5 Chopping Kitchen Gadgets Tested by Design Expert | Well Equipped | Epicurious

Design and usability guru Dan Formosa returns for another episode of Well Equipped, this time turning his expert eye towards 5 gadgets designed to help you chop through your kitchen tasks. Watch as he tests each device, putting them through the gauntlet while commenting on what works, what doesn't, and what he would've done to improve their design.

Check out the products Dan reviews in this episode:

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[livithecow]

Dan: already knows the industrial chopper doesn’t work

also Dan: aggressive tomato pounding

[Hibbity_Hobbity]

I have received 2 different brands of the “industrial choppers” as gifts and one of them did not work at all and the other is FANTASTIC! One of the differences was there are serrated blades and also there is much more leverage for the one I kept

[giovanni_gira]

It would be cool to see some of Dan's designed gadget here on the channel

[BerserkingKantus]

At Carl’s Jr. we had a chopper that looked like the industrial chopper, it was for tomatoes and onions but it actually worked. I think it’s a copy cat that doesn’t work.

[paulholmes]

For the Cheese Chopper, the block should have rested against the back plate. Otherwise the block squeezes back as the blade descends and also causes the whole 'drawer' to drift back as well. The lettuce chopper, try a half a head at a time, it would work fine.

[CrimFerret]

I worked in a restaurant for a while and they had a lever action version of that commercial chopper thing that worked very well. It only got used for onions and potatoes (the latter to make home cut french fries). It was useful because it was very fast and we needed to cut a LOT of fries. For home cooking, I have yet to see a cutting or chopping gadget that beats a properly used knife in the result and certainly in the cleanup.

[drunkweebmarine]

the second one was obviously faulty. i used one every day to prep at ruby tuesday and had zero problems

[serenab]

The industrial food chopper is a tool I'm intimately familiar with. The trick is to do it all in a single motion. Raise the handle all the way up to where it's nearly off of the guides and slam down with full strength. It's loud, it's messy, and a little frightening. You also should oil the rods.

[pandaaamonium_]

I usually tend toward agreeing with all of his assessments EXCEPT this time. I’m not sure what happened with the industrial chopper but I’ve worked in restaurants for fifteen years and been around and used several of that particular device, and they do exactly what they’re meant to do, and yes, you do have to slide down the length of the supports with a fair amount of force but if the blades are sharp, as with any tool designed to cut, they do work. I wonder if they just didn’t get a restaurant grade version for the purposes of the video

[txchristopherreed]

I have to question if that industrial chopper accidentally had the blade array in upside down. It just seems too much to believe that something like that was really *THAT* bad of a failure.

[hugawerewolf]

Love how everyone who's ever worked with restaurant/commercial food prep is coming to the industrial chopper's defense. I can't vouch for this particular brand but I can say from experience that generally these dicers work really well.

I'd guess this particular product is either defective and misaligned or (as other commenters have suggested) the blades are inverted.

[joebartender]

Pretty sure the blades were in the wrong way on the vevor. Used one for years and as long as the blades are sharp and in the right way it cuts great. But if you put them in dull side up...

[alishanicole_]

There should be a "gadgets revisted" episode or 2 where Dan goes back and uses the gadgets he used incorrectly in other episodes and gets them right this time around

[lemminglegion]

Anyone else annoyed that he didn't use the cheese slicer properly? The wheel is to adjust the platform and that panel at the back of the moving platform would help stabilize the cheese. It's not there for show its there for functionality

[PropheticOverflowMC]

It amazes me how hilarious he is but yet he keeps a straight face 🤣

[jenguitar]

The fry chipper was acting almost like the blade was in upside-down.

[zoran]

I cant help but to think you may be using industrial chopper … wrong? But I don’t know what would be the correct way of using it. Maybe with a hammer?

[Kcomix]

Maybe he should take a peak at the instructions for each device before he uses them. If you give an American football to someone who’s never seen one before, and they try to use it for soccer, then of course they’ll say it’s a terrible design.

[jewswami]

Instead of a "Left Handed Oil Test" maybe you could try a "Look At The Directions Test" because you constantly use devices in obviously incorrect ways and then say they don't work. That cheese slicer has a backplate for the block of cheese. The worst part is that you talk about how the width and angle of the blades in the chopper force pressure and directionality on the food... but then you completely ignore that in the cheese slicer.
Every time I see one of these videos I respect you less dude... you used to give them an honest try but now you're just looking for clicks.

[roswell_gaming]

It’s making me so sad that at least three of these products were used incorrectly in some way- seems like they didn’t get a fair trial because of user error!