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Last week, I asked my colleagues to each name one online purchase they’re passionate about. Ben Tyers, Head of Audience at Val Morgan Digital, wrote me immediately: “Years in, I still love an air fryer.”
Tyers says he bought the Tefal Easy Fry EY401D model, which, though, is no longer made, is similar to the EY505D model, retailing at $279. Both models feature a touchscreen and can fit an XL meal that’ll feed up to six.
Tyers says that’s one of the biggest appeals in his eyes for this model of air fryer — the size of its tray. “I know you can get bigger, but I think the 4.2L suits us perfectly,” he says.
“We actually saw my wife’s cousin using hers when we went around for Christmas lunch [in 2021],” says Tyers. “She was using it to cook sides to go with the roast because the oven was full. I was pretty shocked at how the sides came out — it had roasted everything as if it has been in over an hour, and it probably did it in half that time.”
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Two years later, Tyers says though his household now uses the air fryer less than when it first got it, it still uses it weekly, and even more than that in winter. The only thing his family has yet to cook in it, but really wants to, is a cake.
“I’ve cooked a whole roast chicken in it, and it came out perfect,” he says. “We use it a lot to reheat things – it’s great for reheating pizza, for instance. It really brings the pizza back to life. It’s also a game-changer when cooking for kids, too. If you need a quick meal of frozen fish or nuggets, you can cook them in the air fryer, and they’re ready in 10 minutes.”
While Tyers does agree it’s not unlike an oven, he says the appeal of an air fryer is that it’s smaller, you don’t need to preheat it and it’ll cook food much quicker, in most cases. “Leave the oven for bigger things like roasts or tray bakes, and use the air fryer for all your sides and things that aren’t really worth preheating your oven for,” he says.
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