I was a huge fan of my Cuisinart milk frother, until it just stopped working a few weeks after the warranty ran out. I decided to go for a more budget option if it doesn’t last, so tried the Chef’s Star Premier Automatic Milk Frother. At under $40, it is on par with the other budget options on Amazon, which all look identical with various brand names. Someone in a tea group had linked replacement frothers that work with this model which was a bonus, as you have to remove them to clean it which means they can get lost or damaged. So having affordable replacement parts is a plus.
The Chef’s Star milk frother has four options. Warmed dense foam, warmed airy foam, cool foam or heated milk. For all but heated milk, you add around half a cup of milk or non dairy alternative to make one cup of foamed milk. I would love to buy one that can do more at once for two large latte mugs, but honestly, the reviews on even the expensive two cup ones are not great.
I tried it out with the dense foam option and it gave me thicker foam that I was used to with my Cuisinart Tazzaccino. One of the things I do like about the Cuisinart was the nonstick scoop to help get the foam out and the magnetic attachments. But hey, budget option.
How Thick is the Foam From the Chef’s Star Milk Frother?
Depending on the milk used, you do get a little to half the jug of warmed milk at the bottom of the Chef’s Star milk frother with foam on top. The foam itself is thick and dense using the first option. Using the light airy foam option, you get less unfrothed milk but I find the foam will “bubble” when poured onto tea and you lose around the same amount.
A metal spoon can scratch the non stick coating, so get a silicone/plastic one to use. Not all of the foam pours out easily and it is a waste of good latte foam.
Cleaning the Chef’s Star Milk Frother
As much as I love tea lattes, cleaning a milk frother is no fun. The Chef’s Star is fairly easy to clean but you can’t just rinse it as shown above. The milk is heated at the base and sticks. To clean it, gently pull the frothing attachment off the stand and clean. Then wipe the inside with a non stick pad or cloth.
While fun to drink your latte right away, it gets worse to clean if you leave it. So wipe it down right away before the milk really sticks. It tends to stick more under the frothing attachment so make sure you remove it when cleaning.
Chef’s Star Milk Frother Review & Overview
There are not many downsides to the Chef’s Star milk frother. It does the job for less than half of what I paid for my Cuisinart model. Sure, it is a little more work to clean as the attachment needs to be gently removed rather than just stuck on with a magnet, but in turn, I can get replacement attachments for around $2 each. It would be nice to have a two cup model though.
The pros include different densities of foam although I have pretty much been using dense foam since I got it. I have tried a few non dairy alternatives and all foamed to some extent. Not always as densely as regular milk, but they do foam. Plus, it was under $40 when I bought it which is the cheapest I could find. Although the Stokes/ThinkKitchen frother went on sale for $30 shortly after mine arrived.
I have reviews coming on the best types of non dairy alternatives that froth. If you want one reviewed, let me know!
Ooh, I can’t wait to see reviews of non-dairy alternatives’ frothability! I recently started making lattes with almond milk in my Cuisinart foamer, or my Oster latte machine. So far so good, but I’d love to see which non-dairy alternatives foam best, in particular unsweetened versions if possible!