Ascent A3500 Gourmet SmartPrep Kitchen System

You are not going to be saving much space by going with a Vitamix food processor attachment. It takes about the same space as the Cuisinart custom food processor. (The Vitamix fpa takes a little less space, but not by much, especially if you buy additional slicing blades). The good thing about the Vitamix fpa is it does a high amount of liquid mixing(I believe about 12 cups, but read the manual), while the Cuisinart one does only 3 cups of liquid mixing. And the Cuisinart custom 14 cup comes with only 2 slicing blades, they are not reversible or adjustable, so if you need more blades, it'll take up more space. You can buy more blades from the Cuisinart website, but if you buy all of them at regular price, the price does get close to the Breville option. Also, the safety mechanism on the Vitamix can trap water from the cleaning process, so if that's a concern, be mindful about it. (If you shake the water out, and let it air dry, it does disappear, but takes over a day in a normal room for those small water droplets to fully evaporate out. The Cuisinart will also trap some water in its safety mechanism, but it has a bigger air vent/gap for the water to evaporate, so they evaporate out a bit faster. It probably doesn't matter to you on a train, but the Vitamix fpa is a bit louder than the Cuisinart custom 14cup food processor. If you are frequently using the Vitamix blender and mixing a thick solution close to the full 2.0L, I would say get another food processor instead of the Vitamix food processor attachment. In my home cooking, I've had the motor base (A3500) overheat if I am mixing thick solution at the full 2.0L mark and then it could take anywhere from 20 minutes to over an hour for the motor to cool down enough for you to safely finish mixing again. So, if that were to happen in a commercial kitchen, you'd be out of a blender and out of a food processor for that duration with the Vitamix fpa option. If you're in a country with a good return policy, and are okay spending money, Breville makes one of the best food processor (never personally used it). However, with their additional attachments, it can get expensive. And the attachments do end up taking physical space. With a commercial kitchen setting, know that you might not be entitled to a full 10 year or 3 year warranty (at least in North America) if you tell them you use it in a commercial kitchen. As for the other comment, about a food processor that does multiple speed, I don't know any high end consumer grade food processor that offers multiple speed. (And I have 0 knowledge about commercial kitchen products). Cuisinart does make a few versions of the food processor, but I am Specifically talking about their custom 14 cup food processor that they have been selling for multiple decades now. Newer models come with more attachments, but you'll have to check their reviews to see how they hold up.

It depends on your needs. I have a Vitamix food processor and a Kitchenaid Mini. I’d say I use the mini 90% of the time. It’s super easy to clean and it does really save time in food prep. Plus, it’s very cheap. Going back, I would probably save money and not buy a fancy big food processor like the Vitamix (which by the way it’s fantastic and has excellent quality, just a real pain to clean) but just stick with the mini one.

I bought the Vitamix blender/food processor duo.  I could shred pennies if I needed to. 

I sold my crap food processor and got the 3500+FPA and I love the combo. Using one base rocks and the build quality and ergonomics on the FPA are topnotch.