Tefal OptiGrill – Review

I’m loving being a Tefal Innovations Panellist, it means we have the chance to play with the latest toys from a fabulous brand in the comfort of our own homes.

Last week I was introduced to the Tefal OptiGrill at a Tefal meeting where we were demonstrated this smart new machine.

Now I won’t even begin to make myself look silly by trying to work out how this all happens – maybe it’s wizardry inside the machine which carefully measures the thickness of the meat/fish added to it, it can count how many you place in too!

Whatever makes this all happen means my job in the kitchen is now even easier! 

Have you ever put a steak in to cook, not looked at the timer at all, not looked at the steak during cooking times and still had a perfect steak?  one medium and one well done?

I have!  I did just that yesterday while cooking.

It worked perfectly.  I like my steak’s cooked medium and Paul likes his cremated well done.

To work the OptiGrill it couldn’t be simpler, take out of the box, remove all packaging and plug in.  Press the on button, then select the meat or fish button depending on what you are cooking – it has buttons for Burgers, Chicken, Bacon, Steak & Fish (these are represented by pictures) – there are also buttons for defrosting and a M button which is manual – once you have selected your cooking options press OK.

The Tefal OptiGrill then pre-heats, you can tell it is doing this as it lights up (colours are coded on the front of the flashing dial), once done it will beep but stay in preheat mode until it detects you opening it up and putting the meat/fish inside – then the wizardry begins – it measures the thickness and the quantity you have added and adjusts the temperature and cooking times accordingly.

It will then cook through the cycles and you remove your food when it reached how you want it cooked – first up is rare, once done to rare it will beep and the light will flash Yellow, if you don’t remove it will continue cooking through to medium – again will beep which this is achieved and flash Orange and if not removed it will cook through to well done, beep and flash Red.  If you still don’t remove it will keep it warm for you.

If you wanted a rare to medium steak for instance you have to keep an eye on the colour dial, it will flash yellow at rare and will start moving through to yellowy/Orange – before it hits all Orange just remove and you will have a rare/medium.

Steak is a hard thing to judge and get right, I’m not at all fussy with my steak and will happily eat it if it’s bleeding still, Paul however won’t touch it if it has any Red in it at all.

Cooking in this way helps to keep the juices in your food so it isn’t dry when you eat it.

It also cooks the perfect Salmon or Tuna steaks, and by using the manual mode you can cook Panini’s too.

The plates are dishwasher safe and are popped out with the press of a button.  I’m loving this new kitchen gadget and much to Paul’s delight am planning steak again for dinner soon and I will be cooking Salmon for the kids too as it’s their favourite.

Steaks cooked at the Tefal Innovation Panel event

You can find further details of this over on the website: www.tefal.co.uk