hidden in the darkness of one of my kitchen cabinets, and whenever I pull it out, it reveals an unhappy truth. I'll admit it, but only to you: Try as I might to keep up with the world of fashion, I have managed to fall hopelessly behind in a crucial area of glamour and glitz. Under an old plastic cover, I'm harboring a dowdy mixer.
It's a stand mixer from J.C. Penney, with a gray base, a detachable cream top and two white mixing bowls. It must be about 35 years old, and I've had it for years. I'm ashamed to say it has no attachments, only two beaters. When I turn off the switch, the motor doesn't quite stop, so I've had to develop an agile maneuver when I take it off the base to use it as a hand mixer.
I have to lean over to unplug it, balancing the mixer on the edge of the bowl so that the beaters lie deep within whatever I'm mixing. Otherwise, I spray chocolate cake batter all over the kitchen, which I have done on more than a few occasions.
Although it hasn't occurred to me to get a new one, I've felt vaguely troubled lately when I put it to use. Recipes have begun demanding dough hooks. Sometimes they suggest I use the flat blade of my mixer. They even tell me to put on the wire whip. While this has prompted me to doubt my mixer, I have plowed ahead with its sturdy old beaters, reluctant to give up on this machine, which has soldiered on so valiantly for so long.
Elsewhere in my kitchen, I have flirted with style, buying a sleek, black coffee maker and brushed-chrome grinder. I have heard the siren call of stainless steel. From time to time, I have wavered, falling in love now and again with the idea of a KitchenAid mixer, so competent and sturdy, beckoning with can opener, juicer, grinder and pasta-maker attachments. Its flashes of color would catch my wandering eye, 20 colors, including pistachio, tangerine, citron and three shades of yellow. Lust as I might in my heart, I always went home to my old mixer.
Now my heart is aflutter once more. Last year, Jenn-Air introduced its Attrezzi (the name comes from the Italian word for tools) line of stand mixers and coordinating blenders. The mixer is a graceful curve, done up in antique copper, pearlescent white or black, stainless steel and, coming soon, oiled bronze. You can choose from 10 bowl colors, including clear etched glass, amber tortoise shell, merlot red, cobalt blue, iced coral and not simply green, but verde.
Jenn-Air, a division of Maytag Corp., calls the line "works of art for your kitchen." And it is urging us to open up those appliance garages we built into our cabinetry and take out our mixers and blenders, turning our countertops into runways for these hot new models. Even if we're not using them to whip up a souffle, we can have them out there to remind us of our high-end good taste, at about $360 for the mixer and bowl and $60 for a bowl alone.
Kristi Lafrenz, director of marketing for Maytag, says the company wanted to offer something different from the retro or commercial look. "This was born out of the feeling that for years there has been nothing new," she says.
In general, she says, people are interested in expressing their own personal style in their homes and kitchens. Now they can do it with a mixer or blender.
"They're seeing it as art for their countertop," Lafrenz says. "The cords are removable so it can be a piece of art. Plus, mixers are heavy, so it's nice to have something you want to leave out."
The different bowl colors mean you can change them with the seasons, she says, using the new iced coral for spring and summer and take the merlot red out for the winter holidays.
The copper base has been the best-seller, Lafrenz says, along with an etched coffee-colored bowl designed by Michael Weems, an artist native to Annapolis.
"People love it. We're finding they like to bring it into an all stainless kitchen," she says. "It's warmer and richer, and they use it as an accent. That led us to oiled bronze, which will hit the retail stores in July or August. It's an eclectic mix of old world and modern, with a luxurious feel. You can't pick up a Pottery Barn catalogue without seeing oiled bronze."
The bronze plays on the recent fashion for brown, in clothing and home accessories, she says: "Brown has become the new black."
And of course it comes with a flat beater, a dough hook and a wire whip, along with something called planetary action, which seems to be a requirement for a modern mixer and means that the beater makes an orbit inside the bowl.
In a few months, a toaster will join the Attrezzi line of mixers and blenders, available in five metallic colors and offering seven shades of toast.
Back in my kitchen stands a blender new enough that I don't dare replace it in the name of mere desire. Same with my toaster. I'm vulnerable on the mixer. Maybe I can hang on to it long enough to make it vintage and worthy of display. Do I dare toss a homely but hard worker out on the street in exchange for a high-priced beauty?
Worse things have been done in the name of art.
