I was recently sent a  Jamie Oliver Hand Blender by Tefal to review and I am delighted! My previous hand blender was a cheap own brand plastic one that I bought for about £5….a bit of a change from this ‘all singing-all dancing’ posh stainless steel one from Tefal!  Don’t get me wrong…my plastic hand blender did seem to work okay but you could only use it for a few minutes and then it would start to smell like it was burning and it also didn’t come with any accessories.

This Jamie Oliver hand blender has a massive 700w motor with a variable speed control dial with 5 settings. When I bought my last hand blender I just went for the cheapest, I didn’t even consider looking at the motor size. It turns out my old one has a 175w motor…I suppose that explains the burning smell so soon after using it. The 700w hand blender from Jamie Oliver seems really powerful and it makes easy work of chopping onions, blending smoothies, whipping cream, etc.

The Jamie Oliver hand blender is much more expensive than my previous own brand model. This professional looking Tefal one retails at the much higher price of £55.00 for the hand blender, 500ml chopper bowl, whisk, 800ml beaker and wall mount. If you have read my reviews before you will know that I am quite frugal so you won’t be surprised to hear that I probably couldn’t warrant forking out that kind of money on a hand blender. But the thing is that I only use a hand blender occasionally, I don’t really have the need to use one on a daily basis so that kind of price is just too much for me. If you, on the other hand, do need a hand blender that can withstand a lot of use then this Jamie Oliver one really is excellent.

It has a sleek stainless steel body with a ‘soft touch’ handle. There is a variable speed control dial that lets you change between speeds. At first I just stuck it on minimum and then wondered why it didn’t want to blend the nectarine skin in my daughter’s fruit smoothie so I then opted to stick it on maximum. When I went to chop some onions in the chopper I found maximum was too high as in an instant I got close to having ‘onion’ puree’ – not chopped onions. It did a fantastic job in no time at all though.  I have now discovered it is best to start on a low speed and then gradually move up through the speeds until you find the right setting. Common sense really…shame I didn’t use it in the first instance! 🙂

The hand blender stick is made from stainless steel which means it is not flimsy in the slightest, unlike the previous plastic hand blender I owned. All of the accessories wash really easily and the smell of onions came out of the chopper bowl in one wash. Normally it would take 2 or 3 washes to get it out but not on this bowl. Not sure why that it is but it is a plus point!

My mum is extremely jealous of me having this hand blender as she has tried to buy all stainless steel appliances for her kitchen and so she likes the look of this Jamie Oliver hand blender…but I’m afraid I was mean and kept it for myself! My excuse being that it is for my daughter’s sake…I can now make her healthy smoothies more often!

The hand blender has some useful features such as the push buttons on either side of the body that allows you to remove the blender stick or accessory quickly. Using the eject buttons did take me a little bit of getting used to as the handle of the blender is quite heavy and it is a bit of a balancing act holding the handle in one hand and pressing the buttons and removing the accessories with the other. Once you are used to it though it is quick and easy to change between the blending stick, the chopper and the whisk. It is nice to see that the chopper has a removable anti-slip base which makes it easy to use it on the worktop. The beaker comes with a lid so you can store your smoothie or soup, etc in the fridge with a lid on. It is handy that there are ‘ml’ measurements down the side of both the chopper and the beaker .

There is a wall mount that comes with this hand blender which is handy if you have a space to fix it on the wall. Unfortunately I don’t really have anywhere to wall-mount it but I like the idea of being able to free up space in your cupboards by having the hand blender out on display.

I don’t have any complaints about this product, it does what it is supposed to and does it well. It is a shame that this hand blender can’t be used with ice as that would have been great for making cold smoothies but the Jamie Oliver blender can crush ice so I’ll just have to hope someone sends me one of those to review. 🙂

I have actually used this hand blender at least 3 times a week since I received it which is great as I could never really be bothered to use my old one. I have made a nectarine and peach puree, a nectarine smoothie, chopped onions for a pasta dish, frothy milkshake and much more. I can imagine that I will start to use this hand blender and the accessories more often as it can make life a little bit easier in the kitchen.  All parts are easy to wash and come up clean each time. All of the accessories and the hand blender stick are dishwasher safe. Thumbs up all round!

You can currently (July 2011) buy the Jamie Oliver Hand Blender at the offer price of £45.00 (instead of the usual £55.00) on the Home and Cook website. If you would like to take a look , please click here.