By contrast, our upgrade pick, the Breville Sous Chef 16 Pro, comes with a plethora of disks and accessories, requiring more storage space. At only 15 inches tall, the Cuisinart should also fit under most cupboards. We like its slightly retro, sleek design, and the base is also available in several colors (each of which has a different model number).
The Cuisinart Complete Chef chops, slices, and cooks food all in one 18-cup stainless steel bowl (it comes with attachments and built-in recipes for cooking things like risotto or beef stew). We were eager to see how it would compare to the Thermomix (a wildly expensive blender that cooks, and which has something of a cult following outside of the US), but we weren’t able to get it to work. We probably just got a lemon, but that doesn’t bode well for a $700 appliance (at the time of this publishing). An error consistently appeared on the screen each time we attempted to run it, even when the correct lid and blade attachment were in place. The customer service representative we spoke to wasn’t able to offer much guidance since they weren’t familiar with the model (they even confessed it doesn’t sell often). In terms of pure performance, the Breville Sous Chef 16 Pro was hands down the best food processor we tested.
A 14-cup food processor, like the Custom 14™ 14 Cup Food Processor, is just right for families or large gatherings. Or, if it’s just you making small batches, a compact option like the Elemental 4-Cup Chopper/Grinder is perfect for simple chopping, grinding or puréeing. We have a wide range of sizes available, including 4, 8, 11, 12, 13, and 14-cup work bowls. The Cuisinart Elemental Four-Cup Chopper performs the same jobs as a clunky food processor, without occupying all of your precious countertop space. Weighing 3.3-pounds and measuring just over 7-inches wide, it’s perfect for small kitchens.
Michael Sullivan is a senior staff writer at Wirecutter and has covered food processors since 2016. He’s spent dozens of hours shredding cheese, chopping vegetables, mixing doughs, and whipping up mayonnaise for this guide. This guide builds on work by Wirecutter deputy editor Christine Cyr Clisset.
They’re useful for rough chopping nuts or vegetables, and particularly good for making salsa. They’re great for rough chopping, just like the manual choppers, but they can also be used for making small amounts cuisinart toa60 of purees. They’re easier to use than manual choppers, since you just press a button to pulse or puree. With all choppers, the results are best if larger foods, like onions, are first cut into pieces.
This mini, 3.5-cup processor is too small for making bread dough or coleslaw, but it’s the ideal size for chopping one onion or making small batches of mayo or vinaigrette. There’s no need to worry about any shards of steel ending up in your food and you won’t have to replace your blade for a long time because they can really withstand the test of time. Great for prepping ahead, this compact chopper has a 3/4-cup capacity, although the chopper cup has measurement marks up to one cup so you can measure ingredients without needing a separate measuring cup. Even better, there’s a cover for the cup, so foods can be prepped ahead and stored in the same container. A little spoon hangs on the side of the chopper, so you can use it to scoop out a little of the chopped item or to scrape all of it out and into your pot or bowl.
That said, if you only use a food processor occasionally, the Breville’s high cost probably outweighs its benefits. And given that this processor is huge—more than 18 inches tall and nearly 20 pounds—you’ll need a big counter to keep it on. Between your food chopper and your bench scraper, you will save a lot of cuisinart toaster costco time with ingredient prep, and you won’t have to worry about chopped food scattered all over your kitchen. These choppers are usually operated by a cutting grid, and the food is chopped into a plastic lid or container. They are ideal for cutting vegetables like onions, peppers, carrots, celery, and mushrooms.
Another staffer (who admitted to being a little rough on her machine) replaced her Cuisinart with a new one after 11 years of use. Meanwhile, senior kitchen and appliance editor Marguerite Preston still uses a decades-old Cuisinart Custom 14 that she inherited from her parents. The Cuisinart’s slicing disk isn’t adjustable like the Breville Sous Chef’s slicing disk, which has multiple settings, similar to a mandoline. But you can buy additional slicing disks through Cuisinart if you want them.
Never submerge the base of a food processor in water; only wipe it down with a damp cloth or sponge. The size of the feed tubes in the lid (used to insert potatoes, carrots, or other hunks of food to be sliced or shredded) also makes a difference. Most full-size processors come with a wide feed tube that’s fitted with a food presser, which has a narrower feed tube (with its own presser) in the center. The larger tube should be big enough to easily fit a block of cheese or a potato, so you don’t have to spend time cutting food into pieces that are small enough to fit. But the smaller tube needs to be narrow enough to keep carrots and other thin items upright during slicing. If you’re typically just cooking for yourself and one other person, you’re probably fine to opt for a smaller, manual 1-cup chopper.