In November 2007 I visited the BBC Good Food Show in London with my friend Robyn. We had a ball of a time investigating all the food products available and let me tell you there were thousands of them all housed under one massive roof at The Olympia Exhibition Centre. One gadget I immediately fell in love with was this Onion Chopper/Dicer. Whether it’s for stir frying or simple steaming I like most of my vegetables julienned but alas I have to do all the chopping by hand which is quite time consuming and involved. At last I had my solution!
If anyone wondered whether I’ve tried a mandolin slicer, the answer yes and I failed to be impressed. It’s clunky to work with not to mention dangerous. Anyway, I used my great chopper very regularly but after a few months things started going wrong…
Firstly, I must admit, if you get this gadget to work, it’s a breeze to use and the julienned vegetables come out just perfect. As time passed I had to put smaller and smaller pieces of vegetable on it because the grid of “blades” were getting blunt. With knives there’s the easy solution just to sharpen them but with this kitchen toy there is no alternative. When it’s blunt, it’s kaput, ready for the trash can. (I was disappointed but carried on using it anyway to get the most for out of it.) With softer vegetables than carrots or onions, for example red peppers, the blades would go through until the very end and get stuck on the tough(ish) skin. In the end I had to bang it on the kitchen top giving Essex boys a good run for their money on weekends when they bumble about in their garages.
The plastic body is not hard wearing and it eventually cracked as it bent as I got my daily workout chopping my veggies. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when the actual blades bent out of shape, making it completely unusable. Seriously, are there no more quality products out there?
Conclusion
A dream gadget to use in the short term but in the long run avoid like the plague. With that much money you can rather spend it on a good quality knife that will last you a lifetime.
P.S. Although it says Genius on the product, it’s not the specific company I’m targeting but simply the generic design, so please don’t sue me. 
Well it sure looks cool…if only it was more durable.
I have had rotten luck with kitchen gadgets – they are now banned from the house unless I have personal recommendations in triplicate
Food Hunter: It was cool… for like 5 seconds.
Jeanne: I love browsing through the kitchen gadgter section at the shops but I tend to leave with nothing because there is actually very little you need to get the job done in the kitchen.
I disagree!!… I’ve had mine for three years now!… still very sharp, and works a dream.
The first one was given to me as a gift and I loved it so bought a second one. I had a problem with the larger blade bending and threw it away, should have been made stronger. Both my smaller blades still work great.