The Café Couture Oven, a brand new all-in-one countertop oven from GE’s Café Line of high-end home equipment, provides the comfort of a number of totally different home equipment — it might probably do issues like bake, roast, toast and even air fry — in a smooth, compact design that’s a no brainer for these with smaller kitchens. And, it appears attractive doing all of it.

I’ve been utilizing the Café Couture Oven in my kitchen for a number of weeks now, as a substitute of my normal Wolf Gourmand Elite Countertop Oven. And regardless of some minor quibbles, I’m happy with how nicely the Café Couture Oven carried out. Right here’s what that you must know when you’re contemplating making room in your countertop for this modern and useful kitchen equipment.

Apart from nice appears, the oven cooks nicely, heats up rapidly and evenly, and provides plenty of choices. Whereas many fundamental toaster ovens have easy cooking modes reminiscent of bake, toast and broil, some costlier fashions like my Wolf oven provide proof, heat, bake, roast and toast in addition to broil. The Café Couture Oven covers all of this with 14 totally different cooking modes together with my favourite, a “crisp end” mode which I take advantage of for browning fish and greens.

Up to now, I’ve normally caught bread and bagels in my standalone toaster, as I’ve  had some lower than stellar experiences with earlier toaster ovens. Just one facet would get toasted, or it might take three “toast” cycles to really get it to my liking, so I used to be pleasantly stunned at how nicely the Café Couture carried out this most elementary perform. Due to 4 parts on the highest and two on the underside, toasting and baking within the Café Couture Oven produces even temperatures and outcomes.

I particularly appreciated utilizing the “crisp end” for browning veggies after they roast. You may broil, however that tends to cook dinner too rapidly and generally splatters, so I desire this mode.

The oven’s dial-style management knobs are simple to make use of. I like that the settings are proven on an easy-to-read LCD show on the prime of the oven, and I didn’t have to squint or seize my glasses to learn the wording on the dials. This was my first expertise with an oven that mounted the controls above the door (as they might be on a full-size oven) and I a lot desire this place to dials and settings positioned decrease on the entrance panel, to the suitable of the door, like these on Breville and Wolf countertop ovens.

The dials present cooking mode, temperature and cook dinner time, when you’re utilizing a timer. There’s additionally a progress bar show on the underside to point out how shut you might be to the specified temperature while you’re preheating.

The oven has 0.8 cubic ft of cooking house, which is barely smaller than different high-end countertop fashions such because the Breville Sensible Oven Air Fryer Professional or the Wolf Countertop Oven that I take advantage of, however nonetheless giant sufficient to make a 12-inch pizza, roast a complete hen and cook dinner with 9 x 13 baking or pans.

All that house makes room for two racks — there’s loads of room to cook dinner a bit of fish on one rack whereas veggies cook dinner on the rack under, which makes for simple dinner prep.

In case you’ve been eager to experiment with totally different typesways of cooking, this makes it quite simple. It comes with an Air Fry basket in addition to a 12-inch pizza pan, a wire rack and a baking tray. However not like the Breville Sensible Oven Professional, which has traces on the oven to point out you which ones rack to make use of for every cooking mode, you’ll must learn the directions on the Café Couture Oven. present you which ones of the three rack positions to make use of for every cooking mode.

As an example, for air frying, you’ll use the basket within the center rack place however for warming or sluggish cooking, the decrease rack place is advisable.

I attempted totally different cooking modes and located the oven, whereas not excellent (my veggies didn’t all the time get crispy sufficient) does most issues nicely sufficient. It maintains its temperature and cooks meals evenly. It’s nice for warming meals, toasting and cooking a number of issues on the similar time.

The surprisingly quiet air frying mode cooks at larger temperatures of 400 to 450, however as a result of I’m used to the deeper basket of a standalone air fryer, it took a while to get used to utilizing the Café oven’s shallow basket (extra on that under).

Salmon got here out crispy on the skin and nonetheless moist and evenly cooked on the within. Similar for simply heating up leftovers. I used to be capable of heat up already cooked hen in about 10 minutes, with out drying it out.

Among the best issues about utilizing the Café Couture Oven is how rapidly it heats and the way little warmth it offers off. For anybody who detests firing up a giant kitchen oven in tremendous sizzling climate, it is a godsend.

Whereas cleansing an oven is rarely anybody’s thought of enjoyable, the detachable rack system and pull out-crumb tray makes it simple to entry the within elements, which inevitably get dripped on and splattered.

You may put the rack, basket and pans within the dishwasher, however I desire hand washing with soapy water. The crumb tray must be washed by hand.

Can we speak about how fashionable this oven is? Not that anybody would spend $499 on a countertop oven only for appears, however this oven REALLY appears good.

Most countertop ovens are quick and huge, however this design is taller and narrower than most. This provides it a extra commanding presence within the kitchen, standing a full two inches taller than my Wolf oven. It additionally has gently rounded corners and a comfortable curved design.

At 14-inches tall, that you must be sure to have sufficient house between the underside of your kitchen cupboards and the highest of the oven, and this top could not work for all kitchens. That stated, at about three inches narrower than my Wolf, it takes up much less width house.

The Cafée Couture Oven is available in Matte Black, Matte White and Stainless Metal finishes with polished copper knobs and door deal with. I opted for the  stainless-steel end and it appears virtually like rose gold, mixing in superbly with my different stainless-steel home equipment. However the two-tone end and rounded edges additionally give it a contemporary, fashionable design that ought to look nice in any kitchen.

There are a number of minor quibbles I’ve with the Café Couture Oven however none of them are deal breakers.

I’m used to a standalone air fryer, which has a deeper basket with a tighter weave, so I normally flip my meals with a spatula or shake it because it cooks. The Cafe´ Couture, and most countertop ovens that double as air fryers, makes use of a shallow basket with bigger holes. Which means that apart from the sudden mess from small items of meals falling via the basket, I additionally had to make use of a fork or a set of tongs to reposition issues like cauliflower to be able to get it brown and crisp throughout.

And for anybody used to including salt and different spices immediately onto their meals inside an air fryer, you’ll have to think about marinating and seasoning meals beforehand to restrict dripping and spills. I did discover, nonetheless, that no matter landed on the heating coils burned off rapidly — although you’ll must energy via some smoke first.

One choice my editor identified is to line the underside of the oven (the drip pan pulls out absolutely for cleansing) with tin foil so it’s simpler to scrub up spills.

This sensible oven connects to Wi-Fi for distant management with a smartphone in addition to for simple entry to recipes throughout the app. However I had an especially tough time getting related and at last needed to name for assist. As soon as we figured it out and I began utilizing the app, I used to be capable of activate/off the oven mild and see the standing of the oven (on or off) in addition to program a cooking mode. However as soon as I selected the mode, temperature and set a timer, I nonetheless needed to hit the precise “begin” button on the oven to allow distant begin. This appears counterintuitive.

Most sensible home equipment require WiFi connection and I admire that product updates and new options will be pushed as over-the-air updates via the app, however I don’t assume the present state of the sensible options provides very a lot, making me wonder if the oven wants the connectivity.

The Café Couture Oven is a trendy equipment that may save house within the kitchen by combining cooking options and air frying. It performs 14 totally different cooking modes and does all of them nicely.

You could get higher efficiency on particular person recipes or meals from a standalone, single perform gadget like an air fryer or sluggish cooker, however when you’re quick on house and wish one, great-looking equipment that may take the place of many, this oven received’t disappoint.