and the award for 'Best Reinvention of their Product" goes to...

Kitchen Aid
hooray, foodies rejoice!

Kitchen Aid has arguably one signature product -- their stand mixer -- for which they keep creating attachments so that people will buy it. Over the years, their stand mixer has become a 'luxury necessity' for those loving to cook. Try to find a wedding registry without one (unless the couple already has one or doesn't like to cook). Pasta rolling attachments. Food grinders. Citrus Juicer. Sausage stuffers. All of these can be yours.... if only you buy the $300 motor in the form of a mixer. Besides, you'll be saving space by having only one machine.

What great marketing. I am impressed.

However, the one great product that they're still missing (and with which they will rake in the dough) is the copper bowl. Egg whites beat best in the presence of copper due to a stabilization of one of the egg proteins, conalbumin. Since a large percentage of cooks that use the stand mixer are bakers, it seems reasonable that this product would be easily marketable. (Note: copper wouldn't be for everything since it's a reactive metal, especially in acids such as lemon juice... therefore, perhaps a copper whisk attachment may be better since cooks could then change out just the whisk rather than switching bowls.)

I have been saying Kitchen Aid should make this for about two years now. Not wanting to get scooped a la Kyle's great ice cream pint koozie idea, I took a proactive approach and wrote KitchenAid's Corporate Headquarters:

Why not make a copper bowl or at least a copper whisk for your stand mixer that people can purchase separately.

Old cooks have been using copper bowls for centuries claiming that improves stability of their egg white foams. Indeed, copper helps stabilize egg whites by binding conalbumin. It seems a large percentage of cooks that use your stand mixer are bakers. Moreover, the bakers that don't use your product are likely to use hand mixers to beat egg whites rather than arm power. Thus, it seems that making a copper bowl or whisk attachment could be very marketable. It may also may be an incentive for bakers to purchase your machine (unless copper beaters were made for hand mixers too).

I understand that copper is a reactive metal and that it shouldn't be used with acids, such as lemon juice or vinegars. Therefore, a whisk/beater attachment may be better as the cook could simply remove the copper whisk after beating egg whites rather than changing bowls.

In short, you would make a fortune.

Love your mixer,
(my name and degree deleted)
(email deleted)
(phone deleted)

Some helpful references on the science behind egg foams can be found in the following books and website:
"On Food & Cooking" by Harold McGee
"Cookwise" by Shirley Corriher
Website about the science: http://chemistry.about.com/library/weekly/blcopperegg.htm

Side note: this is the first time I've used my "Ph.D." title outside of the lab.

Wonder if they'll write me back. Wonder if they'll make it.