Thermomix is an appliance that chops food, grinds, mills, steams, cooks etc. Look up Thermomix Australia for a run down on the marketing. It costs $1939 and is available to buy via consultants. There are cheaper copies, like ThermoChef. They are not as well made and have different motors. I'm pretty sure none of the knock offs have a reverse function (which is important when cooking some dishes).

You can use it either as a tool to help you in the kitchen, or as the main reason you are actually cooking now (like me).

Some benefits to me include being able to make things like sauces from scratch and therefore controlling what goes into in - no preservatives, additives, limited sugar etc. The biggie for me, is the ability to put something on to cook, walk away and come back when the machine beeps at me. By then, it has stopped heating, but is still stirring to stop things burning/sticking. I am easily distracted, so if I wander off to do the washing or whatever, I often forget something is on the stove.

For friends with young kids, this means they can put something on, then go and spend time with their kids, rather than standing at a stove stirring whilst fending off requests/questions/tanties.

I am gluten free, so use it to mill my own flours from rice, chickpeas, millet etc.