KitchenAid - 13-Cup Food Processor with Work Bowl - Black Matte

This thing slices and dices. Cleans easy and is a beast. I put some chuck beef and made the best burgers ive had in a while. The caddy which holds all the accessories is a bit tricky so have the manual close by but after a while its not too hard. Just be careful. Its super sharp

We've had (and passed on) multiple food processors from Ninja, KitchenAid, GE and Cuisinart over the past decade and a half, but this one by far impressed us the most right out of the box. While not the most advanced of the bunch as it only offers two speeds and a pulse button, it's easily the most powerful of the half-dozen units we've bought to date and ranks right up at the top for being the MOST easy-to-use, easy-to-clean, and easy-to-store of all the food processors we've ever had. Unlike so many other food processor designs, this one doesn't require any twist-to-seal gyrations to lock down all the parts for duty. The work bowl simply snaps directly onto the motorized main base, and it only fits in place one way to make assembly completely idiot-proof. The work-bowl cover features a 3-in-1 opening and simply pops out of the hinge when opened at the proper angle--insert it back into the handle's hinge slot and it will securely click/clamp shut. There's also a very sturdy lid latch that keeps the cover completely sealed while the unit is in operation. Once you're done, everything snaps apart for exceptionally easy disassembly and cleaning. But the show-stealer is the innovative storage caddy that keeps the upper and lower driver adapters, chopping and kneading blades, adjustable slicing disc and reversible (!!!) fine/medium grating disc all neatly stacked and packaged for storage INSIDE the work bowl when not in use (there's even a plastic storage guide card you can keep with all the accessories so you always know if you've packed everything up properly). This allows you to keep all relevant accessories together with the food processor, so you NEVER have to go hunting for another part in your kitchen drawers or cupboards. Just be aware that the hinged top stores attached the unit with the feed tube facing up...total assembled height is just a hair under 18" which just barely fit under our kitchen cabinets; so, make sure you've got the vertical space to accommodate this unit if you want to store it underneath the cabinets or between some shelves in your own kitchen. Other design features include a thoughtful cord retaining ring built into the bottom that allows you to wind/unwind the cord length as needed. At a minimum, the largest food pusher's insert must be in place above the work bowl's lid (there's a silver guide rod that fits perfectly into a slot behind the feed tube) or the motor will not engage when one of the operating buttons is pressed. This makes it virtually impossible for someone to start up the processor's blades and then try to stick a hand down the large opening in the top of the work bowl. This is a great safety feature, though it will require you to trim down some REALLY large items (apples, potatoes, thick cucumbers, etc.) to feed through the bowl's widest opening--you can't just leave the large food pusher completely off the lid, stick a giant bunch of carrots that hang way out above the opening, and then start grinding away. The stainless chopping blade did an exceptional job at grinding up pecans and walnuts that were PERFECTLY formed and sized for baking in just a few quick pulses without an excess of fine nut dust or powder residue left behind. The reversible grating blade gives you flexibility in food prep without having to keep track of two separate grating discs--definitely a nice feature. The center of the slicing blade meshes with a 5-position adjustment control on the top of the lid--just turn the dial to the left for thinner slices or the right for thicker slices. In operation, this food processor is a MONSTER--we barely had to keep it running for more than a few seconds while it chewed through hard fruits, veggies and nuts...and the 13-cup capacity is one of the largest you can get in a consumer food processor right now. Thankfully, virtually all parts of the food processor are exceptionally easy to clean with large, easy-to-reach corners, divots, recesses and crevices that will make it tough for you to miss any food remnants during cleanup. The one exceedingly minor exception is a very small piece of folded metal on the underside of the slicing disc--it's only a few millimeters wide, but I did have to use a small brush to get some apple pulp out from underneath it because water alone wasn't enough to wash it out. As of this writing, there is also a french fry disc and dicing kit that will fit the KitchenAid 13-cup food processor, but they are not widely available yet though you can order them directly from KitchenAid. We were SO impressed with the performance of this unit that we plan to add those accessories to our stable in the near future and donate our old Cuisinart. Sure, you can definitely find food processors with more programs, buttons, and slicing discs or chopping blades than this one...but the upside here is that this processor simply WORKS, and it works beautifully. The powerful motor will make short work of anything shy of rocks or masonry and the cavernous work bowl gives you enough capacity that you probably won't be needing to empty and refill it that often unless you're planning on processing enough ingredients to operate a food truck. The controls are so simple and straight-forward that you don't have to remember anything special about how to get the results you're after, and it's so thoughtfully designed for easy cleanup and easy storage that using it never really feels like a chore. DEFINITELY RECOMMENDED if you are in the market.

One positive from the global pandemic (at least in my household) is that I have become a better cook over the last two years. I have always been the cook in my house and have a large binder of recipes that I make all the time. Now my wife says that I am more like a chef than a cook (the difference being, I guess, that I actually just make things without necessarily needing a recipe). Part of that journey has involved upping my game when it comes to kitchen tech. I already have a much smaller KitchenAid chopper that I LOVE and use all the time, but it can no longer handle everything I need to prep when I go all out. I used to have a much bigger model years ago, but it was actually too much for me at the time and all the blades and disks just took up too much room on the counter and in the cabinets. This new 13-cup food processor (better in French - robot culinaire), is a gorgeous beast that contains everything in a tidy and sturdy package. Now I have only been able to use this for one meal, and it wasn't my most elaborate, but would have been rather time intensive if I hadn't had this thing. The meal in question was a mighty platter of Irish Nachos for St. Patty's Day! Creating such a feast that my forefathers could have only dreamt of, would have taken hours of time with a knife and would have taken all of my fingers with a mandolin. The KitchenAid made short work of 5lbs of Yukon Gold potatoes. The slicer disk makes it easy to select a thickness (my previous food processor only had one setting), and away it goes! I filled two work bowls to the brim with delicious sliced potatoes in the time it would have taken me to slice maybe two potatoes the old fashioned way. Here is where I did run into a small problem though. I selected the '3' setting (out of a range of 0 - 6) but the slices that I got ranged from paper-thin to potato-plank. This is a problem because having such a wide range of thickness makes for uneven cooking. Now I wanted these chips to be a bit on the thick side so they would hold the toppings and have a proper 'bite' to them but only half of the slices were where I wanted them. The other half were completely useable but I had to segregate them (which took some extra time) to create cooking batches that would all cook at about the same time. I'm still not sure if this was a problem with the cutting disk or how I fed in the potatoes, but either way it added time to may task instead of taking it away. All that being said, the Irish Nachos were a hit, and I did my forefathers proud by sharing the native cuisine of my people. Clean up was super easy but here is where I ran into my other problem with this 13-Cup processor. The instruction guide says that everything should be washed in the upper rack of the dishwasher, but I can not do that with this prep-bowl. My dishwasher is only like 5 years old but the top rack does not have enough depth to hold this bowl and it had to go into the bottom rack. Now I know they say top rack to help prevent damage to pieces but it is going to have to be bottom rack or I'm going to have to hand wash that piece. Piecing everything back together into the storage caddy and back into the work bowl is a cinch and the base of the food processor has a nice cord-wrap underneath to keep that tucked away as well. Everything went back into a nice tidy package that would look just fine on the counter but packed away nicely in the cabinet. While the model that Best Buy carries is the middle one and lacks a few of the accessories of the top model, I think that it is definitely the best unit for the price and has what most people would want in a food processor. I'm going to pick up a few other accessories once KitchenAid makes them available on their site (or Best Buy stocks them), such as the storage lid and the dicing kit, but for right now I'm very happy with this device and it is going to get a lot of use over the years.

So disappointed! This item stained in the dishwasher, it has water marks all over it! For what I paid, it's not worth it. Should have come with the dicing kit. It's a total waste of money and I could have got more features from another company .

Sometimes when you like to cook home made meals you need something extra for processing food. That is where a this large KitchenAid processor comes in. It allows you to make home made dough, sauces, and many other things. One of the first things we tried making in ours was home made meat balls. This specific model comes with many different attachments to help with processing different types of food. One advantage is that they are top rack dishwasher safe so when you are done you can put them right in the dishwasher for easy cleaning. All of the pieces store together inside of the processor which means less clutter inside of your drawers. The opening to add in food is large which makes it really easy to add food and blend together. The only downside to this mixer is that it is extremely tall. When all assembled it barely fits on the counter top under our cabinets. It is not a big deal at the end of the day and the large size just means it is able to fit more inside of it at one time. If you are someone who loves to cook at home and try new things I would highly recommend this food processor. It is high quality and does a great job. I would not expect anything less from KitchenAid.