Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've been working in professional kitchens for many years. Typically, when it comes to food preparation, the right tool can reduce an hour-long task into a minutes-long one. Here's a good example: I was preparing 4 pounds of jalapenos for pickling (about 50 peppers). Thinly slicing with a knife, I can work at a pace around 15 seconds per pepper (assuming that's the only task I need to worry about). For 50 peppers, that should take me about 12.5 minutes. With this food processor's slicing attachment and after stemming all my peppers, I can slice literally at a rate of one second per pepper. A 12 minute job just became a one minute job AND my slices are more consistently sized. This extends to pretty much any other product that'll fit in its chute (tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, onion, cabbage, strawberries, potatoes, celery, you get the idea). Industrial standard processors (like Waring or Robot Coup) are prohibitively expensive. Yes, those models are more powerful than cuisinart's and are designed in a way that make repairs possible when you would otherwise have to buy a new machine. We have been using/abusing this exact model at my restaurant everyday for the last two years and counting. The serrated blades have stayed sharp (note: NEVER throw ice in this machine, it WILL ruin the blades. If you want smoothies, buy a blender) and the motor hasn't skipped a beat. Needless to say, the cuisinart can puree and emulsify with the best. The 14 cup capacity is about as big as you can get before you need a much more expensive machine, and has been fine for our needs preparing food for hundreds of people per day. My only gripe in that regards, and the reason for only 4 stars, is that the bowl doesn't match the same quality as the rest of the machine. For home-users, I can't see it ever being a major problem. In a professional kitchen setting, it has two problems: 1. The plastic is prone to cracking especially from the high heats of industrial dishwashers and physical abuse (kitchen workers tend to be aggressive with their tools). 2. The safety lock is tricky to completely clean if food gets in there. Again, not that big of a deal to a home-user, but health-inspectors would prefer to see an NSF certification. All-in-all I love this processor. Extra bowls, blades, and attachments are easy to buy/replace. The motor is a dependable workhorse. Compared to industrial models that cost 5x as much, this guy is a champ. I fully intend to buy another one if mine ever dies. Keep up the good work, Cuisinart!