I have a gift certificate to Pampered Chef and I thought I might get one of these. I eat a lot of salads and stir-fries, so chopping is a large part of my total kitchen labor. Has anyone tried this sort of thing? Does it actually chop things reliably, or does it just smush them?
They work great, especially if you’re dicing a lot of onions, celery, etc. However, if you’ve got decent knife skills, it won’t help you out at all. It’s great if you’re really slow, though.
If you decide not to go with the chopper, I can recommend this. It’s Da Bomb for parsley and cilantro.
I have one of those, but i think it’s best for chopping food for babies. It doesn’t handle tomatoes or peppers very well because of the skins, and other things it makes random shaped pieces. Most people don’t mind that, but I have a problem. I want all my veggies in neat little squares, or strips, or whatever.
Moved IMHO --> Cafe Society.
I have one I bought through Pampered Chef over 12 year ago. It appears they’ve updated it but I imagine it’s similar. It was great for getting my son interested in helping me cook. Now that he’s old enough he prefers a knife.
In order to cut thoroughly you need to chop things pretty fine. It typically leaves some clumps of oninon connected by that thin membrane between layers. For other than large quantities a knofe is just as fast and easier to clean. It can go in
the dishwasher, but I live in an apartment with a puny dishwasher and the
unfurled chopper takes up the whole top rack so I never put it in there.
It is great for nuts, and crushing crackers or cookies.
I have that exact model. It’s good - but it’s a bitch to clean. I use it mainly to chop things for chili. I have decent knife skills, but am happy to relinquish control to the chopper when it comes to handling 10 assorted jalepenos and habeneros. It also minces onion far finer than I can with a knife, so it handles making salsa really easy as well (add a bit of cilantro to each chopper batch).
I have a similar unit made by Zyliss I think. I agree with all who said that they leave stuff connected in many cases. I’ve not used mine recently, but I seem to remember that it splits open for easy cleaning. I do remember that the blades rotate a little with each chop.
If you merely wish to chop up a few loose vegetables, a cutting board and chopping knife will do it for you better than this silly tool and be easier to clean too. I have watched many cooking shows on TV where the Asian chefs do everything by hand. They can chop to any fine level. Personally, I am into power tools. No one tool does everything right. I have found that a Braun 400 watt stirrer with the attachments does about everything. The mixing bowl would be perfect for the stir fry vegetable chopping. This product is easy to clean compared to “food processor” items with a bunch of pieces to work with.
Bottom line: Buy a good knife and board.
I completely agree with this: except for three times a year when I cook a stuffed turkey. The gadget in the OP saves considerable time when I need to dice a half dozen onions at a time.
I have something that looks the same (not sure whether it’s the same brand) and for certain things I like it very much. For example, if I have to chop up a lot of onions, it takes care of them very nicely and I don’t get them all over my hands. It’s also good for nuts and parsley. It is NOT good for anything sticky such as dried apricot.
So if the food is not sticky and you have to chop up a lot of it, I do recommend it.
But you don’t want something taking up kitchen space all year long when it saves a little time a couple times a year. The only kitchen gadgets I have seen that are at all worth having are a salad spinner (I was really surprised, but this is used every other night and is very helpful), a garlic press (99% of these are crap, but OXO makes one worth having and we use it almost every night), and a mid-sized food processor.
Other than those I would suggest just suggest buying a whisk or set of small glass bowls or something with your gift certificate. A good set of knife skills makes the vast majority of kitchen gadgets useless.
It has the footprint of a coffee mug. 
I’ve never used anything like that, but this manual food processor will chop up an onion in about 5 seconds; also works great for nuts. It has the same problem as other choppers/food processors-uneven cutting, so as long as uniform size isn’t your goal, they’re terrific.
This x 1000
All I can say is, “how do you like my nuts?!”
Ah, ShamWow guy, how do we love thee.
Yeah, just search Youtube for “slap chop” and watch the remixes.
Not a big one for gadgets like that, I’m not an expert chef by a long shot but a nice sharp knife and a big cutting board gets me through just about anything, including dicing 5-10lbs of potatoes, 5lbs of apples, tons of onions and so forth.
A mandoline is a nice manual gadget if you have to slice a lot of stuff, though. The really nice Japanese ones are about $20.
Or read post 2.
You know what chops well? A knife. I just made enough Cuban salad for twenty people: it took me about fifteen minutes, including finding the chillies which were hiding really effectively in the middle of a bunch of celery in the fridge. I thought I was losing my mind. “Did I buy chillies? I know I bought chillies. Did I accidentally put them in the cupboard? Did I eat them in my sleep?” etc.