Hannah McAllister
I run ChefsPost from a 1920s Craftsman bungalow in Madison, Wisconsin, with a renovated kitchen that quietly became a testing lab. Started in March 2020 with one Tartine sourdough loaf, a borrowed KitchenAid, and zero intention of caring about kitchen gear this much. Six years on: a KitchenAid Pro 5 Plus, a Vitamix Ascent into its 14th month of near-daily use, enough All-Clad to host a dinner party, and the spreadsheet that tracks every piece's wins, disappointments, and the handful I quietly returned inside the 30-day window. I own more whisks than I'll admit in print.
Day job is freelance copy editing — which mostly means I have weird hours and time to actually use a stand mixer at 10 AM on a Tuesday. Married, no kids, which is part of why the kitchen got the renovation budget that would have gone to a nursery.
How I review
Every piece of gear gets at least thirty days of real-kitchen use before I write a word. Usually longer. I note how the Vitamix handles frozen banana that's been in the freezer since November on a Wednesday morning, how the KitchenAid behaves three hours into a Saturday sourdough bake, how a $400 pan settles into its weight after a year on the cooktop. I cross-check my reads against r/cooking, r/castiron, Wirecutter, and Serious Eats — where my conclusions diverge from theirs, I say where and why. (Most recent example: I disagreed with Wirecutter on a $600 stand mixer they loved; mine walked across the counter every time I tried to knead a 70% hydration sourdough on it, and I sent it back.)
Every review ends with a specific recommendation: who should buy this, who absolutely should not, and what cooking pattern justifies the premium price. A $700 blender earns its keep if you run it daily; if you don't, the $200 version is doing the same job for less money and a lot less counter footprint.
What you won't find here
I'm not a culinary school graduate. I'm not a recipe developer. I'm not a chef. What I am: a home cook who tracks results in a spreadsheet, has bought and returned more cookware than is reasonable, and has opinions she'll defend with receipts. No professional restaurant gear reviews. No sous vide circulators above $500. No espresso machine deep dives — those are someone else's beat. Also: no air fryers. I tried three of them, never made the leap from novelty to routine, and the bin of attachments now lives where I used to keep the reusable shopping bags.
Posts by Hannah McAllister
- Best Professional Chef Knife for Home Cooks Who Prep Daily
- Best Silicone Spatulas for Nonstick Pans and High Heat Cooking
- Best Stainless Steel Cookware Sets After Testing Premium Brands
- Best Wireless Meat Thermometer for Smoker and Oven Roasting
- Best Vitamix Blenders for Making Hot Soups and Nut Butters
- Best KitchenAid Mixer Attachments for Making Homemade Pasta and Sauces
- Best KitchenAid Stand Mixer for Sourdough Bread and Heavy Doughs
- The $1.31 Daily Tax: Why My Vitamix Ascent Still Owns My Madison Kitchen After 420 Days
Disclosure
Heads up: most kitchen brand links on ChefsPost lead through affiliate tracking. If a Vitamix, KitchenAid, or All-Clad purchase happens after that click, I earn a commission from the brand. What you pay stays the same. Nothing here gets linked unless it has lived in my kitchen long enough for me to actually have an opinion.