The first thing you notice is the noise.
A chorus of tiny fans and beeps, glowing baskets sliding in and out like office drawers, frozen chicken nuggets turning into “dinner” in 12 minutes flat.
In a world where every kitchen countertop now looks like a showroom for plug-in gadgets, one nine-in-one machine has quietly taken over. Fries, wings, “grilled” salmon, banana bread, yogurt, dehydrated apples – all promised at the touch of a button, with less oil, less time, less… effort.
Yet step into a serious restaurant kitchen and you’ll hear a very different sound: knives on boards, pans hitting the stove, cooks talking about crust, smoke, and patience.
Chefs are starting to say out loud what many think in private: this flashy multitool might be killing the soul of home cooking.
And they’re ready to say goodbye to the air fryer cult.
When real cooking meets the nine‑in‑one shortcut
Stand in any big-box store on a Saturday and you can spot the conversion happening in real time.
A couple stares at a hulking black machine promising crispy everything, nine modes, zero hassle, and “healthy” fried food. The box is covered with photos that look like American diner food run through a wellness filter.
They’re not thinking about technique or ingredients.
They’re thinking: this will save our weeknights, our diets, our sanity.
That’s the fantasy behind the new generation of air fryer–multicooker hybrids.
Not just a fryer, but a grill, an oven, a dehydrator, a steamer, a reheater, a broiler – an answer to every tired 6 p.m. question.
The trouble starts when this answer quietly replaces the questions themselves.
Ask working chefs what they really think and the temperature in the room changes.
Some shrug and say they’re fine for reheating fries. Others wince, like you just suggested microwaving a ribeye.
One London bistro chef told me she’s started recognizing “air fryer chicken” on Instagram by the texture of the skin.
Golden, yes. Evenly browned, yes. But somehow… lifeless.
“The meat looks steamed,” she said. “No hard sear, no smoke ring, no story.”
Data backs up the craze. Search interest for multi-function air fryers has exploded over the last three years, with some retailers reporting triple-digit growth.
Sales are now strong enough that brands openly pitch them as oven replacements.
When a side gadget starts trying to fire your stove, you can see why the professionals get nervous.
Their main complaint isn’t about technology itself. Most restaurant kitchens run on high-tech equipment: combi-ovens, sous-vide baths, induction plates that could melt steel.
The problem is what home cooks are silently trading away.
Real searing needs direct contact, high heat, and judgment about when to turn.
Real roasting plays with hot spots in the oven, basting, resting, listening to the sizzle die down.
Those small decisions build flavor and skill.
By turning everything into a controlled stream of hot air, the nine-in-one flattens all that variation.
Food ends up tasty enough, sure, but with the same dry, aerated crunch on repeat.
You don’t get the shock of a blistered pepper, the sticky bits in the pan, the burnt-but-right edge of a grilled sausage.
You get predictability dressed up as “perfection”.
How to cook like a chef again (without throwing the gadget out)
One quiet rebellion chefs are suggesting is almost disappointingly simple: pick one technique and really live in it.
Instead of pushing the “air roast” button, take a basic pan and learn what medium-high actually feels like.
Cook the same vegetables three ways in a week: once on a sheet tray in the oven, once blistered in a cast iron, once low and slow with lots of olive oil.
Notice the smell shift from sharp and grassy to sweet and caramelized.
Do the same with chicken.
Sear thighs skin-side down in a pan until they threaten to stick, then loosen themselves. Finish in the oven, spooning the fat over the top.
The first time will feel clumsy.
The third time, you’ll start to feel something the nine-in-one can’t flash on a display: timing in your hands, not in the timer.
The biggest trap, chefs say, isn’t owning an air fryer. It’s letting it become the default.
We’ve all been there, that moment when you’re tired, scrolling on your phone, and the idea of actually washing a pan feels like a personal attack.
That’s when the nine-in-one feels like a hero. Throw in frozen snacks, tap “crisp,” walk away.
Do that once or twice a week, no drama. Do it every night, and your cooking muscles quietly atrophy.
Let’s be honest: nobody really cooks from scratch every single day.
But there’s a middle zone where you can still bring real technique to the table.
Use the gadget for what it truly is – an efficient mini-oven – and keep the emotionally charged things elsewhere: your Sunday sauce on the stove, a big tray of roasted vegetables, a piece of fish you actually watch as it cooks.
One French chef I spoke to put it in painfully blunt terms:
“An air fryer doesn’t ruin food. It ruins the relationship between you and the food. You stop checking, touching, listening. You start outsourcing your taste to presets.”
He wasn’t telling people to toss their machines.
He was telling them to reclaim the parts of cooking that no device can automate.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
- Keep one day a week “gadget free” – cook only on the stove or in the oven, even if it’s just eggs and toast.
- Reserve the nine-in-one for reheating or frozen food, not for every fresh ingredient you buy.
- Choose one skill to master per month – roasting vegetables, pan sauces, knife work – and repeat it until you don’t need a recipe.
- Use the gadget as a complement, not a crutch: crisping leftover roast potatoes, finishing off already-seared wings.
- When you do use it, season and marinate like a chef would, so the flavor isn’t riding only on crunch.
*Once you start paying attention, you notice how different your own food can taste from the same handful of cheap ingredients.*
Maybe the real “upgrade” was never on the countertop
The quiet truth sitting under this whole air fryer debate is not really about machines.
It’s about how much of ourselves we’re willing to hand over to convenience.
Chefs sound dramatic when they say this nine-in-one box “ruins real cooking”, but what they’re pointing at is subtle.
When every meal becomes a quick cycle of basket in, basket out, crunch, repeat, dinner turns into something we consume, not something we participate in.
You don’t need to be a purist who grinds their own flour to feel the difference.
You only need one night when you chop an onion by hand, stand over a pot, and smell that point where raw sharpness turns sweet.
One moment when you flip a steak not when a screen tells you, but when your eyes and ears agree the crust is ready.
That’s the part of cooking the nine-in-one can’t imitate.
The heat, the risk, the tiny decisions that go wrong, then go right.
Maybe the real “goodbye air fryer” isn’t about throwing it out.
Maybe it’s about putting it back in its place – as a tool, not a lifestyle – and letting real cooking, with all its mess and magic, move quietly back to the center of the kitchen.
Understanding body language: what it means when someone doesn’t look you in the eye while talking
| Key point | Detail | Value for the reader |
|---|---|---|
| Air fryers flatten technique | Hot air replaces searing, roasting, and pan contact, leading to uniform textures | Helps you see why your food tastes “fine” but forgettable – and how to change that |
| Use the gadget with intention | Reserve it for reheating, frozen food, or finishing, not as the default for every meal | Lets you keep the convenience without losing real cooking skills |
| Rebuild your cooking “muscles” | Practice one classic technique at a time, like pan-searing or oven roasting | Gives you confidence and flavor you can’t get from presets or presets |
FAQ:
- Question 1Are chefs really against air fryers, or is this just snobbery?
- Question 2Can I still cook “properly” if I use a nine-in-one gadget a few times a week?
- Question 3Why does air-fried food sometimes taste dry or “soulless”?
- Question 4What’s one simple change that makes the biggest difference to my home cooking?
- Question 5Should I get rid of my air fryer if I want to learn real cooking?
