Knowledge Base > Char Nolan - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

Char Nolan - Ask Me Anything (Office Hours)

This event was on Tuesday, February 18, 2025 at 11:00 am Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern

Join Chef Char Nolan in her virtual office as she welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to ask anything – from cooking techniques to cou… Read More.

Recorded

Question:

Is there much difference between a blender, and a food processor? If I already have a blender should I also invest in a food processor, if so, please explain the difference.

— Mischa Desmond

Answer:

So I will tell you that somewhere back there, you're going to see my 12 quart, my 12 cup rather, my 12 cup fancy schmancy food processor that I might use two times a year. And I use it to chop, to cut to, um, great cheese, vegan cheese if I'm using that. But what I love the best is this teeny weenie KitchenAid, uh, that can chop and puree and do everything. I think that it is a quat big, it's fabulous. I love it. It comes in handy lots of times. And it also comes with a milk frother. I don't know if you can see that or not, but this milk frother will add some froth to your plant milk or whatever it is that you might be using the Vitamix. And I have a high speed Vitamix blendor that I've had for seven or eight years, and that is really good for puree. For example, if you're making a sauce or a soup or a smoothie or a malted, um, you can make malted from, uh, plant milk. Uh, that's what it does. Which one do I use the most? I'll be very honest. I use the little teeny weenie KitchenAid, uh, for cup food processor, and I'm absolutely wild about it. It makes wonderful dressings. If I making, uh, say the Rouxbe lemon vinegarette, I'll throw my ingredients in there, and then after it's processed the first time, then I'll put this in and it gets a really beautiful consistency to it. So that's primarily the difference. The other one about the, um, Vitamix is if you have the grains container, I do make my own flowers with it, and it makes a beautiful flower. And even after you strain it, there's very little residual left in a small mesh strainer. So, um, I think it depends, uh, what you want to use it for. I love having a Vitamix. Uh, sometime I'll tell you the story of how I purchased it and where I purchased it, but I will tell you, if you go to vitamix.com, they do have a perused program, and some of their machines that have been previously used or pre-owned, um, are very reasonable in price. And they also come with a, a smaller guarantee, but they will still work. So that's totally up to you. I would not spend 1999 on a blender at a big box store because it really won't do anything, right. The other benefit of the Vitamix is that it makes really good chipped ice. So if you like to add chipped ice to your cold drinks or whatever, that works really well too.
Char Nolan

Char Nolan

Chef Instructor

@char_nolan