This food processor slices better than a chef's knife
Cut down on prep time with a machine that will do the work for you.
Credit:
Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar
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If you spend any amount of time cooking, a good food processor can be an absolute godsend. Capable of dicing, slicing, grinding, kneading, and more with ease, these devices can transform the more drudging aspects of food prep into an absolute pleasure. The only downside is you’ll lose the arm exercise that preparing a meal without a food processor provides.
A good food processor doesn’t come cheap, though, and they have a reputation for being overly expensive. After all, why spend $300 on an appliance when a good chef’s knife will do most of the work for less money? Fortunately, though, the Cuisinart 14-Cup Food Processor (DFP-14BCNY) is extremely affordable and blew away the competition in our testing of the best food processors, emerging as the best we’ve tested.
How easy is it to use the Cuisinart DFP-14BCNY?
The base of the Cuisinart DFP-14BCNY houses a powerful 720-watt motor, which is strong enough to handle pretty much everything you throw at it, or in it. With a 14-cup capacity, it’s large enough to feed even the hungriest of families. It’s not just the bowl that’s large, the feed tube is wide enough to manage a large whole potato.
Having such a wide feed tube means less time cutting up veggies and fruit, which reduces food prep time. There’s also a smaller pusher with a small hole in its base that slots into the larger one to slowly pour in oil for emulsification. Along with the base, jug, lid, and chute, the Cuisinart comes with a slicing disc, a shredding disc, and a chopping blade that also acts as a dough hook.
Is it attractive enough to leave out on the counter?
This Cuisinart food processor looks sleek on a counter.
There’s a restrained simplicity to the Cuisinart’s design that we find quite appealing. It may look a little nondescript when placed beside the gorgeous Breville BFP800XL and it lacks the boldness of the KitchenAid KFP1466ER, but its minimalist appearance means that it fits in most kitchens regardless of the decor.
The base is black plastic housed in a band of brushed stainless steel. The whole device has a very low profile, so it's sturdy and not likely to tip over when accidentally bumped by a busy cook.
There’s no getting around the fact that the Cuisinart is large, but it is by no means bulky and should have no trouble fitting under most counters. With a total weight of 18 pounds, its fairly heavy, but the weight ensures that it doesn’t walk the length of your kitchen counter during operation.
How does it perform?
A food processor can make light work of chopping vegetables.
Here’s how the Cuisinart DFP-14BCNY did in our barrage of lab tests handling everything from cheese to nuts.
Chopping
The Cuisinart did an excellent job chopping food. We tested the processor by chopping onions and parsley using the provided chopping blade on both the Pulse and Continuous settings. In both cases, the pieces were all very evenly cut with no visibly ragged edges.
Grinding
The Cuisinart also did an incredible job of grinding up almonds. Using the chopping blade and the Pulse setting we were able to easily grind up the nuts into a fine and evenly ground powder.
Slicing
The Cuisinart excelled at slicing fruit and vegetables. Using the provided 4mm slicing disk, we easily sliced through potatoes and tomatoes. The resulting slices were almost uniform and despite their relative softness, the tomatoes were very clean cut.
Kneading
Yet again, the Cuisinart did an excellent job of kneading dough. The machine kept stable during the process and the dough emerged as a perfectly elastic ball once the cycle was complete.
Shredding
This is the only area were the Cuisinart fell short, though most food processors struggle to evenly and consistently shred cheese. The resulting grated cheddar was by no means unusable, but it is best used hidden between two slices of bread.
What we like
Chop onions in no time, with no tears.
Performance is strong across the board
The Cuisinart excels in (almost) every food-processing task. Chopping, slicing, and kneading performance are uniformly excellent.
It’s quiet
Food processors can be loud, but the Cuisinart only emits a soft purr during operation so it won’t drown out your favorite cooking playlist.
Clean-up is a breeze
All the components, aside from the base, are dishwasher safe.
The controls are simple and intuitive
With only two settings, the Cuisinart isn’t exactly feature-rich, but we appreciated the simplicity of the controls and ease of operation. It’s controlled by just two lever-like buttons. The button on the left turns the motor on and the button on the right turns it off. The right button can also be used to pulse the motor.
It’s affordable
Food processors can be pricey, and some can cost upwards of $300. Considering how well it performed the Cuisinart’s reasonable MSRP of $199 is an absolute bargain. We’ve also seen it available online for as little as $150.
What we don’t like
Shredding skills aren’t up to par
The Cuisinart struggled to shred cheese evenly, a let-down on an otherwise stellar performance record.
Some design choices aren’t user-friendly
The chute is at the rear of the bowl, which can make it pretty awkward to use, especially if it’s located under certain cabinets. As for the discs, the ones used for shredding and slicing are not adjustable, and clicking them into the stem can be tricky.
What owners say
The Cuisinart DFP-14BCNY has thousands of user reviews, with an average of 4 to 4.5 stars on each major retailer site. Customers are complimentary of its efficiency, capacity, and quiet operation. Many customers also describe it as easy to clean. The few negative reviews we found describe difficulties in attaching the discs to the stem and the locking mechanism of the bowl.
Should you buy this?
The Cuisinart DFP-14BCNY is the best food processor on the market today, excelling in the all-important areas of chopping, slicing, grinding, and kneading. Its middling shredding performance is disappointing, but we’ve seen similar results from most food processors we’ve tested to date.
Easy-to-use, easy-to-clean, quiet, and most importantly affordable, the Cuisinart DFP-14BCNY is the food processor to beat.
But if you're not constantly turning to your food processor, you might be interested in a hand blender with a food processor attachment, or investing in a high-powered blender like a Vitamix that can also chop.
Still interested in shopping around? Check out our list of all the best food processors on the market.
