Sarah stared at the blinking display on her counter, its digital promise of “9 Functions in 1!” mocking her from beside the dusty stovetop. Three months ago, she’d been excited about her new nine in one air fryer. Tonight, as she dumped another batch of uniformly golden chicken nuggets onto her daughter’s plate, she felt something she couldn’t quite name. Empty, maybe. Like she’d forgotten how to actually cook.
Her six-year-old looked up with that brutally honest way kids have and asked, “Mom, why does everything taste the same now?”
Sarah didn’t have an answer. But across the country, professional chefs are starting to speak up about what they see as a troubling trend that’s quietly reshaping how we think about food.
Why Professional Chefs Are Sounding the Alarm
Walk into any restaurant kitchen worth its salt, and you won’t find a nine in one air fryer humming away in the corner. You’ll find flames, cast iron, proper ovens, and chefs who’ve learned to read heat, timing, and texture through years of practice.
The disconnect between professional and home cooking has never been wider. While restaurants focus on technique and flavor development, millions of home cooks are increasingly relying on gadgets that promise to do the thinking for them.
“I’m seeing young cooks come into my kitchen who can program an air fryer but can’t tell when onions are properly caramelized,” says Chef Marcus Rodriguez, who runs a farm-to-table restaurant in Portland. “They’ve outsourced their intuition to a machine.”
The nine in one air fryer represents the pinnacle of this trend. These devices promise to roast, bake, grill, dehydrate, reheat, broil, rotisserie, toast, and air fry. But according to culinary professionals, this jack-of-all-trades approach creates a master-of-none situation that’s fundamentally changing how we approach food preparation.
What We’re Really Losing in the Kitchen
The critique isn’t about convenience or even health. It’s about something more fundamental: the loss of cooking skills and food understanding that comes from hands-on experience.
Consider what happens when you roast vegetables in a traditional oven versus a nine in one air fryer:
| Traditional Oven Method | Nine in One Air Fryer Method |
|---|---|
| You control temperature, timing, positioning | Machine controls all variables via preset |
| You learn to recognize doneness visually | Timer tells you when food is “ready” |
| Different vegetables require different approaches | Everything gets the same hot air treatment |
| Natural browning and caramelization occur | Uniform crisping without depth of flavor |
| You develop intuition about heat and timing | You develop dependency on presets |
“The problem isn’t that air fryers don’t work,” explains Chef Elena Vasquez, who teaches at a culinary institute in Chicago. “It’s that they work too well for people who don’t want to learn. Every protein, every vegetable, every leftover gets the same treatment. Hot air, preset timer, done.”
This uniformity might seem efficient, but it’s creating what food professionals call “flavor flattening.” When everything is processed the same way, distinct textures and tastes begin to disappear.
The Skills We’re Not Learning Anymore
Professional chefs point to several fundamental cooking abilities that nine in one air fryer users often miss:
- Heat management: Understanding how different temperatures affect different foods
- Texture recognition: Knowing when something is truly done versus just “timer ready”
- Flavor building: Using techniques like browning, deglazing, and layering
- Ingredient adaptation: Adjusting methods based on what you’re actually cooking
- Sensory cooking: Using sight, smell, and sound to guide decisions
“I had a student who could perfectly program her nine-function air fryer but had never heard the sound of onions properly sizzling in oil,” says Chef Vasquez. “She was missing this whole language of cooking that you can only learn by doing it with your hands.”
The Fast Food Factory in Your Kitchen
Perhaps the most damning criticism from professional chefs is that nine in one air fryers are essentially turning home kitchens into fast food production lines.
The results are predictably similar to commercial fast food: uniform crispiness, similar textures, and what chefs describe as “aggressive” flavors that rely on coating and seasoning rather than the natural taste of ingredients.
“When someone brings me food made in one of these all-in-one machines, I can usually tell immediately,” says Chef Antoine Dubois, who owns three restaurants in New York. “It has that specific quality – crispy outside, steamed inside, minimal actual flavor development. It’s like homemade McDonald’s.”
This isn’t necessarily about health or even taste preference. It’s about the gradual standardization of home cooking that mirrors industrial food production.
What’s Really at Stake
The concern goes beyond individual meals. Cooking has traditionally been how food knowledge passes from generation to generation. When that process gets automated, something cultural gets lost.
Children growing up with nine in one air fryers as the primary cooking method aren’t learning to adjust seasoning, understand ingredient timing, or develop the confidence to experiment. They’re learning to trust presets over their own judgment.
“My grandmother could make fifteen different dishes with just a cast iron pan and her intuition,” reflects Chef Rodriguez. “My nephews can make fifteen different things with their air fryer, but they all taste remarkably similar.”
The implications extend to food appreciation, ingredient quality, and even grocery shopping. When cooking becomes a matter of selecting presets rather than understanding ingredients, the connection between cook and food weakens significantly.
Not All Convenience Is Bad
Professional chefs aren’t advocating for a return to wood-fired stoves and hand-churned butter. They use plenty of modern equipment and understand the value of efficiency.
The distinction they make is between tools that enhance cooking skills versus devices that replace them entirely. A good knife makes prep work faster but still requires technique. A proper oven offers consistent heat but demands understanding of temperature and timing.
“There’s a difference between a tool that helps you cook better and a machine that cooks for you,” explains Chef Vasquez. “One teaches you something new every time you use it. The other teaches you to stop paying attention.”
FAQs
Are nine in one air fryers actually unhealthy?
Not necessarily from a nutritional standpoint, but they can limit your exposure to diverse cooking methods that create different flavors and textures.
Do professional chefs ever use air fryers?
Some use dedicated air fryers for specific tasks like crisping pre-cooked items, but rarely rely on all-in-one devices for primary cooking methods.
Can you still learn to cook if you use a nine in one air fryer?
Yes, but you’ll miss out on fundamental skills like heat management, timing intuition, and understanding how different cooking methods affect flavor.
What should I use instead of a nine in one air fryer?
Chefs recommend learning basic techniques with traditional tools: a good pan, a reliable oven, and proper knives. Master these before adding convenience devices.
Is this just food snobbery from professional chefs?
The concern isn’t about elitism but about maintaining cooking skills and food understanding that create better meals and preserve culinary knowledge.
Will nine in one air fryers completely replace traditional cooking?
Unlikely in professional kitchens, but they’re significantly changing home cooking habits, especially among younger generations who are learning to cook with them as primary tools.