At our headquarters in Richmond, Virginia, the Hamilton Beach Brands Consumer Test Kitchen is buzzing with Good Thinking®. This is where you'll find our resident culinary experts, Lynne Just and Laurie Klein, who put our products to the test just the way you’ll use them at home: in a real kitchen with real recipes, made with food readily available in everyday grocery stores. These dedicated and talented professionals carefully develop user guides, explore food trends, and create recipes that will enable busy families to make delicious dishes and tasty treats with confidence and ease. While many companies outsource this work, at Hamilton Beach we are proud to have an in-house test kitchen run by our skilled team who work hard to advocate for the consumer and ensure all our products are perfectly suited for a home kitchen.
From recipe development to product guidance, here are just a few ways our Consumer Test Kitchen experts are working for you.
Our Consumer Test Kitchen experts do more than just cook. They are a multi-tasking, multi-talented team whose expertise extends far beyond recipes. They collaborate with our engineers and test new products to ensure our appliances will work flawlessly when used in your kitchen.
After extensively testing each product, Lynne and Laurie develop consumer-friendly Use & Care guides, helpful tips, and recipes developed for the products you buy. From there, each Use & Care guide passes through eight different departments within Hamilton Beach Brands where product managers, engineers, and consumer specialists ensure accuracy and safety. As the Consumer Test Kitchen Manager explains, “your Use and Care guide is a valuable resource to inspire and instruct – think of it as your peek into the Consumer Test Kitchen.”
Lynne and Laurie work closely with every Hamilton Beach product and have a unique understanding of what makes them great. For this reason, our consumer affairs team relies on our Consumer Test Kitchen experts for their comprehensive, firsthand knowledge so the product information you receive will be clear and accurate.
The Consumer Test Kitchen focuses on the "end game," meaning what consumers will do once they have a Hamilton Beach product at home. This focus leads to one of the best parts of the job: creating and perfecting recipes. Lynne and Laurie walk a recipe through its many stages of development before it reaches you: conception, testing, approval, photography, and finally, publication. The recipes you see on our website and blog are made by the Consumer Test Kitchen using Hamilton Beach appliances, and they are as delicious as they look. "I love the creativity of recipe development," says Laurie. "I love creating recipes that are unique to Hamilton Beach."
Lynne Just is the Consumer Test Kitchen Manager at Hamilton Beach Brands where she creates new recipes, tests products, and develops use and care manuals for products. Before joining Hamilton Beach in December 2021, she worked for Sur La Table, Inc. as a Resident Chef/Program Manager. Lynne is passionate about food and especially loves to create delicious pies and homemade ice cream. She believes that great cooks are not born but blossom through trial and error. “The joy is in the process of trying new things and perfecting dishes to your taste,” she says. “That's how you'll truly learn to cook with confidence.” Lynne received her BA in education from the College of William & Mary and holds an AAS in Culinary Arts and Pastry Arts Career Studies Certificate from J. Sergeant Reynolds Community College in Richmond, Virginia. When not in the kitchen, Lynne spends time with her three grown children and enjoys the beach, home DIY projects, and volunteering.
“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking, you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude.” - Julia Child
Steak and Winter Root Vegetables with Herb Compound Butter
Lemon Blueberry Prosecco Sorbet
Laurie Klein is a Consumer Test Kitchen Specialist at Hamilton Beach who began her career with the Nestlé Test Kitchen. From there, she went on to work as a freelance recipe developer for top organizations, including Good Housekeeping, Kraft, and McCormick & Company. Her passion for food began at home, working alongside her grandmothers, who showed her that imagination is as important as skill. “This is undoubtedly how I perfected my pie crust recipe,” she says. Laurie earned her degree in education from State University of New York at Plattsburgh. She enjoys spending time outdoors walking, hiking, kayaking, and spending time with her family, friends, and pets. She is interested in recycling and is on the Sustainability Committee with Hamilton Beach Brands.
“Cooking well doesn't mean cooking fancy.” - Julia Child
Banana Pudding
Blueberry Cobbler Ice Cream
Peruvian Rotisserie Chicken with Green Sauce
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Pat Schweitzer was the Consumer Test kitchen Manager at Hamilton Beach for many years and retired at the end of 2021.
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