Breville Sous Chef 16 Pro Review

Performance Comparison

Chopping

One of the most essential tasks for a food processor is effectively chopping food — creating small, uniform pieces that are distinct, not a mush. The Breville excelled in this category, earning a top score.

We chopped onions, carrots, and nuts and compared the level of precise control afforded by the “Pulse” button on each model to determine scores, rating the food tests on the quality of the finished product. The Breville produced onions that were as close to perfect as we could hope for, with essentially all the chopped onions being of uniform size.

There were no other models that chopped onions with the same level of consistency. It only took five pulses to produce a nice even chop. The trend continued with the Breville tying for the top score in our almond test. It quickly reduced the almonds to a uniform chop without pulverizing them into dust, and there were only a few whole almonds remaining after six pulses. This model doesn't have a perfect amount of control with the “Pulse” button, as it spins for a brief moment after releasing the button.

Mixing

The Breville led the pack in our mixing metric. This model made pizza dough, pie crust dough, and mayonnaise from scratch without any struggle or incident.

It made very consistent pizza dough, tying for the best of the group. The Breville's blade is on the smaller side, so it took a little longer for the dough to start balling up, but everything was fine once it got there. This model's motor didn't sound upset, and the machine didn't shake or vibrate while mixing the dough. It did a similar job with pie crust dough, taking five pulses to achieve the perfect consistency. We found no flaws in the dough when it was rolled out, and it made one of the best pie crusts. This model also mixed mayonnaise easily, producing a high-quality finished product.

Pureeing

We had a panel of testers rate the hummus, tomato sauce, applesauce, and nut butter produced by each of these kitchen appliances. In addition, we filled each bowl to its maximum liquid fill line and ran the machine to conduct a leak test.

The Breville made very good hummus. It also made exceptional almond butter after 10 minutes of grinding and required no intervention on our behalf. It produced one of the best nut butters in the group. It performed slightly above average at making applesauce, requiring about 10 seconds longer to achieve the desired consistency, and produced a finished product that was a little chunky. It was a similar scenario with tomato sauce, where it created a finished product that was great but wasn't as smooth as some other models.

The Breville passed the leak test with flying colors, largely due to the lid's rubber gasket. It took about five and a quarter cups of water to fill the bowl to the marked maximum fill line, and no water escaped.

Shredding

Regaining the top spot, the Breville earned a high score for its outstanding shredding performance. We compared each machine's shredding variation and their performance at shredding cheese, potatoes, and carrots to create the scores. Even though the Breville faltered slightly at shredding cheese, it did a good enough job at shredding carrots and potatoes and had an adjustable shredding disc to net the top spot.

It has a fine and medium setting on its shredding disc. It's very efficient at shredding cheese, leaving almost none stuck between the lid and the shredding disc. However, only about 50% of the cheese was shredded; the rest was more crumbled. A two-pound block of cheese did fit in the feeding tube without trimming. Though it got off to a bit of a rocky start with shredded cheese, the Breville regained some ground and did the second-best job at shredding potatoes.

It left behind two small un-shredded slices and had nice consistent shreds. Continuing its upward trend, it tied for the highest score for shredding carrots.

The shredded carrots were even, crisp and didn't clump together, and only a small slice of carrot didn't make it through the shredding disc.

Slicing

We evaluated the quality of the sliced tomatoes, potatoes, and zucchini produced by each machine and the ease of adjusting the slicing disc to determine the rankings.

The blade was easily adjustable, with each number representing the slice thickness in millimeters. The tube on the Breville easily fit even our largest tomatoes, and the slices were of very high quality, tying for the best of the group with a handful of other models.

The Breville also produced very good sliced potatoes, though not the best, as there was a small amount of taper present on the slices, but the cuts were smooth. The zucchini slices were about average, with the same taper present on all of them.

Cleaning

The Breville was the easiest to clean out of the group. The blades and discs are both dishwasher-safe, as well as the bowl and lid, but it's not recommended regularly. However, the large food pusher is not dishwasher safe, so something to watch for when it comes time for cleanup. The blade is long and one of the easiest to clean of the group and has a large opening, making it easy to clean the inside where it attaches. The bowl was smooth on the inside with no little details to trap food. The lid was equally easy to clean, with no small places to entrap food scraps.

Should You Buy the Breville Sous Chef 16 Pro?

The Breville is the best food processor in our test. It performs phenomenally at chopping, mixing, and shredding while still doing great at pureeing and slicing. There weren't any areas where this machine noticeably fell flat. If it's within your budget, we think you can't go wrong with the Sous Chef 16 Pro.

What Other Food Processors Should You Consider?