For many years now, the Magimix has reigned supreme within the world of food processors. The rather simple, though wonderfully elegant device likely continues to be popular because of the well-known fact that each and every device is still handmade in a French factory in the former mining centre of Montceau-les-Mines, 70 miles southwest of Dijon.
However, another brand threatens to topple the French manufacturer’s throne, and it’s the slightly more affordable, equally functional American appliance brand Cuisinart. Across the pond, Cuisinart has become synonymous with the words ‘food processor’ – so we put the crown jewel of their blitzing and mixing devices to the test: the Cuisinart 3L Expert Prep Pro.
Design
When it comes to design, there’s not much that sets the Cuisinart Prep Pro apart from other food processors on the market – which is certainly no bad thing. It’s perfectly compact, sleek and minimal, featuring just four buttons labelled ‘high’, ‘low’, ‘off’ and ‘pulse’ for ease of use (one more than a Magimix, which only has ‘off’, ‘auto’ and ‘pulse’).
At under £300, I also really appreciated the fact that the dedicated accessories (of which there are almost too many, but more on that later) were housed in neat little storage boxes. The main, quotidien blades and discs arrive in a semi-cylindrical transparent case with a handy lock mechanism, while the more heavy-duty slicing discs are stored separately in a container not too dissimilar from a CD case. The machine and all of its accessories incorporate a lot of moving parts.
Another feature I greatly appreciated is the miniature suction cups which are attached to the base of the machine. Not only does this prevent the Prep Pro from toppling over when usig high speed, but it also ensures the device stays put on its dedicated shelf without knocking into my other pots and pans.
User-friendliness
In theory, the Prep Pro is incredibly user-friendly. In practice, it takes a few tries to understand which pieces need to go where – even with the lengthy included instructions – before mastering the process.
After some fiddling around, the device feels far simpler to use, so I’d recommend getting to grips with the machine before incorporating it into a stressful dinner party plan. Even after practice, you’ll likely make some mistakes when it comes to securing the bowl before turning on the machine, and other little quirks like understanding which lid fits where.
Because of the fact that the Prep Pro comes with two different-sized mixing bowls, using the smaller, 0.95L one can be a confusing task. It has to be used inside of its larger companion (a decently sized 3L work bowl), and the main mixing blade can only be attached with the help of a blade adaptor. This makes for quite a lot of washing up, even if you’re only blitzing under 900ml worth of ingredients – but it certainly makes for lighter, safer, speedier and more uniform food prep.
Functionality
Aside from the intricate puzzle that is putting together the Prep Pro for the first time, I had absolutely no qualms about its functionality. If anything, the device whizzed together my feta salad dressing so quickly that I was borderline disappointed that I didn’t get to use the Prep Pro for longer.
I also really enjoyed that I could remove the protective push spout to slowly add more oil to my dressing, which ensured it reached a perfectly creamy and whipped consistency. The device came with a handy flexible spatula, which then made scraping the dressing out of the smaller 0.95L bowl incredibly easy.
The other accessory I was excited to try out was the dicing attachment. Starting with an onion, the required manoeuvre wasn’t too dissimilar to using a juicer.
After placing the dicing disc in the larger bowl with the help of the universal adapter mechanism followed by the slicing mechanism, I placed the lid on and removed the feed tube to pop in my onion, pressing down slowly with the feed tube until the allium was fully diced. To my surprise, it did indeed produce perfectly uniform cubes – far better than I could’ve chopped myself. Though it did make a mess of the softer outer layers, it was nothing that the dedicated attachment for removing excess diced materials couldn’t solve.
Accessories
When it comes to the whopping nine other accessories included in the Prep Pro kit (13 accessories in total), I’m not sure I’ll ever get around to using every single one – but that’s just me. For instance, I rarely spiralize vegetables. Likewise, I don’t bake bread from scratch, but if I did, it’s good to know that the Prep Pro comes with a dedicated kneading attachment.
Verdict
Cuisinart 3L Expert Prep Pro
From chopping, mixing, slicing, grating, dicing and kneading, to blending, pureeing and spiralizing, the Cuisinart Prep Pro can truly do it all. While the average kitchen doesn’t normally require the sheer number of accessories that the Prep Pro comes with (13 to be exact), the device makes light work of lengthy food preparation for those who tend to plan out their meals for the week.
Perfect for batch-cooking, but a little bit tedious when employed for smaller meals, the Prep Pro is sure to be a welcome addition to the kitchen of a larger family home. What’s more, though you’ll need to make some room in your cupboard to accommodate the device, it’ll replace the need for any manual immersion blenders or smoothie blenders for good.
Buy now £280.00, Cuisinart
