

When it’s on the zero setting, the blade is level with the cutting surface making it hard to accidentally cut yourself. There are a few other safety features, too. Because the guard is so easy to grasp, you’re likely to use it, protecting your hands from the risk of injury. It fits comfortably in the hand, making it easy to push food forward over the blade. The KitchenAid includes a large handguard with prongs that grasp food securely.

To cut strips or fries you need to change the blade, which is done easily without risking a cut finger. There are also settings for waffle slices as well for thin julienne strips and French fries. To adjust the slice thickness, there’s a large knob with five settings, clearly marked in fractions of an inch from 1/16 to 5/16. The stainless-steel blade and runway are housed in a black plastic casing that has a large handle and a leg that unfolds, stabilizing the mandoline while you’re working. As we worked, food virtually glided over the wide and smooth stainless-steel cutting surface. It cut everything from ripe beefsteak tomatoes to plump eggplants to pickle-sized cucumbers into uniform thin, medium, and thick slices, leaving little waste behind. In our tests, the sturdy KitchenAid Mandoline Slicer really had no competition for either great results or ease of use. If you’re looking for an inexpensive tool that you can stash in a drawer, our top choice is the handheld Progressive by Prepworks Adjust-a-Slice Mandoline ( available at Amazon).

However, it’s large and somewhat pricey for a kitchen gadget. To find the top mandoline, we sliced, julienned, and waffled bushels of vegetables and can say with confidence that the KitchenAid Mandoline Slicer However, these devices can just as quickly and easily nick your fingers, so it’s important for a good mandoline to come with safety features that help protect you while assembling, slicing, and cleaning. For Baraghani, a mandoline can take cooking to a whole new aesthetic level.Need to create uniform vegetable slices for your favorite salad or ratatouille? A mandoline can quickly and easily cut almost anything you throw at it, including potatoes to make a mound of ultrathin chips or tomatoes to create thick slabs to pair with mozzarella for a Caprese salad. Raw fibrous beets are transformed into translucent disks. With a swipe against the sharp blade, veggies that are otherwise a pain to prep turn easily into uniform, thin slices. If you’ve picked up his new cookbook, The Cook You Want To Be, you will see its handiwork throughout the pages. “She had just spooned warm brandade onto toast,” he recalls, “and she braced a plastic mint-green mandoline against her cutting board and slid a fennel bulb against the stainless-steel blade.” The bulb gave way immediately into feathery, sheer wisps-the visual and textural topper Andy didn’t even know the dish needed.Ī decade, five restaurants, and three test kitchens later, Baraghani can say without a doubt that, after his chef’s knife, the mandoline is the tool he reaches for most. He was 16, working on the line alongside a seasoned cook named Tamar Adler, who went on to write An Everlasting Meal. the kitchen tool that changed the way he cooked. Andy Baraghani remembers the exact moment he was introduced to the Benriner mandoline slicer, a.k.a.
