The Kenwood Gourmet FC100 electric food cutter takes just a few simple (yet dull) kitchen tasks--namely cutting, slicing, shredding and grating--and makes them exceedingly quick, simple and painless. What makes this machine special is the fact that it sticks to these four basic but essential functions without trying to get too clever and do 50 other things at the same time. The result is a kitchen tool that's compact, efficient and well-designed. And unlike many of the other wonderful tools that we have in our kitchens today, it really is a timesaver, particularly when performing tasks such as grating cheese or slicing raw carrots for a salad.
The cutter itself comes in four main sections. The main body of the machine is a compact motor-unit that includes built-in cable storage (nice and tidy) and is small enough to easily stow away when you're finished. Next there is a feeder unit into which you slot one of the three blades included for different cutting tasks. Food is pushed into position for cutting with a closely fitting prodder much like you would find on a traditional food-processor. Chopped, sliced or grated food then spills directly out of the front of the machine onto a waiting plate or into a bowl (not included). A spatula is provided to assist in the removal of excess food from the blade once you have finished chopping.
The whole unit is exceptionally well-designed and there are no unhygienic food-traps. With the exception of the main motor unit (which never comes into direct contact with the food you are chopping) everything can be popped straight onto the top shelf of the dishwasher for cleaning and won't take up excessive amounts of space.
The machine does have a couple of drawbacks, including the fact that some softer ingredients (eg: apples or pears) can become slightly mushy as they are chopped (firming them for a short while in the freezer is one solution to this problem). Also, the position of the on/off switch at the rear of the unit can be awkward to use.
Overall, however, the Kenwood Gourmet FC100 is a great tool for cutting preparation time for a whole range of foodstuffs and beats bigger multi-function machines hands down when it comes to convenience, size and the amount of washing-up it generates. --Adi Himpson
The Kenwood FC100 makes slicing and shredding large or small quantities of food easy. It has drums for thin slices, thick slices, shredding and grating, and can be dissembled for dishwashers. With a cable storage compartment.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 2.5 / 5.0
What a disappointment Having been given a Kenwood Gourmet for Christmas by my mother in law, I was quite pleased with its appearance and compactness. However when I tried to use it just two days later, it JUST DOESN@T WORK!!! Onions just bunged it up, cabbage similarly, carrots a bit better, but not fantastic. All the effort of setting it up and washing it afterwards were totally unjustified - a sharp kitchen knife is MUCH BETTER.
stunningly disappointing It shredded the carrot but can't cope hard apples (dispite the handbook saying otherwise. Attempts to slice onions and peppers resulted in mush.
The food doesn't seem to want to come out and has to be scraped out with the spatula while its running - so far I've resisted the urge to tilt it over to see if it works better.
I don't know what the folks who liked this were doing with it but I'd really like to know becuase unless all you want to do is grate carrot and cheese (which I haven't tried yet) it's... more info
"Grate" Gadget This is a great gadget. The grating tool is excellent and provided perfect grated cheese and carrotts in no time. The slicing attachments are also useful - better if you're preparing larger quantities. There doesn't seem to be much difference though between the "thick" and "thin" results. However, overall, a great time saver in the kitchen. One other thing, the picture on the website led me to believe that the Kenwood Gourmet FC100 Electric Food Cutter was smaller than it actually is.
Another useless gadget I bought this after I saw Rick Stein on TV cut his finger on a Mandoline. Having already been fooled into thinking a food processor could replace several kitchen appliances I should have known better. My vision of instant julienned carrots was quickly dispelled - there is no such cutter and the motor rapidly grinds to a halt on the smallest so although you can fairly easily cut carrots into "school slices" you cannot even make "school salad". Oh, and the icing on the cake - the feed chute is so... more info
