Breville Sous Chef 16 Food Processor (BFP810)

The Breville Sous Chef 16 is the food processor for people who treat slicing and shredding as a regular job rather than an occasional one: gratins, big salads, slaw for a crowd, shredded cheese by the pound, homemade fries. America's Test Kitchen named it the upgrade pick in its August 2026 update, and Consumer Reports rates its slicing excellent. It also suits cooks who want a mini bowl for small jobs in the same machine instead of a separate chopper.

Skip it if most of what you do is chop onions, make pesto and mix pie dough. The Cuisinart Custom 14 handles those jobs about as well, with three blades and far less to clean. Skip it too if cabinet space is tight: the Breville is the largest machine on our list, and its discs live in a separate box.

The slicer is the main reason to buy it. Instead of one disc per thickness, the Breville has one adjustable slicer with 24 settings, which the manual gives as 0.3 to 8.0 mm. That covers paper-thin cucumber at one end and thick slices for roasting at the other. The box also holds a reversible shredder with a fine and a coarse side, and a French fry disc. With the Cuisinart Custom 14 you get one 4 mm slicer and one shredder, and other sizes cost extra.

The feed chute is the most flexible of the four we compared. Three pushers nest inside each other, giving chutes from 1.7 to 5.5 inches wide according to Breville. The wide chute fits food up to 5.5 inches across. The manual recommends the narrow chutes for long, thin items such as carrots, cucumbers and zucchini so they do not tip over, and asks you to feed hard produce like sweet potato and pumpkin through the smaller chutes to protect the discs. A safety interlock keeps the motor off unless the bowl, lid and large pusher are locked in place.

The 2.5-cup mini bowl nests inside the main bowl with its own small blade, so a clove of garlic, a handful of herbs or a small dressing does not get lost in a 16-cup bowl.

Power and control are the last strengths. Breville lists a 1,450 W induction motor with a safety brake. ATK found that it produced a smooth, elastic double batch of pizza dough without strain, and the kit includes a dough blade; the manual sets the limit at 2 pounds of flour per batch. A digital timer counts up while you work, or counts down and stops the motor at zero, which helps when you want the same dough or puree texture every time. ATK described the machine as running smoothly and relatively quietly, and Consumer Reports rates its noise very good. Breville backs the motor for 30 years and other parts for 2, per Consumer Reports' listing.

In ATK's tests it shredded, sliced and chopped quickly and uniformly with little waste. Consumer Reports rates it very good for chopping, shredding and grating Parmesan, and good for pureeing. TechGearLab tested the earlier Sous Chef 16 Pro, which has a 1,200 W motor, and ranked it first of eight at 83 out of 100, measuring 67.5 dB at 3 feet.

Cleaning is the recurring complaint. ATK found that the lid has nooks and crannies that need detailing, and that the multi-part blades are a bit annoying to assemble. Breville's manual adds that because of the interlock parts, the bowl and lid should be hand-washed and only occasionally run through the top rack of a dishwasher. The blades, discs and pushers can go in the dishwasher; the geared spindle cannot.

It takes space. Breville lists the machine at 17.7 by 11.3 by 9.2 inches and the storage box at 8.3 by 12.6 by 10.9 inches, and ATK weighed the base at 15.25 pounds. This is a machine that lives on the counter or in a deep lower cabinet.

It sits in the premium price class, well above the Cuisinarts, and its pureeing is only rated good by Consumer Reports. On the earlier Pro model, TechGearLab also saw some shredded cheese crumble and slightly chunky sauces. When we checked on September 26, 2026, Breville's US store listed the brushed stainless model as out of stock while the Amazon listing was still live, so check availability before a sale.

The Cuisinart Custom 14 is the simpler choice: 14 cups, 720 W, three blades stored in the bowl, two levers, and top ratings for quietness. It lacks adjustable slicing and a mini bowl. The Cuisinart Pro Custom 11 adds a second, thinner slicing disc in a smaller body for smaller households. See all four side by side on our best food processors list.

The Breville Sous Chef 16 does the most of any processor on our list: adjustable slicing from 0.3 to 8 mm, three chute widths, a mini bowl, a dough blade, a timer and a motor with a 30-year warranty. The price is more parts to clean, a lid that traps food and a large footprint. Buy it if slicing and shredding are your main jobs; otherwise the Custom 14 is the easier machine to live with.