Breville BFP838 Paradice 16 Food Processor and Dicer Review

The Breville BFP838 Paradice 16 is a full-size 16-cup food processor built around a two-stage dicing system. A spinning dicing disc slices the food as it leaves the chute, then pushes each slice through a fixed dicing grid that cuts it into cubes. That 2-in-1 process is the defining feature of the machine and the reason to choose it over a plain 16-cup processor.

The advertised functions are slice, shred, French fry, mince and puree, plus dice and knead. A storage container holds the attachments and the cleaning utensils when they are not in use, which matters once you see how many pieces the dicing kit adds.

The motor is a 1,450 W heavy-duty induction unit with an updated direct drive and high torque, and the motor warranty runs 30 years. That is the kind of power that keeps a full bowl of dough or a batch of hummus moving without stalling.

Capacity and the mini bowl

The main bowl holds 16 cups, or 121 fl. oz, and a 2.5-cup mini bowl sits inside it. The mini bowl lets you make hummus, pesto or a small sauce without dirtying the big bowl, which is the usual complaint about full-size processors.

Chopping, pureeing, slicing and shredding

The micro-serrated S-blade chops onions and mushrooms finely and purees soups and hummus smoothly. The adjustable slicer covers 24 sizes, the reversible shredder gives you coarse and fine, and the French fry disc turns potatoes into fries quickly. The dough blade kneads bread and pizza dough.

The feed chute and the controls

The 3-in-1 feed chute runs from 1.7 in to 5.5 in and comes with three pushers, the smallest of which doubles as a liquid measuring cup. The controls are Power, Start/Pause and Pulse, plus a digital timer that counts in 5-second increments, up or down.

Dicing, where it works

Onions, cucumbers, zucchini, bell peppers with some caveats, and cooked potato come out in even cubes, which is what makes the kit worth having for bulk prep and holiday cooking. Beyond dicing, the body and blades are stainless steel, the removable parts come apart for cleaning, and the warranty is 2 years on the product plus 30 years on the motor.

The dicing kit is a fixed-aperture grid, so fibrous, hard or very wet produce either will not pass through or smears against it. Tomatoes smush, raw carrots and sweet potato jam the grid, and cheese and meat are not for dicing at all. That is how the system works, not a defect of one machine.

The kit also adds a gearbox, a distributor, three discs and grids, and the assembly order matters. The disc and the grid have to be the same size, an 8 mm disc with an 8 mm grid and so on, so it is more setup than everyday chopping.

The machine is heavy and large, at 16.9 lb and 11.3 in deep by 9.2 in wide, and it needs counter space plus room for the storage container. Buyers on Amazon mention the weight as a drawback when moving it around. It is also loud at full power, and it is overkill for a small household or occasional use.

Cleaning has caveats. The dicing gearbox is not dishwasher safe, and while the bowl and lid are technically dishwasher safe, hand-washing is recommended to protect the plastic and the interlock. The US box contains no potato peeler: the included list is the dicing discs, distributor, gearbox, S-blade, slicer, shredder, dough blade, mini blade, French fry disc, spindles, brush and spatula.

The food-contact plastics are BPA-free. The 16.9 lb weight means you will want to give it a permanent spot on the counter rather than lift it in and out of a cupboard.

Most dicing complaints come down to assembly and feeding, and the fixes are simple once you know them.

1. Assemble in order: geared spindle, then dicing distributor, then the dicing grid rotated until it drops and locks, then the dicing disc on the spindle tip, then the lid. Forgetting the distributor is a top cause of clogs.
2. Match the sizes: the dicing disc and the grid must be the same size.
3. Don't overfill: keep food below the MAX level in the bowl, because overfilling jams the disc and makes the grid hard to clean.
4. Feed correctly: position the food in the chute and apply light downward pressure before starting. Use light, even pressure for soft foods and medium for firm ones, and never force it.
5. Use the right chute: the small or medium chute for hard produce, since the large chute can damage the discs.
6. Choose the right produce: medium-soft, cellular produce dices cleanly, and firm fruit gives better results than very ripe fruit.
7. Clear the grid: use the cleaning caps at the four marked positions with a rocking motion, invert the grid onto the counter if needed, and finish with the brush.

Expect a few remnants: the last slices do not always pass through, and that is normal rather than a fault.

The machine is loud at full power, on the order of a noisy bar, so plan to run it in bursts rather than leave it going while you talk. The footprint is 11.3 in deep by 9.2 in wide, and you need clearance above and beside it for the chute and the lid.

At 16.9 lb it is heavy to lift and move, so a permanent counter spot makes more sense than a cupboard. The storage container holds all the attachments and cleaning utensils, and it needs shelf or cupboard space of its own. The Paradice 16 suits a kitchen with room to leave it out.

The blades, discs, spindles, pushers and dicing parts are top-rack dishwasher safe. The dicing gearbox is not dishwasher safe and has to be hand-washed. The bowl and lid are technically dishwasher safe, but hand-washing is recommended to protect the plastic and the interlock.

Use the brush and spatula that come in the box, and the cleaning caps to clear the dicing grid. Store the discs in the storage container rather than loose in a drawer, because the blades are sharp.