Can this enormous $700 food processor take you to meal-prep heaven? We tested the Breville Paradice for months to find out

I’ve tested more than a dozen food processors in my career, and the Breville Paradice 16 is both the biggest and most expensive product I’ve ever used. While its $700 price tag is enough to make anyone baulk, it’s practically a built-in sous chef thanks to its ability to slice, dice, chop, and shred ingredients. And with a name like 'Paradice,' Breville promise to turn tiresome meal prep into, well, a slice of paradise.

Still, it’s hard to justify spending so much on a single appliance, even if it does come with two whole boxes worth of attachments. We wanted to see if this high-end model could compete with the best food processors we’ve tested (many of which are a fraction of the price). I’ve used it in my kitchen for several months now, and while I do love its powerful processing abilities, there are a few caveats I think you should know before you go all-in on this food processor.

Specs

First impressions

If you’re expecting this food processor to arrive in a normal-sized package, think again. I was shocked when it showed up on my doorstep – the package was absolutely massive and weighed around 60 pounds. This is because it not only contains the food processor, which is oversized with a 16-cup capacity, but two additional boxes full of attachments.

Each of the plastic containers is the size of a large shoebox, and while they can be stacked, they definitely take up a large chunk of storage space in your kitchen. So if you’re short on space, this might not be the appliance for you.

As you might have guessed, this food processor comes with a lot of attachments. In addition to its regular s-blade for chopping, it has a dough blade, mini blade, and two spindle sizes. Other accessories include an adjustable slicer disc, reversible shredder disc, French fry disc, and a mini bowl for processing in small batches. Of course, it also comes with its namesake Paradice kit, which includes three dicing discs, a dicing distributor, and a dicing gearbox.

Prepping performance

I tested the Paradice 16 Food Processor in my kitchen for several months, using it for all sorts of culinary tasks, including dicing, chopping, slicing, and mixing hummus.

Test 1: Dicing vegetables

One of the main selling points of this high-end food processor is the 'Paradice Kit' which is – you guessed it – used for dicing. It includes three different-sized dicing grids, and I will admit that it’s a bit confusing to set up on the food processor. You have to use a special spindle, the grid, and the grid’s matching blade (again, they’re color-coded to make things a little easier), but there’s also a 'dicing distributor' that I always forget to insert. You also need to be extra careful while handling these ingredients, as the blades are sharp and easy to accidentally touch.

Once it's set up, the dicing grid works in a two part process. The blade creates slices the ingredient as you feed it down the chute, and the slices are then pushed down through the grid to “dice” them. I experimented with this attachment quite a bit, and I’ve found it works best on medium-soft produce like onions and cucumbers. Things like tomatoes often get smushed in the process, while hard ingredients like carrots tend to get jammed in the grid.

When you’re finished dicing, you will need to push any remaining ingredients out of the dicing grid, and there are special 'cleaning caps' to do so. They attach to the underside of the large chute pusher, but I’ve also found you can use them on their own so long as you’re careful.

While the dicing kit is a cool idea, I don’t get much use from it in my daily cooking. There are just too many pieces for it to be practical when I’m dicing up vegetables for dinner. I only find myself reaching for it if I’m prepping large batches of ingredients, such as for holiday meals, as it does make the process faster if you need to chop up produce in bulk.

Test 3: Mixing falafel

To assess this food processor’s ability to chop up ingredients, I used it to make a batch of falafel. I used its regular s-blade in the full-size work jar, adding in all the ingredients, including soaked chickpeas, parsley, garlic, onion, jalapeno, and seasonings.

The food processor only needed around 10 pulses to chop everything up into a perfect consistency, and the ingredients were all even in size. The Paradice made the task look effortless, cutting through the chickpeas with no issues. There were a few larger chunks that stuck to the walls of the jar, but I was able to easily scrape it down using a silicone spatula.

Test 2: Making hummus

You can’t have falafel without hummus, so I used the Paradice to whip up a batch. One of my biggest complaints about big food processors is that they generally can’t make small batches, but the Paradice solves this problem with its “mini bowl,” which slots inside the full-size work jar. When paired with the mini blade and spindle (which are color-coded to make them easy to find), this bowl lets you easily process things like hummus, pesto, or salad dressing.

With the main ingredients in the bowl, I turned on the food processor and poured in olive oil slowly via the chute. The hummus came out extra-smooth with no chunks, and it paired perfectly with my fried falafel.

Ease of use

In terms of its actual controls, the Paradice 16 is similar to many other food processors I’ve used. The bowl twists into place on the motor base, and the control panel has a power button, a start/pause button, and a pulse button — all standard options for a food processor. There are also up and down arrows that let you set a digital timer in 5-second increments. This is a particularly handy option if you need to process ingredients for a certain amount of time.

The lid of the food processor has three pusher sizes to accommodate different ingredients — the biggest option is great for whole potatoes, while the smallest size lets you feed in stalks of celery easily. Plus, the smallest pusher doubles as a liquid measuring cup when you remove its lid.

While the sheer number of attachments that come with this food processor may seem overwhelming, there are a few features that make them a bit easier to use. First, there are cards in the back of each storage box that tell you what each attachment does and how to use it — I find myself referring to them often when I haven’t used the appliance in a while. Second, the attachments are color-coded to help you quickly find which pieces work together.

Ease of cleaning

I hate hand-washing dishes, so I was happy to find that the vast majority of the Paradice’s components can be put in the dishwasher. The blades, disc attachments, spindles, food pushers, and dicing components are top-rack dishwasher safe, making them easy to clean after use — and saving you from having to wash around their sharp blades. Technically, the bowls and lid are dishwasher-friendly, as well, but the brand recommends hand-washing when possible to keep them in good condition.

What do customer reviews say?

The Paradice 16 Food Processor has received generally positive from customers who shelled out the cash to take their meal prep to the next level.

It has a 4.5 star rating on Amazonand the top review is very reassuring for anyone thinking of making the purchase. It says: 'I've owned and used many different food processors over the years, and they all tend to do things 'good enough'. I've had the Paradice 16 for about a week now, and it does everything I have tried 'really well; sliced mushrooms, guacamole, caponata, tapenade, sliced onions, sliced peppers, carrots, cabbage, and shredded cheese with minimal waste compared to other food processors. The motor is really powerful and handles slicing, dicing, and chopping with ease.'

Another said: 'We've had a Cuisinart food processor for something over 20 years. It worked, that's the best I could say about it. This Breville is the food processor that the Cuisinart hopes it becomes when it grows up.' The sentiment is echoed on the Breville website, where users continue to praise its power, ease of use, and versatility.

The only complaints that coms up a few times is a) the attachments can be confusing and b) certain ingredients get stuck in the dicing attachment – two issues that I also experienced during testing.

How does it compare?

If you want the power and capacity of this food processor without all the attachments, you may want to consider the Breville Sous Chef 16, which is the same base unit. The difference is that the Sous Chef doesn’t include the Paradice kit – it has just one box of attachments, including an adjustable slicer, reversible shredding disc, French fries disc, S-blade, dough blade, and mini work bowl. It’s also $200 cheaper than the Paradice 16.

Or, for those with limited kitchen space, you can size down to the Breville Paradice 9. It has a much more compact footprint and a 9-cup capacity, but it still comes with a dicing attachment and variety of other tools. This model is much less expensive at $400, and all of its accessories store right inside the work bowl, making it a better choice for smaller homes.

Should you buy it?

If you’re someone who frequently cooks in large batches and you’re on the hunt for an appliance that will make your life easier, the Breville Paradice 16 Food Processor certainly fits the bill. It has a generous 16-cup capacity that’s ideal for big-batch cooking, and its wide range of attachments make it quick and easy to slice, dice, chop, shred, and much more.

However, if you’re not particularly keen on the dicing kit, you may want to downgrade to the Breville Sous Chef 16 to save some money (and space). It’s the same exact food processor, but it’s $200 less because it doesn’t include the special “Paradice” attachments.