Flexicado Review

Hand me a ripe avocado and some balsamic vinegar and I’ll happily give the last piece of banoffee pie to Great-Aunt Mildew. So I think the Chef’n Flexicado is a great idea. With it I can slice those babies quickly and get them on my plate–without turning my succulent snack into guacamole. No need to peel, no need to worry about timing. Just slice it open, bin the pit and in two minutes you can be eating.

At least that’s the theory that the marketing people have used to brainwash me. In practice the flexicado is… well to be honest it’s crap not bad actually….on the third try.

Wrapables.com* has this to say:

Simply slide the slicer's flexible head through an avocado half, and in one smooth motion, you can easily create 8 perfect segments

Amazon.co.uk * says:

This flexible slicer is ideal for preparing avocado. Simply cut the fruit in half and one scoop removes the flesh and slices it at the same time. It is made from nylon, which is firm yet flexible and works on any size of avocado.

The first time I tried it, I think that the avocados were too hard. At least, I blame the fact that I couldn’t get the flexicado to make a dent in the advocado on being too eager to try it and not waiting for the avocado to ripen. Ok fair enough, rookie mistake.

The second time, I tried it on a very small Haas avocado and blamed the failure on the size difference.

So far, so Failcado! I'd tried it twice and both times it had let me down. Things were looking bad.

I probably should have suspected some difficulties from the promotional images (courtesy of the Chef’n blog - http://chefnblog.com/ ).

You have this:

Then this:

And then, magically:

Nothing to show the journey through the middle - and no tips on ripeness.

I decided to give it one more chance. This time I was ready.

The avocado was ripe: nearly a week on the kitchen window had prepared it.

It was the perfect size: I’d carefully measured it in the shop.

My tools were ready: I'd sufficiently flexed the flexicado to warm it up and be sure I could do this final trial justice - I even had an audience: the lovely S having been invited for dinner and then bullied into taking photos* - nothing but fun when you come to my house!

I sliced the fruit open, de-pitted it and lined up the flexicado.

Started smoothly:

Had a nice trip through the middle:

And though getting it out at the end was tricky, all in all not bad. Result:

Even better with balsamic.

Overall Score: 6/10

Food Presentation: 6.5 out of 10 Result was a bit mushy (-1 point), but not bad form-wise. Slight hiccup getting it to let go of the slices at the end though (-2 points) –could muck thing up if culinary perfection is your watchword. Quite a bit of flesh left in the skin too.*

Waiting a few extra days for the avocado to ripen resulted in a rather unfortunate texture change, and was not really all that enjoyable taste wise – even with loads of balsamic. Now, to be fair, I waited a LONG-ass time to slice this avocado. Normally I wait two, maybe three days max before eating them – not a week as I did here. I suppose in a tricolour salad or mixed with other things the taste and texture might not be as noticeable or as offensive so I’m only taking off half a point for this (-0.5 points).

Ease of use – 8.5 out of 10. Once I got it started it does slice through the avocado easily. You definitely need to give it a good flex beforehand though to make sure that it fits your particular avocado and that you are using it on a properly – perhaps almost over-ripe fruit (-1.5 for the extra warm up) I’ve already taken off 2 points for the problems I had getting the slices out of the flexicado so won’t take off any more here.

Wash up: 10/10: This thing goes in the dishwasher. Mine came out nice and clean. This is an easy point gain. Basically, if you can put in in the machine and it comes out clean, it gets 10, if it can't - 5 at most. I hate dishes.

Penalty points: -2 for failed attempts. An object like this should be idiot proof. I'm frequently an idiot. Three tries to get it to work is two tries too many.

All this testing has me thinking though - the Flexicado is essentially a one trick pony. There must be some other uses for it. Stay tuned.

*They sell the flexicado. They have nothing to do with me.

*They also sell the flexicado and I only wish they had something to do with me.

*Not really - S isn't bully-able, she's just great.

*This may be down to user error – I’ve only successfully used this thing once but I would be disappointed if this was the standard result. I went back to the skin afterwards and could scrape out a decent portion with a spoon. Bit of a waste.