Which Food processor should I get for my daughter?

Hi I want to buy my daughter a food processor that has a small footprint because she has limited worktop space. I would like to get the most powerful one I can that has the usual attachments and a good capacity, but my budget is less than £100. Which ones are best. I have had great use from my Magimix but sadly I cannot afford to pay that much right now.

I had the Breville Hand and stand mixer for a number of years before upgrading to a Severin 3888.
The Breville is a very good mixer for the price, it made cakes, pastry and so on without problem but I suspect it would be underpowered for bread dough. The Stainless steel bowl is rotated by its own motor when used as a stand mixer and the mixer head unclips to be used as a hand mixer.
When I upgraded I kept the hand mixer with the three mixing blades and still use it for egg whites or light mixing.
Breville SHM2 Twin Hand and Stand Mixer

You will have seen the "ping-pong" match going on between the two Ks on these pages. Having read the comments on Kenwood and KitchenAid, I went for the Severin. From my experience, it is an excellent workhorse and the packet included a mincer, glass bowl blender, grater and pasta press - all for £279. So my message is "shop around" and look beyond the obvious choices!!!!

Check out the Bosch food processors with a fairly small footprint. They come with a full set of attachments, cutters, juicer, blender, etc.

I have had a Bosch food processor since 1972 - brilliant piece of machinery! Still in use. Present day Bosch are still very good and no problem getting spare parts on the rare occasions they are needed, e.g. new blender when grandchildren are 'helping' and drop it! Accessories also good. It depends what you want to do with your food processor.
I found this page helpfull recently.
http://www.foodprocessorreviews.co.uk/

I needed a food processor with a small footprint too. I have a large pricey one which I had to put out of the kitchen for lack of space. After much searching/reviews I have got the Kenwood FP225 which is silver grey,(white-FP220) as I did not want to pay a big price yet still have a good sturdy machine. I got mine from Argos at a deal price which I think is still on at the mo', around the £40+ mark, it's normally nearer £50+. It has a small footprint, is powerful, the additions is a blender and a disc that does both slicing & shredding, (clever space saver), & a whisk disk. I have found it excellent and does all the usual things you want, cakes, bread, pastry, & all the vedg. Kenwood also do one similar, the next one up & is £80+. It has nothing different to offer what my model has so why pay more. A lot of course depends on what your daughter wants to make and the quantity of each batch. Good luck in your choice.

Can't tell you which brand to buy, but I can tell you our experience. We had a Magimix 3100 for some years, served us well, but it finally gave up the ghost and was no looking so nice (the plastic was finely scratched all over). My wife decided that she like the look of CA, seemed build like a battleship. However, after it shed some small slivers of its plastic lid, into a salad mix one day, it went back and was changed for another MM. That has now continued to do the job perfectly as the previous... however....

Xmas 2010 saw Pere Noel bring her a Bosch hand processor, which has the usual butterfly chopper in the head, plus a chopping attachment and an egg-beater. For all soup making, she now uses the Bosch, using the MM for salad shredding mainly. Another machine has gone out the door - a CA SoupMaker, really a poorly targeted and limited device - and only the 1960's Kenwood used for pastry and bread. The Bosch processor is an every-day item, the others just occasional. So, if she doesnt have one, and £100 is truly your limit, try looking at the hand processors, there are a lot about. I would suggest you look at the highest wattage motor as the way to decide, as all other things are roughly equal. Our Bosch, MSM 7700, probably no better than any other 750W machine can be found at about £57 on Amazon. She will love you for it. Bosch MSM7700GB Hand Blender, Red

I, like several others, have a sturdy Magimix in my home kitchen, but after many years resisting temptation, I bought a Bamix hand blender! Since then, the Magimix has barely made it out of the cupboard. The domestic Bamix model retails for around the £90 mark and with the three attachments, is capable of pretty much every job that a processor does, with knobs on!
although it takes a slight mind-shift to use it to its full capacity, I can honestly say that I wish I'd given in about five Good Food shows ago! I have been a professional chef since leaving school over 30 years ago and i've tried a great many variations in food processors. (My default budget hand processor was always Braun Multiquick. Powerful, reliable and relatively cheap).

I was dithering about whether to buy a Cuisneart or a Magimix having had a MM in the past and loved it, using it almost daily for donkey's years. But I have very Littke room for any appliances in my new kitchen and was finding it hard to justify the outlayif I would struggle to find space for it in a worktop. (A processor in a cupboard in my view is a toy not a tool bevauseof the hassle of getting it out. Besides, I have very little cupboard space either.)
Then I saw a Bamix stick blender demonstrated on a home shopping t.v. channel doing more or less all a large processor can do, was very tempted and in the end gave in. The one I have is the top-of-the-range model with four blades, a processing attachment and and a dry grinding attachment, so not available at the price you have available. But even the most basic stick blender is a very useful tool indeed: I use it in its basic form more often than I use it with its accessories, so I'm certain your daughter would find it an excellent kitchen helper and all the accessories cab be bought ad add-ons layer, perhaps as birthday or Xmas presents. But strongly suggest the stick blender itself should be the most prestigious you can afford. (I once owns a mid-price stick blender which did not do the job anything like as well as my current Bamix and stopped working altogether within about three years.) so, if you can, I'd buy the highest level of Bamix stick blender. That way your daughter should have a reliable tool for life, with the flexibility to expand it into something very close to a full food processor in due course, but I won't take up a greedy amount of space in her kitchen.

I disagree. The Bamix is 160W, 15000rpm, costs around £100. The Bosch is 750W, 20000rpm, and costs about £50. I am sure there are other marques, which, like Bosch, offer great value for money. I suppose it is rather like comparing a Rolex (Swiss and expensive) which can never tell the exact time, with a modern quartz radio-controlled watch, which keeps perfect time. One is prestigious and expensive the other is utilitarian and good value for money. Simple research with Google will turn up user reviews giving `bad marks' to both the Bamix and the Bosch - as well as much praise. It would be interesting to read a truly impartial in-depth comparative testing by `Which' or similar consumer body. In the meantime, I suggest that anyone should look at price, power and specification generally.

Hmm, to a large extent I agree in principle with both Septimus and Aileen. But I've never owned either of the machines mentioned (Bamix, Bosch).

One of the features I find most important is controllability.

I might summarise a wish list like this: a decent speed control, attachments that actually work, workplace comfort (ergonomic, quiet, low vibration, light weight, cool running, etc), and for hand-held a nice balance in the hand. Hence some of my less-than-favourable comments on a few Vine items.

For hand-held we use an ancient Kenwood A177 hand mixer (120W) and a slightly younger Moulinex R30 Turbomix whizzer (170W). Neither is brilliant in all respects (especially in speed control when compared with my Bosch PSB1010 power drill), but each is good for its application, and they share a small drawer with all their accessories. And they have survived, outliving several more modern similar items!

But neither of these can compare with a decent big processor or stand mixer if needed to work on anything much more than a couple of portions.

Our Cusisinart Soupmaker was, for us, a failure and has been relegated to the far corner of a storeroom. It will possibly be offered on eBay. It has a maximum capacity for soup of 1.4L. With a nice big saucepan plus a stick blender (US term which best describes) we will typically make 3L or 4L and freeze the excess for the day using freezer bags in ally foil trays, the resulting bricks stack nicely in the soup section of the freezer. As for making mayo. the stick blender has a conventional blender beaten all ends up - no need to carefully drizzle, just shove everything into a cylindrical container and stick-blend for 10-20 seconds !

Never owned a Bosch - or a Rolex! - but price for price I'm very happy with my Bamix compared to the top-of-the-range food processor I was considering. Don't know the exact variety of Bamix I own, but it cost well over the £100 mark, and then a bit, but that included a food processor attachment, extra blades, a dry grinder and a couple of containers with lids (but it wasn't the Gordon Ramsay one: I don't pay good money just for a rich man's expensive endorsement!). But I was happy to pay a premium knowing that the brand is widely used all over the world in professional kitchens and that existing domestic users often say theirs has lasted for two generations. I've no way of knowing if it will turn out to be as good value yet as I've only had it for about a year but if it doesn't last for at least 15 - 20 years I will be disappointed. If it only lasts the two or three years my mid-priced stick blender - without the blades and accessories - lasted I will be very cheesed off. But then I was very cheesed off that the mid-priced one fell apart so soon. Price-for-price it was the mid-range one that seemed like a rip-off to me. It never worked that well even at the start. I've just made some borsch with my Bamix and it liquidised everything in seconds where my old stand-alone, good-brand liquidiser, which also fell apart within three or four years, would have taken much longer to do the job, and left some whole bits at the bottom anyway. The only slight irritation I have is thar you need to remember to check the blending blade from time to time if processing fibrous vegetables as bits can get stuck in the spaces in the blade and stop it working fully. But the really big plus point for me is the tiny space it needs on my already crowded worktop compared to the food processors I was contemplating buying. I loved my old Magimix until it eventually died of over-work after well over ten years hard graft for a family of seven but I just don't have that space available these days what with the Actifry (love it!), the steamer, the juice extractor, etc. So many gadgets these days! Great foodie toys! So I'd still say for anyone short of space, like the daughter of the original enquirer, a good stick blender for the worktop, with processing accessories that can live in a cupboard when not used, is the best solution. Which stick blender is the best choice depends as much on personal preference as price, but I'd always advise on any purchase at all to by the most expensive, in the expectation of a lifetime's use, or the cheapest, in the expectation that it will do for a while, and is a good way to find out if you would even use such a gadget, but if you like how it works and find yourself using it a lot, then you'll have to throw it away and replace it within a fairly short time, possibly when you are a little more flush. It was my mid-range one - a gift - that failed to satisfy either of these criteria.

I have a Braun food processor they were 130 but now are down to £90. It's really small and powerful,it has really useful attachments and it's great because it does not take a lot is space,easy to clean and store. Braun multi quick 5or 7.

I don't know if you have sorted out the present yet, but there is another wonder machine which doesn't take up much space on the worktop. It is the Tefal or SEB 'Le Saucier'. It is a bit like the Actifry (same stables) but is basically a heated saucepan with an integrated stirrer. Everyone who has one swears by them, but they are a bit like hen's teeth to find. I am not sure if they are available in UK, but I saw one on eBay recently for about £50.

Kenwood FP731 Multi Pro Food Processor Never failed me and well inside the budget

Hi Carol, It's not a food processor as such but having seen the excellent reviews in Good Food Magazine for a Kenwood set, I asked Father Christmas for one, and I'm absolutely thrilled to bits with it! Every piece is of high and sturdy quality, works beautifully, and is so easy to clean afterwards. It is listed as Kenwood Triblade HB724 and costs approx. £60 - though you'd think it cost far more! It fits neatly into a small drawer so takes up very little surface or storage space. I can't recommend this highly enough as it does just about everything I need it to do and more. A really great kitchen buy!

But you can't do slicing and dicing and the general things you see Jamie Oliver doing with a full siz food processor if you are going to opt for a hand blender, Suzy. A Hand blender would be at least third on my list of cooking machines, after the Kenwood Multi Pro (above)for about £65, then the kenwood Chef Classic for another £150, and way down would be a hand blender.

That's very true C. R.,
But I'm still thrilled to bits with it! I've shopped around and seen a lot of others that were far dearer, had far less kit and often were very poor quality, and just thought that it was worth a mention in case anyone else was looking around.
x Best Wishes - suzy sunshine7 x

I agree - the Kenwood stuff is certainly very good quality and value Suzy.

[Deleted by the author on 21 Feb 2012 18:10:02 GMT]

Sorry, C.R.D. but you are mistaken.
My Bamix stick blender came with an attachment which processes - blade identical to a food processor one and very, very sharp - as well as grates and slices. The attachment isn't as large as a full-sized processor but is certainly large enough to make, say coleslaw (using the grating and slicing blades) equivalent to about one and half - or more - commercial packs. And if I want more I just tip into a bowl and make another batch. On that basis it is large enough for any domestic use. In addition it also came with a wet and dry grinder for coffee, spices etc., which is powerfull enough to turn granulated sugar into icing sugar in seconds. So the only thing my Bamix stick blender can't do that a great big, space-hungry food processor can do is cut chips or juliennes, or more than one thickness of slicing or grating. But on the pls side it has a tiny footprint and the processor and grinder attachments tuck away tidily in a cupboard or even drawer. Of course not all stick blenders have these options, but they can be added to any Bamix, even the more modestly priced ones, though they are not, I admit, as cheap as a processor. My Bamix with stand, four blades, three jugs, processor with blade, grater and slicer, and the grinder cost me about £250 from a tv shopping channel, but I took the option of buying in four installments. Not cheap, and not as cheap as a mid-range processor, but comparable in cost to the top-of-the-range processors I was considering at the time (Digression: you've owned a Magmix and a, say, Kenwood - inherited, in my case - only a Magimix, or maybe a Cuisinart, will do, and they last many years longer than the mid-range machines, so well worth it financially if you can invest the initial outlay.) But if you can run to Bamix prices for a stick blender you can have all the functionality of a full-sized processor with minimal space requirements.

OOOooops! ...But I still think the Kenwood FP731 Multi Pro Food Processor at £65 is hard to beat for a full size 3 litre processor. Kenwood FP731 Multi Pro Food Processor

I had a really good Kenwood FP for 25 years or so ... finally plastic cracked, things rusted ... it died. I replaced it with a Magimix ... wonderful ... bigger, better, sharper, etc. HOWEVER ... before that I also acquired a powerful Bosch hand-held stick ... which as well as being brilliant for pureeing soups in the pan you made it in, it is superb for moderate quantities of breadcrumbs, herb-chopping etc. Maybe it's a luxury ... but having both is great ... neither is "THE ONE SOLUTION" ... but both great tools ...

Aileen, I think you are the one who has not really got the message. Your list of stuff reads like a whole drawerfull of attachments. Our stick processor comes with a 4 bladed chopping end, one measuring mixing flask, a whisk and one two-bladed chopping attachment. These attachments are taking extra space, and are relegated to a less-useful corner of the kitchen. When serious slicing and chopping is required, the FP has to come out. Since there are some things which the stick processor is really not the right thing, we all end up with a FP, but it is the SP which does 80-90% of the jobs, with the attendant minimising of the washing-up.
Incidentally, when we bought out Kenwood Chef years ago, we bought the juice extractor, centrifuge (also for juice but differently), potato peeler, cream maker, meat mincer, sausage filler, coffee grinder, blender... I think I have covered it all. The KC is up on a shelf in the garage. Being built like a battleship, it is still perfectly sound - but oh, so tedious to use !! If the KC had gone wonky, all those attachments wouldn't work with the current generation of Kenwood Chef derivatives. Maybe, in 20 years time, your Bamix bits will be incompatible with the 2032 Bamix? Have you never heard of the term 'built-in obselescence'?
One last thing with which I take exception - your repeated assumptions that 1) relatively lower priced products are intrinsically inferior in build quality and 2) that paying over the odds for things, for 'the brand', will automatically guarantee getting the best. I simply disagree.

Kenwood Chef. It will last for years and the range of accessories is extensive. Bought mine on Amazon.