What's the Hype Around Air Fryers?

Until it was knocked out in the Sweet Sixteen by YouTube, the air fryer, a #14 seed, was the underdog story of the Brew’s Greatest Product of All Time tournament. It easily defeated #3 TikTok in the first round, then toppled #6 Nike Air Jordan 1 in the second.

So, being relatively unfamiliar with this particular appliance, I have to ask: What is an air fryer and why is it a better product than an app with more than 2 billion downloads and the most famous sneaker of all time?

My research began, as it always does, with french fries

In the early 2000s, Dutch engineer Fred van der Weij was struggling to quickly whip up a batch of fresh, Red Robin-worthy french fries. None of the methods he tried produced a sufficiently moist, crispy fry. So, van der Weij decided to build a contraption of his own that would get the job done, he told the Washington Post.

A few years later, van der Weij licensed the tech to Philips, which debuted the first modern air fryer at a consumer electronics show in Berlin in 2010.

The rest, as they say, is crispory.

• The air fryer got shoutouts from celebrity chefs including Emeril Lagasse and Gordon Ramsay.
• It made Oprah’s “Favorite Things” list in 2016.
• With growth accelerating, in 2018 New Yorker food writer Helen Rosner asked, “Is the air fryer the new Instant Pot?”

The pandemic, and the millions of new home chefs it spawned, may have anointed the air fryer kitchen royalty. In the 13 weeks ended June 27, 2020, nearly 2 million more air fryers were sold than the previous year, reports the NPD Group.

But what is an air fryer?

Let’s start with what it’s not: a fryer. Instead, it’s a small convection-style oven that sits on your countertop. But here’s where the genius of van der Weij comes in: Air fryers get your food nice and crispy without the oil bath.

• How? Basically, an air fryer pummels your food with hot air circulated by a high-speed fan. This process “browns” the food through what’s known as the Maillard reaction. You encounter the Maillard reaction when you eat all kinds of delicious foods, including campfire-roasted marshmallows, seared steaks, and french fries.
• What many people love about an air fryer is it achieves this browning effect without making you feel like you need a 2-hour Peloton sesh the next day. Plus, it’s super fast.

But with all the hype comes LeBron-on-the-Heat level scrutiny. The recommendation site Wirecutter put the air fryer on its “Worst Things for Most People” list. The Kitchn’s conclusion: “You don’t need one.”

And then there’s author and TV personality Alton Brown.

Methinks that's a losing battle.