Why Andrew Zimmern Is Not A Big Fan Of Air Fryers
Food personality Andrew Zimmern has traveled the world tasting all sorts of unusual eats with his show "Bizarre Foods." More recently, he has been joining people in their homes for "Family Dinner," and when he's cooking at home, Zimmern has a lot of items that he likes to have on hand. He even makes recommendations for everything from seasonings to sauté pans on his website. However, an air fryer is definitely one thing you'll never see him suggest anyone buy.
Zimmern, as he explained on his YouTube channel, is not impressed with these popular gadgets. He understands that people may want to save some calories by air frying food instead of deep frying things, but he thinks that using a deep frying method may have better results. Deep frying isn't as bad as people think. "If you fry at the right temperatures and with the right kind of technique, you're actually putting not a lot of oil into your food," he said.
Convection oven beats an air fryer
Zimmern isn't against kitchen gadgets in general. He suggests rice cookers, spice grinders, and blenders on his website. But he doesn't see any reason why someone would want an air fryer because of its limitations. "It's a small basket so I can't really cook for a crowd," Zimmern explained. Besides, many people already have something in their kitchen that can do the work of an air fryer, but better.
Take a look at your oven and see if you have a convection setting. Zimmern says that putting your oven on high in its convection mode will yield the same results as an air fryer. Convection cooking is basically the same thing as air frying; it uses a fan to circulate air that reaches high temperatures. The added benefit of the convection oven is that it has a larger capacity so it's possible to make big batches at once. If you want to try air frying in a convection oven, some suggest using a crisper tray to up your frying power. The tray keeps the food off the bottom of the baking sheet and allows more air to circulate around each item.