TechRadar Verdict
The Cuisinart Easy Prep Pro FP8 is a neat food processor with a small footprint, it’s easy to store and doesn’t come with a whole host of attachments that you’ll never use, but it’s got the essentials. It’s a useful appliance for speedily chopping, slicing and shredding, but the capacity is small, so it’s not ideal for larger families. It’s simple to use and set up and while it does the job, it doesn’t have the power of bigger models.
Pros
- +
Compact
- +
Dishwasher safe bowls and attachments
- +
Easy to use
Cons
- -
Some waste when shredding
- -
No whisk or dough attachments
- -
Small capacity
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One-minute review
Cuisinart is a global kitchen appliance and cookware brand but is really known for its food processors and credits itself with introducing the food processor to America in 1973. The Cuisinart Easy Prep Pro FP8 is known as the Cuisinart Elemental 8 Cup FP8 in the US and is a smaller and more affordable version of the Cuisinart Expert Prep Pro FP13, which goes by the moniker Cuisinart Elemental 13 Cup FP13 in the US.
Unlike many food processors, this model comes with a paired back selection of attachments which, combined with its small size means it’s easy to store. Having said that, there are still plenty of attachments to make it a useful and versatile addition to your kitchen. In addition to the main bowl and blade, you also get a smaller bowl with its own blade (UK model only), plus two discs offering two sizes of slicing and shredding.
The smaller bowl is ideal for chopping or mixing up small quantities that might not get chopped efficiently in the larger bowl. The 1.9 litre / 8 cup main bowl is large enough for everyday tasks, but if you’re regularly prepping foods for large gatherings it’ll probably feel small.
With two speeds as well as a pulse button, it’s got all the control you need from a food processor of this size. It’s easy to assemble and use, but on test, we found that some foods took a little longer to chop and mix than in a larger, more powerful model.
The shredding and slicing discs work well, but shredded food wasn’t always even in size and there was some wastage. Nevertheless, it’s fine for general use and is perfect for those with smaller kitchens who want a food processor that won’t take up too much space.
Cuisinart Easy Prep Pro FP8 price and availability
- List price: £125/ $99.95
The Cuisinart Easy Prep Pro FP8 is known as the Cuisinart Elemental 8 Cup FP8 in the US and costs £125/ $99.95. It’s available directly from the Cuisinart website as well as other retailers.
In the UK it comes in frosted pearl or silver, while in the US it’s available in dark gray, white and stainless steel.
As we mentioned earlier, it’s a smaller and more affordable alternative to the Cuisinart Expert Prep Pro FP13, known as the Cuisinart Elemental 13 Cup FP13, which costs £250/ $225. The FP8 comes with fewer attachments, a smaller bowl and is less powerful, but this is reflected in the lower price tag.
Design
- Small footprint
- Two speed settings
- Dishwasher safe
Often compact food processors lack the functionality of their larger counterparts or they’re missing useful attachments. However, the Cuisinart Easy Prep Pro FP8 still includes what we consider to be the most crucial food processor attachments whilst maintaining a small size. It measures just 38.5 x 19 x 23.5cm / 15.19 x 7.6 x 9.58 inches (h x w x d). It’s also particularly light, when assembled with the main bowl and blade it weighs just 2.9kg / 6.4 pound.
It comes with a chopping and mixing blade for the main 1.9 litre / eight cup bowl. The bowl clicks into position with a firm twist and the lid can then be locked into place. The clearly labelled buttons give you just two speeds to choose from as well as pulse, making it simple to use.
With two reversible shredding and slicing discs, it can produce medium as well as fine sliced or shredded foods. None of the attachments are tricky or fiddly to assemble and it’s great that they can all go in the dishwasher. The UK model also has a secondary 0.7 litre / three cup bowl that slots neatly inside the larger one and comes with its own blade. The smaller bowl has a rubber seal around the top to ensure nothing spills into the larger bowl when mixing, this avoids the need to wash both bowls when you’ve only been using the smaller one.
For storage, the small bowl and blade can be stored inside the main bowl (UK model only), but the larger blade and discs will need to be stored separately, for the US model just the discs will need to be stored separately. There’s no case provided to ensure they’re stored safely, so this is something to consider when deciding how to store these sharp accessories.
Performance
- Easy to assemble
- Doesn’t always stay stable
- Some waste when shredding
There’s very little need to consult the instruction manual when assembling and we were able to start using the food processor not long after removing it from the box. First up we sliced cucumber, which was effortless, a whole cucumber fits easily into the feed chute and the slices were even in size with no waste.
Shredding was a different story, we had mixed results. Cheese shredded well with even medium size shreds, there was a small piece - about 12 percent of the total – that got trapped on top of the disc and not shredded, but overall it was a success. Shredded carrot was fairly even but we did notice some much finer shreds amongst the medium size pieces. Two chunks of carrot were left on top of the disc at the end.
We shredded chocolate using the fine disc and noticed quite a lot of vibration through the pusher as we fed it in. At the end almost 20% remained un-shredded and some chocolate had also melted onto the disc. Some of the chocolate had warmed up during shredding and clumped together in the bowl, leaving us a little disappointed with the result.
Chopping onion was easy in the large bowl, resulting in fine, evenly chopped pieces. It also created even breadcrumbs, after we added four slices of bread cut in quarters into the bowl. It took 20 presses of the pulse button until we were happy with the result.
It’s powerful enough to grind up 500g / 18o diced beef without jamming. But unlike in a larger model, we had to stop it and stir the pieces to ensure it was all evenly ground. Again, we used the pulse button for this and kept a hand on the lid to stop it moving.
When mixing up cake batter to make a dozen small cupcakes it moved across the counter despite being on the low-speed setting, so it’s best to keep a hand on the lid to hold it in place. We also had to stop it and scrape down the sides twice to ensure all the ingredients were fully incorporated, but it did the job.
In the small bowl (UK model only) we milled hazelnuts using the high-speed setting, which was slower than we expected. Subsequently, the result was a little uneven with some powder mixed in with larger pieces.
In general, the food processor was quite loud with almost all tests registering 80dB or over on our noise meter, the loudest were chopping beef and shredding cheese, both of which were around 84db. This is the same noise level as a truck traveling down the road at 40mph.
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First reviewed: January 2022
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