Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not disappointed with Cooks Helper, August 2, 2007
Reviews on this product are showing up at opposite extremes...people loving something that someone finds awful. I just received my Benriner turning vegetable slicer Cookhelp today...I expected to be disappointed, given the negative reviews here. I opened the box carefully because I was sure I'd try it and return it..BUT I'm keeping it...I like it.
YES, it's plastic and lightweight and expensive...All that has been said about the price is true...You'd expect by seeing the photo and for the price that, at least, it should be made from metal..This isn't cheap-fall-apart plastic...The siding on my house is some form of plastic and has held up for 20 years. And now decking
and house pillars are made from plastic.. So, plastic products aren't necessarily crummy. I think this is
a well made product, although basic and utterly simplistic. I figured out pretty quickly that this gadget
holds more steady if you place it in the sink with a plate or cutting board under it to catch the curls...simply
because you need leverage to push downward. It didn't slide or slip and didn't feel unruly in my hands.
I didn't have much firm raw product in my house to work with when this arrived...Just apples, cucumbers and carrots. Three blades are included...They are small and sharp but very easy to change and the whole appliance is simple to wash. Mostly just a quick rinse. What holds the blade in place is a screw.....and easy enough to figure out how to change a blade without reading the instruction sheet...There is an arrow on each blade...The more finely tooth'd blade isn't good for much. I would suspect a really hard vegetable like a beet might be okay to try with this blade. I had no problem with the widest tooth'd blade cutting the carrot and apple. I had to cut the apple in a small piece....but the results were excellent...Curls of apple...only one chunk of apple didn't produce much food. The cucumber got mushy on the smaller tooth'd blade but improved it's ability to hold up when I used the largest tooth'd blade. The firmer the vegetable, the more you can assume the smallest tooth'd blade won't turn it to mush. And the higher the water content of the vegetable, the more
you need to assume you'd require the widest tooth'd blade.
The thing about this product is that this is made in Japan...The Japanese are very mindful in their food prep.
Watch them roll sushi..It's a mind-meditative thing and that made me realize that you can actually have fun
with this if you're not particularly in a major hurry. If I were feeding a large crowd or had a catering business,
this little gadget would be ridiculous...I'd be involved for hours trying to create enough swirly fruit or veggies
to produce enough food. But for home use, and one or two people...to decorate a salad....or make a nice
mound of raw beets, carrots and zucchini, I'm happy with the smallness and lightweight properties of this
gadget. REALLY, that's all this is....a gadget. It's not a food processor by any measure...It's not going to
do what a Cuisinart would do....It's a slow but efficient way to try new ways to eat raw foods...And yes, there
is always a leftover chunk of unprocessed food....I just eat it...I was going to eat it anyway in a curly fashion...
so no big deal. I like the concept of raw foods. My local health food store sells a sqiggly vegetable salad
that looks like it might be made on a gadget like this (although obviously commercial) and they charge
$9.00 a pound~! So, for the price of doing this myself, I'm saving money and having some fun!
So, I'm giving this product 5 stars. I like it a lot and don't have unreasonable expectations of how much
food it can process at one time...I'm enjoying it in the way the Japanese probably designed it....simple, efficient, non-electric and totally unlike the American way of thinking...which might be conceptually larger than an Asian's mindful way of preparing food.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Raw Foodist's Dream!, July 3, 2006
I love the "angel hair pasta" and cucumber slices that I can make with this equipment jewel. It's easy to use, easy to clean, and turns out a big pile of edibles in a short amount of time. It's sturdy and well-made. Since I don't slice hard veggies with it, I'm sure I won't have to replace the blades any time soon.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Turns veggies into wonderful mounds of pasta like ribbons, February 4, 2007
I purchased my Benriner Cookhelp at Kamei Restaurant on Clement street for 37.50.
I also looked at the type that pushes from the side and knew that it would be difficult for me to keep the pressure while turning the crank.
Pushing from the top while turning was easy.
It is made of plastic and feels very light, and even at 37.50 plus tax it felt a little high priced. Bottom line is it turns veggies into wonderful mounds of pasta like ribbons with very little effort and cleans up easy.
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