[karaterobot]

Besides a dice that's as even as possible, the other requirement this solution attempts to satisfy is using the minimum number of cuts. A blender doesn't satisfy that, as it's making hundreds of cuts.

Then, when you present your solution to the client, you find out there was a third, unspoken requirement: that it should involve as little cleanup as possible, which the blender also doesn't satisfy. The user researcher was on vacation, and you didn't find out about this before beginning design. Damn!

The blender solution turns out to be overoptimized on a single requirement at the expense of the others.

[Hikikomori]

They're optimizing for time as knife cuts = time. A food processor will do it faster if you're more than one onion or so, assuming you can get the size you want.

[karaterobot]

Ahh, so in addition to having trouble getting consistently-sized pieces the size of a dice or chop, the other reason knives are preferred is that a food processor damages the onion, releasing more water compared to a knife. The result doesn't caramelize as well. This is why higher-end restaurants cut onions by hand, even when operating at scale.

[dns_snek]

> The result doesn't caramelize as well.

Anecdotally I've prepared caramelized onions both ways, chopped with a knife and using a food processor and I've never noticed a difference. Onions have to release most of their water before they can begin caramelizing anyway so if anything, wouldn't that speed up the process?

[Hikikomori]

You don't have to turn it into mush with a food processor, not all veggies are caramelized. High end restaurants usually optimize for speed but not over quality. Not sure why were talking that when this technique is for home chefs.