I know, I know, the only cutting tool a chef really needs is a sharp knife. Chopping an onion is tearfully breezy. Do you remember in Julie & Julia (2009) where Julia Child (Meryl Streep) has to practice cutting onions in order to compete with the dude chefs?
Knife skills are basic as far as a chef is concerned.
Here’s the thing, though: I ain’t a chef. My knife skills are distinctly amateur, and I get really tired of chopping vegetables. Like, the prospect of dicing a bell pepper is exhausting to me. Enter the one, the not-so-only Vidalia Chop Wizard.
This $20 plastic and metal marvel makes short work of vegetable chopping. You place your vegetable chunk on the metal grate, then use the white plastic lid to push it through the grate into the clear plastic bin below. Depending on the degree to which the food fights the process, the Chop Wizard’s pushing motion makes a substantial, sometimes very loud thunk as the two halves of the device become one. The gadget’s two grates make it possible to chop foods into satisfyingly regular half- or quarter-inch dice.
I use this thing all the time, in recipes like Black Bean and Cauliflower Soup, where the prep is way easier with the Chop Wizard than it would be without. If you are considering this handy tool, ignore the cheesy sticker/label, do not use it on a wood surface (wood can end up imprinted with the shape of the round plastic feet), and make sure that any sweet potato planks you chop are relatively thin. Enjoy!