2020 update: I posted a video review of this product. Click here to view.
When you first get a new toy, you can get quite giddy about it. You’ll use every feature, you’ll tell all your friends about it, you’ll use it non-stop for two weeks.
But do you keep using it? That’s the trick, isn’t it. Kitchen gadgets are notorious for gathering dust after the initial excited flurry, leading to an elephant’s graveyard pockmarked with bread makers, ice cream machines and electric spaghetti forks. Food mixers can be really bad for it. Will this suffer the same fate?
I received my (deep breath) Sage by Heston Blumenthal Kitchen Wizz Pro food processor (and exhale) in August 2013 and I was very positive. Here’s what I said last year: “It’s fair to say I’m besotted with it and it’s one of the best kitchen gadgets I’ve ever used. Ask everyone to give you vouchers for birthday and Christmas and save up for one. It’s superb.”
One year on, does it still get used? Or is it resigned to a dingy corner of my loft?
What’s good about the Kitchen Wizz Pro?
- Wide range of blades. There’s a tool here for every job. The variable slicer blade is my favourite: most processors give you two blades of different thicknesses but this one has a genius disc with a variable dial on so you can get your ingredients sliced to the millimetre from 0.5mm to 8mm (very Heston).
And your regular food processor blade has 4 blades on it, rather than the usual two. And yes, I’ve sliced my finger open on it, so I testify that it was sharp. Mrs. Spud swears by the dough blade for making cake mixtures.
- Very stable. It’s weight ensures it won’t go walking off the countertop.
- Tremendously powerful. Previous mixers and processors I’ve had can get jammed on a swede. The Kitchen Wizz pro has a little chuckle as it blitzes it. FYI the motor is 2000 watt with a 25 (!) year guarantee.
- Very fast. Cuts down many chopping / grating / blending kitchen jobs to almost nothing.
- Large hopper. This is one of those things you don’t realise you need until you use it, then all food processors seem inadequate in comparison. Save time slicing veg into pieces before you process – because at 14cm wide it allows you to chuck in say, 4 or 5 carrots side by side. Or 2 potatoes. Genius.
- Smaller mixing bowl accessory. Smaller items, say making a garlic and ginger paste, can rattle around a large bowl and not get mixed efficiently. Having a smaller inset bowl option gets this job done.
- Smart appearance. As I commented last year the brushed chrome and greys are quite masculine, but you can’t deny it’s a classy look.
- Cleanup. Nearly all of it can go in the dishwasher, so fire and forget.
- Quiet. Given the power, it’s surprisingly quiet.
What’s not so good about the Kitchen Wizz Pro?
- Lack of variable speed. You get cyclone or stop. There’s your two speeds. You can pulse but it’s not the same as building up to F-5 speeds. There are occasions when you want to ratchet down to a lower speed to add more items.
- Eats cupboard space. This is true of all appliances of this type, but this one has your base unit, your 2.5L mixing bowl and your box of blades. In my kitchen they are spread over three cupboards to fit them all in.
- Not all blades work that well. The plastic blades let the side down. This ’emulsifying’ disc – a piece of corrugated plastic – seems to do nothing. I’ve tried it whisking egg whites and the disc just spins through them merrily doing nothing (and yes, I made sure the bowl was spotlessly clean). Same with whipping cream, it just kinda pushes it around without thickening. And the dough blade is alright (see note above) but for bread not a patch on a proper dough hook from an overhead mixer. Because the plastic blade sits at the bottom it shoves at the dough sitting at the base of the bowl.
- It’s heavy. It needs to be, to stop it hurling itself out of the window when you switch it on. But this could be limiting for some people as the thing does weigh a ton.
- The price. It’s £399 (RRP) and I can’t ignore that. It’s not at the cheap end of the spectrum – but none of the Sage by Heston range are.
Is the Kitchen Wizz Pro Food Processor worth it?
See that last point in the negatives? Go back and read it.
Yeah, so the RRP is £399. It’s a lot of dosh. But when it comes to a gadget like this, I don’t see the point in buying the Tesco Value food processor. It’s got to work hard, and replace a whole bunch of tools in your kitchen, and save you time to earn it’s keep.
And if you’ve decided to get yourself a food processor, you’ll be looking at the alternatives and some will be similar in price, and some much cheaper. But the sheer power of this model, along with it’s wide range of tools (even if not all of them are perfect), plus the other features make it the perfect kitchen accessory. It is absolutely worth it.
I bust mine out at least once a week, sometimes more often, whenever I have a bunch of chopping to do on a weeknight for a casserole, pie or stir fry. Or to pull together pastry. Or to grate stuff for coleslaw. Or blitz onion, garlic and ginger for a puree.
If you are after a proper kitchen food processor, that can take on a load of dull jobs, this is a very serious contender. My advice is as before: ask for vouchers for birthdays, Christmas, whatever and put it towards this bad boy.
Any other options?
- For another view of the Kitchen Wizz Pro food processor, check out Ren’s review. Very interesting.
- Jo’s Kitchen recently road-tested the Magimix CS 4200 XL. See what she thought.
- Helen’s story with Magimix is an encounter with poor customer service.
- Checking out the Russell Hobbs Illumina range? Camilla’s chilled picante soup has the low down.
The Kitchen Wizz Pro is available from Amazon.
