[Sca-cooks] OOP -- Does anyone own an Oster Kitchen Center?

Wed Dec 19 14:22:52 PST 2007

On Dec 19, 2007, at 4:20 PM, Olwen the Odd wrote:

>
> I have a friend who owns that set.  He swears by it.  He even went  
> so far as to buy a complete other set at the thrift store "just in  
> case".  The second set wasn't all that cheap either.

Complete set, motor, modules, blades, attachments, everything? That's  
faith...

>  It seems to me his came from his mom as well.  I can tell you that  
> it will mix the heck out of marzipan without burning up the motor.
> Olwen

Mahvelous! I'm still a real devotee of the Robot-Coupe R2 in Ugly  
Industrial Cherry Red and Cream (show it off on your kitchen counter  
-- frighten the kiddies -- who could possibly display such an item  
with pride unless they take their food processing seriously?)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ROBOT-COUPE-R2-COMMERCIAL-FOOD-PROCESSOR_W0QQitemZ270197412339QQihZ017QQcategoryZ36346QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Current bid is $41; I guarantee this will not sell for less than  
$400-500. Probably closer to $700. Oy. But it's what I'm used to  
using. There are still a million attachments easily available, but I  
never knew a restaurant that owned too many of them. If the boss (or  
for that matter, me) caught you using the shredder or slicing blades  
it was considered a pretty clear professional admission ;-). However,  
it's pretty much the gold standard, and has been for many years, since  
it bridged the gap between the equipment for small restaurant  
kitchens, behaving like an appliance for a home kitchen, and the huge  
kitchens whose appliances read "Hobart Buffalo Chopper" on the label...

On the other hand, the Oster set was free ;-).

Adamantius
>
>
>> Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:10:20 -0500> From:  
>> adamantius1 at verizon.net> To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>  
>> Subject: [Sca-cooks] OOP -- Does anyone own an Oster Kitchen Center? 
>> > > I gather this is a sort of Poor Man's KitchenAid, but perhaps  
>> not so > poor as I had supposed...> > Last month I boxed up and  
>> brought home with me an assortment of small > kitchen appliances  
>> all coming under the general heading of "Oster > Designer  
>> Electronic 'Kitchen Center' ", and various attachments for > same.  
>> Basically it is a motorized base such as might drive a blender >  
>> carafe (which is included), a mixer with various attachments >  
>> (included) and a food processor (included).> > I _think_ this is  
>> the slightly medium-end model without the meat > grinder and  
>> sausage stuffing attachment.> > Well, it turns out the mixer arm  
>> thingy has one slightly damaged clamp > for holding it in place on  
>> the motor housing, so I was looking on eBay > for a replacement for  
>> the Mixer Arm, and I'm seeing them for sa
> le. I'm > also seeing entire sets like the one I own for what seem  
> like > ridiculously high prices for what's got to be a 15-20-year- 
> old small > appliance.> > In this case, while the machine seems not  
> to have been all that well- > cared-for in recent years (it's pretty  
> grimy; my Mom didn't see very > well, lived alone, and had arthritic  
> fingers, so while she kept her > place pretty neat and orderly,  
> there were some occasional lapses in > the general standard, because  
> sometimes she'd either clean something > until it looked clean to  
> her, or until her hands pained her, and > sometimes that wasn't  
> enough).> > Well, anyway, someone seems to have taken great care to  
> preserve the > original instruction manual, with my late father's  
> credit card receipt > stapled inside the back cover. Apparently list  
> price was $256, but he > got it both reduced on sale and marked  
> down, for a grand total of > $129, and this was in 1990.> > The only  
> thing I really remember about this appliance was th
> at the > proprietary food processor attachment was known for some  
> reason as the > Disco Chef, which I remember thinking screamingly  
> funny for the > unbidden visual it necessarily conjures, and that  
> the mixer was the > Implement Of Choice for large quantities of  
> mashed potatoes.> > Well, I'm seeing sets like this on eBay, sets  
> that aren't new, for > pretty close to the 1990 list price in some  
> cases, and certainly at > least as much as my Dad paid in 1990. Plus  
> shipping. What I want to > know is, why? Have I stumbled on some  
> kind of Secret Power Weapon of > the Culinary Mages From The Dawn of  
> Time?> > I mean, if I have, I oughtta know about this, right??? I  
> mean, if I > have any pretensions to being a Culinary Mage From The  
> Dawn of Time > and all, it would make sense, no?> > What's the deal?  
> Anybody know? Is this just a reasonable-quality > product line that  
> has withstood the test of time and the forces of > evolution, and  
> stayed in production largely unchanged, for a long > t
> ime, and still reasonably current?> > Adamantius>  
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