After years of cooking just for the two of us and using nothing fancier than a good pair of kitchen shears to slice our occasional pizzas, something changed. When we started enjoying breakfast quesadillas it suddenly became apparent that our kitchen needed a high quality pizza cutter.
Since KitchenAid actually advertises their 4" professional grade KTA KG114ER as quesadilla-friendly, I looked at it first, and indeed, this cutter is appealing. It is weighted so perfectly and the handle is so comfortable that the store clerk practically had to pry it out of my hand. But she wanted me to try the Xyliss because its perfectly round shape takes up less space in a small kitchen. Fingers fly faster than brains in my food prep area, however, and this device has no blade guard at all.
Furthermore, the squishy handle forms a half moon shape right around the blade itself. I shuddered to think what would happen if greasy fingers should awkwardly slip while pressing down the wrong way on that sort of grip. Give me a modern pizza cutter that is as dependable as those shoe skates worn when roller rinks were the craze, not one that is a cross between the unicycle and a roller blade.
I could not imagine how to reach into a drawer and pull that tool out without slicing a finger or two. Even when I put it down on the counter top, the blade started spinning menacingly. No matter, there are other Xyliss contraptions that we love, especially their wonderful soft-fruit and veggie peeler, which I use daily to skin things like tomatoes, peppers, and kiwis.
I prefer to hang my pizza cutter from a hook on the wall, anyway, so the prize for prettiest hanger goes to Mario Batali's 4" utensil designed for use on non-stick pans. Equipped with clever grooves to keep food from sticking to the flexible wheel, it also has a contoured soft grip handle. There is no need for a blade guard because this wheel is not sharp to the human touch. Notwithstanding, it does an amazingly job of slicing through pizza without ruining pans.
The comfortable handle protects fingers well when it is necessary to bear down hard, as a metal shield extends in both directions at the base of the handle. Planning to use my pizza wheel for mincing herbs and slicing all sorts of things other than pizza, however, I still wanted a stainless steel blade on my cutter.
Cuisinart's model 89431, like the KitchenAid, has an ergonomic handle that solidly protects fingers from its 4" high quality razor sharp stainless steel blade. But that is where the similarity ends. Cuisinart's brilliantly designed blade protector slips on and off easily and works hand in glove with a monstrous finger guard molded right down into the handle.
In truth, the huge handle does not feel quite as well-balanced or comfortable in my hand as the KitchenAid, but overall Cuisinart has to win out as the safest and most versatile pizza cutter on the market. Although it may not look that way at first glance, it is also remarkably easy to clean. Washing it right away is a good idea, of course, but if it should get left lying around until the food hardens on, just dump the whole thing into a bowl of hot sudsy water to soak for a few minutes and the crud will slide right off. No need to worry about that ample finger-protecting shield trapping gooey crumbs, either. This hasn't happened yet, at least not to me.
Any of the hangable utensils mentioned above would do, but we wanted a heavy duty cutter with the strongest possible safety rating, so I chose Cuisinart as queen of the pizza cutters, and it is the one I most proudly display in my home. It works so well that we eat a lot more pizza now than we did before, too.
