05/27/2022
The KitchenAid mixer has maintained its place as a status symbol for a century, doing far more than modernizing countless kitchens. The very appliance that has shaped so many lives directly reflects modern American history.
The KitchenAid mixer didn’t just save time in the kitchen; it helped time move forward.
The story goes that Herbert Johnston, an engineer working for the Hobart Corporation, conceptualized the standing mixer after watching a baker mix dough and thinking there had to be a better way. Development started in 1914, and the first standing mixers went somewhere that desperately needed to industrialize its kitchens: the military
“What was smart about what KitchenAid did that the others didn’t do was cross-generation accessories,” Voss says. “What that means is that if you bought a KitchenAid mixer in 1950 and kept it through the years, even though the appliance itself would evolve, you could still use the accessories with the mixer you had.” It also meant that women could pass down their KitchenAid mixers and extensions to their daughters.
