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Buy It And Try It: Il Pelasicuro Potato Peeler

It's a futuristic contraption made of white and orange day-glo plastic.

Yup, it's a potato peeler, Italian inspired and imported direct from Los Angeles: electric, sleek, and futuristic. Where better to test a potato peeler than Nick's, a 50's-style diner in West Sacramento?

"We got hash browns. We got country potatoes. We got baked potatoes. We got rice pilaf which is a starch, but not really a potato," said Jose Rodriguez, chief potato peeler, Nick's Diner.

Kurtis: You guys don't use none of that flakes, the fake stuff some restaurants use?

Jose: Naah this is the real deal. There's a lot of sweat into our mashed potatoes. Not literally into them.

Everyday Jose Rodriguez 'peels' through about thirty pounds of potatoes.

"Sixty pounds on the weekends," said Jose.

So how does he do it?

"Straight old hand-peeler, the best device for the kitchen," said Jose.

Jose's tool for 12 years, it's the cause of quite a few nicks and scratches.

"Some war wounds? Some war wounds. But hey, it's part of the job," said Jose.

Peeling is a job that can take up to two or three minutes a spud. He cut this in just under two minutes. Multiply that by thirty pounds, and that's a plethora of peels.

Enter Il Pelasicuro. It says it's safe, cordless, rechargeable and waterproof.

"If it actually works and it was cost-effective, it would dramatically change the kitchen," said Jose.

Dramatically? To coin a phrase, we'll see about that.

Time for the test.

The instructions say to rest the blade unit against the food and push the start button.

And right away, our fry cook's flabbergasted.

"Wow. Ok, that works. Wow. That's got a lot of kick to it," said Jose. Oh it's workin', way better than I thought," said Jose. It ended up "cutting" his peeling time to about a minute.

"I'm pretty impressed. If it's that good all the time, I'll go ahead and invest in one. Save myself a lotta time," said Jose.

So we're an enthusiastic thumb's up for the Il Pelasicuro. This sleek futuristic tool is totally cool for this vintage diner, daddy-o.

Now the instructions say that you have to charge this thing for 18 hours before using it, and we found out the hard way that's true. Jose was so impressed he's lobbying Nick's to buy one, and if they won't, believe it or not, he's going to buy one himself.

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