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The Air Cooker is the latest novelty from Philips for cooking. A sort of mini-steam oven, it intends to make a place for itself on work surfaces by playing the card of healthy and tasty cuisine.
Philips adds a new cooking appliance to its catalog with the Air Cooker. Not to be confused with the Airfryer, the name used for its oil-free (or air) fryers, it also includes a resistance associated with a fan to diffuse hot air. However, the Air Cooker aims for lower temperatures while adding steam.
Tempting promises
This technology combining hot air – but not too much, therefore – and steam has been called NutriFlavor. Thanks to it, the Air Cooker must offer tasty cooking combining taste and texture, but also healthy: Philips, which has analyzed several foods after cooking, indicates that it has found up to 90% of the vitamin C contained in broccoli and peppers and even up to 93% of the Omega 3 contained in salmon. These results were obtained with the Air Steam mode combining hot air and steam, but seven others are offered, in addition to a keep warm mode: steam, oven, roasting, reheating, defrosting and even simmering and sous vide.
To further assist the user, Philips offers predefined settings by ingredient, but also its NutriU application to find recipes; former Top Chef candidates have also been approached to develop six, including Mallory Gabsi who should propose three. Wifi is provided for remote control and monitoring of cooking using alerts, which should also allow you to receive updates with, as a result, new ingredients and settings to be found directly on the device.
Users more comfortable in the kitchen will of course also find a manual mode. This allows you to select a temperature between 60 and 160°C and to add or not add steam with, if necessary, two levels of humidity to choose from.
A rather well designed device, but a limited capacity
In short, the Air Cooker is a kind of steam oven that is a little more limited, by its temperature range first of all, but also by its format. It sits on the worktop and looks more like a bread machine with its dimensions of 44 x 35 x 23 cm and opening from the top. A window allows you to control the cooking without having to open it, and a small screen associated with a selection button allows you to navigate between the different modes and settings; however, you have to go through the Philips application to find recipes.
On the back, a water tank is provided for steam and the Air Cooker comes with a tray to slide into the bottom of the cavity. This tray is handled using retractable handles, which retract when the lid is closed and unfold when opened to extract it easily. In addition to this tray, Philips provides a basket; a second tray to be placed above the latter can be purchased in addition to cook on two levels. A small tank is also available for cooking pies, bread and even risotto, but unfortunately you won’t have to invite too many people over for dinner.
If the Air Cooker allows, according to Philips, to cook for four people, it is better that they are small eaters. After use, the accessories can be washed by hand or in the dishwasher and all fit together for storage in the appliance. Rinsing, descaling and cleaning modes are also available to facilitate maintenance of the device itself.
The Air Cooker is now available at the recommended retail price of €579.99 and an introductory offer allows you to obtain the second tray or the tank for €1 more, against €34.99 excluding promotions. This is still much more than for a classic multicooker, such as the Cookeo from Moulinex, or the SmartLids from Ninja which offer a Combi-Steam mode, such as the OL750EU. The American, however, seems much less focused on the nutritional value of steam cooking than is Philips.