Magimix Cuisine System White

The Magimix is a good machine. It feels very solid and is reasuringly heavy; it does not wander off across the work-surface. The attachments are easy to use, VERY sharp (a few cuts in the washing-up bowl...) and store well by stacking inside the bowls when not in use, and in the supplied accessories box. Extra cutting discs are expensive - around £15 each when you include p&p - and I would recommend the 4 or 6 mm disc to add to the one supplied.

I welcomed the clear and well-illustrated instruction book; particularly useful as I'd never used a food processor before and was anxious not to assemble everything in the wrong way!! The recipe book is also helpful, and encouraged me to have a go at things I had previously considered to be far too fiddly and time-consuming. The small bowl is ideal for making home-made pesto, mayo, salad dressings, chopping nuts, herbs and stuff. The medium bowl is great for small salads, grating cheese and smaller versions of what you can make in the big bowl... which seems to take everything - and with the whisk - makes a wonderful meringue. I could go on. I think the limits of this machine are defined by your imagination. Give it a try; I don't think you'll regret it. So why only 4 stars? Just that the larger size cutting disc would have been the icing on the cake - that it isn't included is a niggle.

* The most useful tool is the large chopping/blending blade and large bowl. Although food processors are not supposed to be as good as blenders for blending food, I haven't noticed a difference (mind you, my blender isn't exactly top-of the-range).

* The smaller chopping blade and bowl is less impressive and it can take a while to get those elusive flying vegetables under that blade.

* The slicing/grating attachment is probably the tool I use the most after the chopping blades. Slices through huge amounts of onions in seconds. Very handy. I haven't tried the grating part of the attachment yet.

* The doughblade is useful and saves a lot of time without any noticeable loss of quality.

* The citrus press is handy but slightly messy to clean. For a while, though we were getting through lots of freshly squeezed citrus juices.

* I have not used the whisking attachment yet, and the medium-sized bowl appears fairly redundant.

All-in-all a great buy (or rather, present) and a great time saver.

So, top tip: don't ever pick up the bowl with the handle!