Celebrity chefs regularly lend their names to licensed cookware, bakeware, tableware, cutlery, gadgets, and other categories closely related to cooking and entertaining. One area that makes good sense, but where chefs have been infrequent players to date, is in small kitchen appliances. Typically, these sorts of collaborations, when they happen, are positioned as offering professional quality for home cooks at an affordable price, with the chefs bringing the manufacturer both mainstream recognition and their expertise.
A just-announced deal with Thor Kitchen takes chef Gordon Ramsay into this category, where he joins a handful of other chefs with licensed appliance collections:
- Ramsay’s deal with Thor, announced in September, encompasses signature versions of products featured in Thor’s existing line, including ranges, dishwashers, and refrigerators developed with input from Ramsay. The offerings are positioned as high-performance but good value. They have designs described as true to their origins but delivering particularly exceptional results for home and professional chefs due to the high standards demanded by Ramsay’s rigorous testing and approval process. The appliances come in stainless steel, with optional bronze, rose gold, or navy blue handle sets, as well as a limited-edition black series.
- In 2018, Italian chef Massimo Bottura, who leads Osteria Francescana, known as one of the world’s best restaurants, first partnered with Grundig, a brand of the Turkish appliance company Arçelik, for a line of appliances boasting restaurant quality combined with modern design. The matte black appliances highlight the chef’s signature in gold, as well as one of his well-known quotes, “Cooking is an act of love.” Items include power and hand blenders, kitchen mixers, coffee machines, and toasters.
- Australian chef Neil Perry has been working with Omega since 2015 on a range of kitchen appliances under the Neil Perry Kitchen brand. Products, which are touted as designed for home cooks but with professional-quality attributes, include ovens that allow different sections to be controlled separately, induction cooktops, range hoods, the most powerful gas cooktop available in Australia, and wine coolers, among others.
- Ramsay previously had a deal with Sensio for two lines of small kitchen appliances, a premium die-cast line and a mid-range stainless collection, that debuted at retail in fall 2010. Products included hand blenders, grills and griddles, toasters, and more. Like the agreement with Thor, these items were positioned as being professional-chef quality at a reasonable price.
While these and other examples represent a relatively small population of chefs that have created signature licensed appliance lines, many work with appliance makers to promote the latter’s existing products. Monograph has worked with the likes of Patrick Kriss, Edward Lee, and Marcus Samuelsson, among others; Thor Kitchen with Brad Miller; GE Appliances with Damaris Phillips; Mièle with Kyle Connaughton and Norbert Niederkofler; and Linärie with Manu Feildel, to name a few. In these cases, the chefs serve in brand ambassador roles, performing product demonstrations, making appearances for audiences of retail buyers and consumers, creating video content and recipes, using the products in their restaurants, or other promotional tasks.
Ramsay’s new agreement with Thor is one of several collaborations in the kitchen appliance sector this year, with the others featuring properties beyond the realm of chefs. Among them: Laura Ashley licensed VQ for toasters and tea kettles; digital cooking content brand So Yummy paired with Bella for brightly colored air fryers, mini juicers, rice cookers, blenders, and slow cookers sold at Target, all with a focus on simplicity; and the Beautiful by Drew Barrymore brand at Walmart expanded into appliances, including pastel-colored, matte-finished single-serve coffee makers, personal blender sets, small air fryers, water filtration pitchers, microwave ovens, and juice extractors.
These and other examples illustrate an increased level of licensing in general in this category of late, which may foreshadow additional agreements ahead with celebrity chefs as well.
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