As Seen On TV – The POP CHEF…Did It Work?

Oh how I love the fresh, colorful fruits and veggies of summer and I’m always trying to come up with creative ways to serve them. Which is why when I saw the POP CHEF kit (an As Seen On TV product) that claims to make fun shapes in seconds, using fruit, veggies, and more…I was super excited. As I looked at the package and all the beautiful pictures on it,  I could easily see myself serving up glorious fruit bouquets and vegetable baskets. The box says just “push, pop & eat” which seemed easy enough…

The kit typically sells for about $10 at stores that sell the As Seen On TV products. You can also buy it online from the As Seen On TV website for $10 but there’s also a $5.99 shipping and handling charge. But wait, if you order from them, they add a “free” special occasions set, which will cost you an additional $5.99 shipping and handling charge. And if you return the product for any reason, you don’t get those shipping and handling charges back. I actually found mine at Ross for $3.99 so I thought, what the heck, let’s try it.

The kit includes a 3-piece Pop Chef Tool, skewers, instruction/recipe book, and 6 shapes which include a circle, heart, flower, butterfly, sun, and star.

HOW TO USE –

I used fruits and vegetables for testing but the recipes include treats using meats, cheeses, breads, and fondant decorations. The directions say to prepare food by slicing it 1″ thick or thinner. Choose the shape you want to use, insert it into the stem, making sure the air bulb and cap are securely twisted in. It’s really easy to assemble. Then holding the cutter straight up and down, press the cutter into the food until it goes completely through the food. Then remove the cutter. To release the food, hold your hand a few inches over the bulb and “pop” the surface of the bulb to release the food.

Easy as 1-2-3! (Is what the box says.)

I tried cucumbers first that I had sliced fairly thin, just to make it easier as I got the hang of things. But even as thin as those were, the cutter shapes, which are made out of plastic, took a bit of oomph to get them to cut all the way through. You could use the slices with the shapes cut out of them for dips, which seems to be a bit wasteful or you could use the cut out shape for décor or stacked veggies but with just the seed part, it’s pretty flimsy.

Next I tried bell peppers but the very first time I tried that, the pepper got stuck.

But luckily they include this handy little “dislodging tool” (stick) that you can insert into a hole and push the food out.

Ok, already I’m frustrated. The air bulb really doesn’t do anything, the whole thing keeps falling apart, and I don’t really think my shapes look that great.

Let’s see how the fruits fared…

With the cantaloupe I used, I was never able to get the bulb to push it out. I had to use the stick every single time and at one point, just took the shapes off the stem and used them as I would a cookie cutter. Plus with all the handling, the melon got a bit mushy.

The honeydew was a bit more durable because it was less ripe, but the shapes aren’t that clean because it was less ripe and more difficult to get the tool to cut through it, and it just took a lot of steps…push it in, keep pushing, bulb doesn’t work so it gets stuck, then you have to use the stick to get the fruit unstuck.

I also used watermelon which didn’t work any better. I had bought quite a variety of produce to experiment with but after the peppers, cucumber, and melons…I was done. Too much effort for what I was getting.

The website for POP CHEF reads, “Creating with Pop Chef is Easy as 1-2-3. Choose a shape and push firmly into food. Press the bulb to force air and pop out shape. Use bamboo skewers to create your masterpiece.” Well, plus a few more steps of pressing the bulb more than once, using the stick to get all the food unstuck, taking time to put the pieces back together if they come apart…for results of mushy fruits, blurry shapes, and frustration.

I think using metal cookie cutters would work 100% better.

Because you can’t have very thick slices, they don’t hold up that well on skewers either.

So I’m very happy I only paid $3.99 for this instead of the $10. I will give the plastic shapes to the grandsons to use with play dough, use the pictures in the recipe book for inspiration, and toss the rest in the recycling bin.

Would I recommend this? Never in a million years. But if you’ve had good luck with this, we’d love to hear about your own results.