Zoom Doom: The Mazda of Garlic Cutters? (Lakeland Chef'N Garlic Zoom)

Member Name: Nar2

Product:	Lakeland Chef'N Garlic Zoom
Date:	30/08/09 (119 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Handy gadget if you love Garlic but hate slicing it manually. Slices can be any infinite size.

Disadvantages: Expensive price, dangerous blade design, tricky to take all the Garlic out. Marks surfaces.

Garlic; I adore it in almost everything I prepare from salads to roast chicken and even on fish dishes, Garlic is a staple ingredient I add despite its rather amorous scent and flavour in some corners and a loathing aspect from others. Despite a rather old and cracked soap stone pestle and mortar that was handed down to me, I've often resolved the issue of Garlic preparation to crush all life out of it in the old family hand me down or to quickly push a flat knife against a clove to loosen its harder skin before I scuff my fingers or sustain cuts when slicing garlic by traditional serrated knives. I'm sure most people would agree with me if the have endured the searing pain of an Onion cut and will find the same if they inadvertently slice or prick a little bit of finger when cutting up Garlic; the pain is about as bad as dipping your wounded finger in salt! Slicing garlic therefore, isn't the easiest procedure to do and I can't abide the "Lazy Garlic," products as the preservative vinegar that holds them in their jar often taints my cooking with a sour and bitter aftertaste. Garlic in mind should never really be bitter but in a strong onion like way, a taste that prickles the taste buds into sweet and potent submission.


At the moment my choice store is John Lewis for my general household needs and I have been checking out most of their kitchen wares since finding a fantastic Australian made picnic ware tumbler for my bathroom that I originally thought was made of glass based purely on its look. But when it comes to gadgets I seldom look at what John Lewis sell often on the basis that it will never be around the next time I visit the store. There have however been some eye openers this year and one of them being the "Chef'N Garlic Zoom," a product that seems to available all year round!


At £8 however I was a little unsure of whether this gadget would actually work as it claims to slice garlic in an odour-free procedure and thanks to its mini blades set on a ratchet wheel mechanism able to keep chopping up the Garlic in as many tiny pieces as you want. Naturally I couldn't wait to try it at home!


For a start this gadget looks like a mini-toy dreamt up perhaps by someone who has either thought about cutting up Garlic in the safest way possible or by someone who had the same idea and loves playing with toy cars. Hence the fact that the Garlic Zoom has two wheels, one on each side of the oval egg shaped body and looks like a little toy trailer as a result. A couple of fingers or my whole hand over the gadget seems to work best to get the wheels moving and there are indents in the thick, well made Acrylic that logically suggest where you can rest your fingers. What a pity that Chef'N haven't put an additional "stabliser" on one end of the whole body as the Garlic Zoom falls to one of its sides when not in use and made to stand up.


After peeling the Garlic, I set about choosing how many cloves I was going to put in my pasta dishes and at the time knew that the chicken I was going to dry fry would also need some garlic to give the meat an added dimension along with my Lea and Perrins base sauce. Having cut the onions the old fashioned way by knife (since my mother has taken my food processor, alas one day we may buy a proper one instead of relying on noisy Kenwood machines) and sustaining a slight paper-like cut scratch on my finger I didn't wish to repeat the same accident with the Garlic!


The packaging for the actual product doesn't say very much however other than it is "top rack only," dishwasher safe and that the blades are very dangerous. Well, I wouldn't suggest that this toy like gadget is suitable for children even with a parent standing by on guard. This is the immediate downside about this gadget - for all the toy value that it aspires to - the blades are set on a mini star like disc that have four blades in total on its main fly wheel design and sits within a cradle of the Garlic Zoom with ratchets on either side to fit into the corresponding cogs of the main two sided wheels on the outer body. The blade frame/disc can only be fitted one way however, which is very welcomed but you need to be very careful when picking the blade out, particularly if you want to wash it as there are no safe parts of the blade disc that can be picked out, but rather carefully you need to grab one of the blade edges to pull out the whole mechanism. If you are slow and careful you shouldn't sustain any cuts. I however narrowly missed stabbing my finger after I had "Zoomed" my first clove.


The procedure for slicing Garlic in this gadget is quite simple and effective. However you still have to remove the hard skin on the clove, which means stinky fingers regardless of how far you keep your fingers away when pushing the clove with a flat knife to loosen the skin! Only then can the Garlic itself be inserted. Thanks to its curved top, a little door can be picked upwards to allow the clove to be inserted. I've managed to insert two small cloves in the small cutting chamber before the lid snaps down and locks shut. Then in a vigourous fashion move the Garlic Zoom back and forth on a flat surface to get the blade spinning and as it does so, thanks to its all natural clear acrylic design with green accents (including the blade holder) you can keep an eye out on the thickness or thinness of the Garlic as it starts to get chopped up. Keep moving it and the Garlic will continue to be chopped into infinite pieces - very handy for anyone who doesn't like food processor chunks of Garlic in their food and more importantly - the smaller pieces have equal sizes to them much more finer and precise than I could ever do with a knife and a great deal of patience!


After you have finished zooming, the cut pieces of Garlic sit at the top and bottom of the holder. Flipping up the top is easy to do and it is here that you get your first flurry of Garlic pieces ready to be taken out. However the blade sits proud just under the lid which means removing the blade first and foremost should be done to avoid any cuts. This is where one of the most pernickety actions has to be done because most of the Garlic sticks to the top; once the blade has been removed the easiest way to get the Garlic out is to ironically use a finger.


I tried to use a knife but most of the Garlic landed on my kitchen worktop which somewhat prevented the whole exercise of odour free measures whilst getting all the Garlic out wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Then I tried a mini spatula with mixed results; whilst the fins fitted length wise it wasn't always possible to scoop out the pieces completely without some of the Garlic slicing landing elsewhere! However as a gadget it does what it promises - largely! As for its promise of being odour free however I do question how you get all the chopped Garlic out without using a finger thus sustaining the smell of Garlic on your fingers not to mention having to remove the skin first in any event.


Another downside but one of greater importance is the marking that the wheels put on my kitchen worktop. No wonder other owners have used a tea towel or material to roll the gadget on. Although removable by scrubbing I wasn't expecting the marks that the wheels left after use and in this respect thanks to their PVC plastic build, I know the next time I use the Chef'N Garlic Zoom it will be strictly used on a tea towel basis to avoid trailing marks on my work tops!


So it's a cut free thumbs up (or other digits on your hands) for the Chef'N Garlic Zoom generally and a new novel way to cut one of your favourite herbs. But for the removal of its very sharp blade and removing the Garlic product from its rather oddly narrow shaped body, this design could be improved here for bigger implements to scoop out all the Garlic without touching it. Only then can it become a truly safe and odour free experience. Thanks for reading. ©Nar2 2009

www.johnlewis.com
Product code 81249724


Summary: A handy garlic slicer that needs a little patience and guidance. Not for children.