All hail the ultimate style of grace and beauty, as well as technology and adeptness in the kitchen. A Kitchenaid mixer on the countertop is one way of announcing to all who view your kitchen, including yourself, that you’ve made it.

The KitchenAid stand mixer has achieved Holy Grail status not because it’s new (its iconic design dates back to 1937) and not because of marketing, but because it genuinely makes cooks’ lives easier in the kitchen.

unmatched power

Hand mixers have their place, more for watery batters than thick doughs. However, even with thin, coarse mixtures of cornbread batter and similar ingredients, the stand mixer is more reliable in blending every clump of dry cookie mixes and thick bread doughs.

With hand mixers, I sometimes bite into a lump of dry, unmixed powder if I try to mix anything but a watery batter. That is, if I don’t burn out the motor. I used a hand mixer on some run-of-the-mill chocolate chip cookie dough last week and had to keep stopping because I smelled a burnt motor.

Ten motor speeds allow you to dial in the exact speed needed for the recipe at hand. The lowest speed settings are remarkably gentle, while the fastest speed settings are powerful enough to intimidate grizzly bears and race car drivers.

Included as attachments are the coated flat beater, coated dough hook, and wire whisk, plus an anti-splash pouring shield that fits around the bowl. The shield works well when you have to add ingredients slowly while mixing.

There’s also a ludicrously comprehensive catalog of aftermarket attachments you can buy from KitchenAid to expand your uses for your mixer, from ice cream makers to pasta makers.

For most of them, you unscrew the shiny, round KitchenAid emblem on the front and mount. It takes about as long to mount an attachment like that as it does to read this sentence.

KitchenAid has built its reputation over decades of anecdotes and long-term tests by all manner of professional reviewing outlets, and the Artisan is no exception. As far as kitchen equipment goes, KitchenAids are the unchallenged poster child for durability and quality.

People don’t leave them out on their counters because they’re as big as a goose. People do it because they’re a retro-cool status symbol that brandishes, “Yup, I bake, and I’m in it for the long haul.”