There is a big different between a top of the line food processor and one at the bottom. The key characteristic that separates them is that the best ones are able to do many things for you, making it so you have very few (if any at all) repetitive tasks to perform in the kitchen while cooking even the most complicated meals, while a simpler one can only do one or two things, and works more like a small blender.

The main characteristic of a good food processor is that it comes with multiple blades. A lower end one will come with only one, possibly two, blades. This may be good for grinding or making a sauce, and if that's all you are looking for in a unit, then this will work well for you! They also tend to be much smaller, holding about four cups of food (depending on the product).

A top of the line model will be able to do a lot more than this. They'll hold seven to twelve cups of food at a time. They will be able to do a long list of repetitive tasks, like, slicing, dicing, mincing, pureeing, grinding, shredding, and even mixing and kneading doughs. This is a lot for one appliance to be able to do.

You might wonder how it can slice things into neat slices when it looks more like a blender. You'll notice that at the top of the product there is a chute. When you insert something (like a cucumber or carrot) into this chute with the slice blade set up the processor will slice this for you into neat and tidy slices.

Being able to use one device to take care of all these little tasks makes cooking a big meal a much easier task! Instead of spending hours in the kitchen, you should be able to everything done much quicker than that, and be able to spend the rest of your time enjoying your food and doing other things. If you really love to cook, you'll notice your meals getting prettier and fancier every day.