Breville Paradice 9: slide, shred, dice, mince, puree, mix and all you knead (review)

The Breville Paradice 9 is a veritable Swiss army knife of kitchen food processors. It can slice, shred, dice, mince, puree, mix, and knead more than you can imagine.

First, with apologies to Breville for the delay in this review. Why? Because this device does so much and our test is for two people’s needs, not an army. So, when I want to dice a carrot or two, a knife will do. If I want to dice/slice a bag of carrots, this is the ideal tool. Frankly, cooking for a couple versus a typical family, this was overkill for us.

So, our sage advice is to buy it if its capabilities match your needs. There is also a far larger $899 Paradice 16 that makes French Fries.

Australian Review: Breville Paradice 9 model BFP638

Website	Product page Manual
Price	$549 but seen as low as $499
Colour	Brushed stainless steel, Black Truffle, Sea salt
From	Breville Online, Harvey Norman (and sub-brands), JB Hi-Fi, Good Guys, Bing Lee, David Jones, Myer, Retravision, Betta, and Breville stockists.
Warranty	2-year warranty and 30-year motor warranty
Made in	China
Company	Breville (Wiki) was founded in 1922 in Sydney. This Australian ASX-listed icon has become a global brand, selling in over 70 countries. Over the past few years, it has acquired several international brands and partnered with Nespresso to produce capsule coffee makers.
More	CyberShack kitchen appliance news and reviews CyberShack Breville news and reviews

We use the following ratings: Fail (below expectations), Pass (meets expectations), and Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader) for many of the items listed below. We occasionally give a Passable rating that is not as good as it should be, and a Pass+ rating to indicate it is good but does not quite meet the Exceed standard. You can click on most images for an enlargement.

What does the Breville Paradice 9 do?

At its heart, it is a 1.5L, 8-cup, 645W ‘blender’ with benefits courtesy of a huge range of tools. Simply pick the right tool for the job. Tools are colour coded so you can’t make a mistake.

All tools fit into a caddy that sits on the main bowl. To store them, you will need about 260 (h) x 200 (w) x 360mm (d) cupboard space.

We have included the approximate costs of buying ingredients and pre-packed prices. You might ask if the economics stack up. They certainly do with a few minutes’ work.

S Blade (stainless steel cutting)

This is the blending blade, which is also good for mixing sauces and batters. It is used for chopping, mixing, mincing, and pureeing/blending ingredients.

• Fruit and Vegetables
• Meats and fish
• Herbs
• Breadcrumbs
• Nuts and dried fruit

Dough Blade (blue plastic)

For kneading breads, dough, Focaccia, pizza bases, etc.  We made Focaccia using 2 cups (680g) of plain flour, dry yeast, salt, olive oil and 2 cups of water. I love homemade Focaccia, but it’s messy. The dough is more liquid and oily as it does not have the gluten and subsequent dough-like consistency of bread.

The Paradice 9 handled this beautifully, although we later found the recommended flour load is 575g. C‘est la vie.

Cost of materials <$2. Buying $6+.

Adjustable Slicer Disc

I have always wanted a deli food slicer, and this is the closest you will get without the risk of cutting off your fingertips. The blade has 15 fine adjustments (five major ones from thin to about 5mm). The only caveat here is that the food (vegetables, sausage, ham, meat, etc) fits down the feed chute and is no wider than the 60mm blade.

We tried it on carrots, cucumber, cabanossi and a leg ham portion. These had some bulk and substance to them, as softer items may not slice.

Our efforts were good, with 95+% of the whole slices falling into the main bowl. But that errant 5% ended up as a mush around the slicer disk.

Cost: I buy Woolworths Hickory Smoked ‘real ham off the bone’ portion is $23.50 per kg, and hand slice it (not very accurately), and freeze (for individual sliced portions). Similar real ham (not manufactured meat), thick cut from the deli, is at least $35. I hate the thin or shaved Primo-style pre-packs that cost $40 per kg.

Reversible Shredding Disc (coarse and fine – clever design)

We tried with hard (Cheddar) and semi-hard (Gouda) cheese. The Cheddar was fantastic – a kilo block shredded in under a minute. The Gouda, not so good as it simply did not have the body for fast shredding. We later read that placing semi-hard cheese in the freezer for 45 minutes improves the result (and it did).

We shredded carrots and apples with excellent results.

Note: A Coles 1-kilo cheddar block costs $9, but you can buy shredded cheese for about $14. Carrots are $2 per kg, and pre-packed diced or shredded carrots are $11.

Dicing Kit – 12mm squares

We tried dicing carrots, potatoes, and pumpkins for soup. This is where the device comes into its own—larger quantities of vegetables are effortless. As per the slicer, 95% is diced, and 5% gets stuck in the dicing grate. Breville cleverly included a dicing cleaner that pushes 100% of the food out.

What can’t the Breville Paradice 9 do?

Slicing, shredding and dicing require the food to have sufficient body. For example, don’t try ripe tomatoes, avocados, grapes, soft cheese or any softer fruits and vegetables.

All portions must fit into the small or large feed chute—a 70 x 40 rounded rectangle or a 110 x 60mm half oval shape. Don’t overload—one piece at a time is good.

We did not experience any overload or cutouts, but the motor should not run continuously for several minutes. In some cases, using the pulse button was just as effective.

Cleaning – Pass

Let’s face it, any food prep is messy – this contains it to the bowl and tools. Most items can be top-shelf dishwasher cleaned, but it is far easier to handwash in the sink and take care with sharp blades.

I was so impressed with the Focaccia dough. Usually, it is a very sticky, oily mess on the cutting/rolling board and gets all over my hands and the bench. All I had to clean was the bowl and dough blade.

CyberShack’s view: The Breville Paradice 9 is a very efficient food processor with benefits

Again, apologies to Breville for the tardy review, but as a couple, we did not need this device and had to ‘create’ test scenarios.

When I think back to my mum’s halcyon cooking days and the piles of vegetables that had to be hand-sliced, diced, shredded, and more, this would have been fantastic. When I remember the home-baked cakes, biscuits, pastry and breads, this would have immeasurably cut her time.

So, if you are a family cook who still values homemade dinners, soups, casseroles, and other dishes, this will substantially reduce prep time. It is also a pretty good blender, too.

And don’t forget the Paradice 16 – bigger and can make French fries as well.

Breville Paradice 9 rating

We have not reviewed a food processor before, so we won’t give it a formal score. If you are into cooking for a family and love to save money, albeit you provide your labour, this is 100/100.

• Features: A good blender and five tools make food prep easy. The ingenious caddy stores the tools and packs them away for storage.
• Value: The old “Kitchen Whizz 9 cost $449 and had four tools. This is an advanced model at the same price. You can’t compare it with the basic cheapies (sans tools) – it is more in the Magimix/Kitchen Aid category.
• Performance: We have no benchmarks, so all we can say is that it was fast and efficient.
• Ease of Use: It has a 2-year warranty (30-year for the motor), is easy to clean (albeit recommended handwash), and is easy to store. It has a 4.9/5 user review rating.
• Design: The designer must have studied origami to make the tools fit into a caddy. Interesting and well-made.

Pro

• Enormous functionality and flexibility – ‘Soup to nuts’
• Fast
• Tonnes of tools and a well-designed storage caddy
• Less mess
• Can be a huge money saver compared to pre-packed products

Cons:

• None really.
• Blades are sharp (as they are with any slicer)
• Dicing does not produce perfect ‘squares’, but who cares
• Handwashing is better, but takes a little longer
• More for bulk food prep