The Thermomix, aka the piece of expensive kitchen shit that you buy when you hit your 30s, give up all hope and decide it’s okay to start telling all your friends about the stupid goddamn butter you made yourself, has now inspired our nation’s most amusing political kerfuffle in some time.
ABC News report that, in a recent hearing into the spending of Peter Cosgrove, it came out that the Governor General had requested two of them as part of an $80,000-$100,000 tender for kitchen gear in his two residences, Yarralumla in Canberra and Admiralty House in Sydney.
Queensland Labor Senator Joe Ludwig was reading over the list of Cosgrove’s spending, and was stumped when he got to the part about Thermomix. “I don’t know what a Thermomix is,” he said. “Where have you been?” a colleague asked. “Queensland,” the sassy Senator replied.
This story was already perfect, but it got even better when Ludwig got into a spat with Finance and Public Administration Committee chair and closet epicurean Cory Bernardi. “They’re very popular amongst the home master-chefs of today,” Bernardi sniffed.
“Is that the elite trendies that use that, are they?” Ludwig responded.
“In Queensland, you may refer to them as that, I just refer to them as those who have a particular interest in cooking,” the chair replied.
In the past, old mate Bernardi has been less kind to people who have a particular interest in marriage equality and basic human decency, but it’s nice that he’s sticking up for foodies. A man’s gotta have principles.
The session ended with Ludwig questioning the priorities of the Governor General’s office. In the meantime, we’ll leave this very special Thermomix episode of The Katering Show, aka the greatest thing ever on the internet, right here:
