Tefal Turbo Cuisine & Fry CY7788

So much potential – Was given an amazing opportunity to test the Tefal Turbo Cuisine & Fry and thought it would be a great chance to perhaps get rid of some of other devices if this one could replace a few. Having owned air fryers and been regular users of them, the added bonus of having a rice cooker and pressure cooker as a part of the same device seemed like a… Read more

great idea.

We used the Tefal to make fried foods, rice and a variety of pressure cooked meals.

The multi cooker did not appear to retain any smells or flavours after use as cleaning the appliance was a breeze as it is as simple as taking the bowl out and popping it in the dishwasher.

The food produced was good as a Pressure cooker and rice type functions. Good to set and forget. Air fryer took longer to cook than expected from previous air fryer experiences.

To recap each section of the appliance

Air fryer - cooked things well without the need to shake a basket. Though the timing didn’t go down low enough and felt that needed to turn the sauté function to get even heat.

Rice cooker- had difficulty getting the lid to lock in and build pressure.

Pressure cooker/stew function - worked well and produced excellent meals.

Overall - has potential however found that it wasn’t a very intuitive device. Yes there was lots of recipes to work but there certainly not enough instruction on how to use the functions. Beyond an only book that was hard to read online on my phone.

It would also be remiss of me to mention that when unpacking our appliance we were missing the power cord which meant we had a kitchen bench decoration for 2 weeks whilst we waited for the cord to arrive so we could actually use it.

Overall, it makes great food but the instructions are a bit lacking and a few features need an upgrade but it is definitely a step in the right direction.

Multicooker with Air Fryer meets most of your cooking needs – My wife and I have owned numerous variants of pressure cookers and multi cookers over the years and, generally, and I mean this in the very broad sense of the term, all of these appliances produce similar results for whatever fare it is that tickles your fancy. The usual caveats apply here such as quality of produce and cleanliness of appliance,… Read more

however in my opinion the important factors that set any of these cookers apart really come down to 3 things: functionality, ease of use & cleaning, and cooking time.

Coupled with the air fryer, the Tefal Turbo Cuisine & Fry is sizeable. The box delivered stood about ½ metre high, and first thoughts were of where are we going to put this?! Out of the box, the multi cooker stands 35cm (h) with lid attached & 26cm (h) without X 30cm (w) & 37cm (w) incl. handles. The “Crispy Lid” is 15cm (h) X 30cm (w). The 1200 watt cooker has a 7.6 litre removable non-stick bowl measuring 19cm (d) X 23cm (w) and comes packaged with a lockable lid, steaming/frying trivet, a plastic spatula and a measuring cup, instruction manuals and a recipe book.

The cooker itself has 10 programs, most of which you’d find on other AIO cookers, such as Stew, Soup, Stir Fry, Slow Cook, Bake, Rice, Yoghurt etc. You can make just about anything in these multi cookers, and these programs set different cooking times and temperatures for each setting (can be re-adjusted). There is also a Manual Mode, which allows full control over temperature and time, but you doesn’t allow for pressure cooking or utilisation of the delayed start (a handy feature).

I’ll review the air fryer separately below as they essentially are 2 different appliances. Over a period of a few weeks, we used the AIO to make the following: steamed vegetables, red lentil and chorizo stew, vegetable casserole, green lentil dal, chicken and corn soup, corned beef, pork ribs, and finally a banana loaf. We tweaked some of the recipes however followed the cooking/operating instructions in the recipe book to a tee, and all dishes turned out very tasty. All dishes were fresh/tender/moist, and flavourful, and no complaints from even the strictest critics on the planet … my children.

There’s no doubt it’s a capable cooker. Capacity of bowl is plenty enough to feed a large family. There are minimal buttons, and the set programs are handy using the control dial, however these are icon only, no text, so you need to either memorise them or keep referring to the manual to know which setting you need to select. Pressure/steam release is a simple push of a button, and wait time is around 1 minute until you can remove lid. Removal of seal and valves for cleaning is quick and simple, and I would say a better experience than most other AIO’s we’ve used.

Now, the thing we disliked the most about the unit was that its pre-heat phase was a little longer than other cookers we’ve used, as was the cooking time. It wasn’t much, mere minutes here and there but it adds up, and by the end of the 3 weeks we were commenting on it more often than not. The other thing that I should mention is the height of the cooker on our benches sits a few cm’s taller compared with our other cookers, and was also being commented on more and more over the few weeks we were using it. The air fryer that comes with the package is just another lid which replaces the AIO pressure lid, and sits plumb on top of the cooker. Sporting big handles and a simple control panel layout, it’s essentially just an element with a fan. Rated 1220 – 1450 watts, the Turbo Crisp comes with a power cord which you use in lieu of the cookers power. Turn it on, you can select from 4 programs, or manually set temperature and time, press start and away you go. You place your food on the supplied trivet, and after a couple of tries, realised best results for a crispy finish came from spraying the food with oil.

In testing, we thought about all of the foods we could replicate that we’d usually use a shallow pan fry, and put these to the test, including fish and chips, chicken schnitzel, chicken wings and vegetable patties. Lastly, we thought we’d give pork ribs a go as well (this uses the pressure cooker to tenderise the meat, then the air fryer to crisp them up post saucing). Fish and chips were amazing. Not sure about the breading on the schnitzel, and maybe we needed more oil, but these still came out moist and tasty. Chicken wings were crunchy. The vege patties were a surprising hit with the family as well. And the ribs … just superb, and as good as doing them in the oven.

Cooking times varied but if I had to guess were similar to time taken on stove or oven. Fryer was easy to operate, and when taking lid off I kept putting a plate down on the laminate bench to place it on as I was concerned with residual heat and melting bench! We’re not sure how this compares to other air fryers on the market, however the one thing we found wanting more of was space. The trivet is only 22cm (w) so in comparison with a frying pan, it’s relatively small, and we had to do multiple meals in batches. The other thing was the height concern mentioned above in the cooker review. Apart from this though, all in all, it was a positive experience using the air fryer, and coupling with the cooker for the ribs, can see merit in a dual use appliance such as this.

Tefal’s RRP at time of review is $499, however you can pick it up for $399 at multiple retailers (and currently on special for $289) from Myer. At this price, I would definitely consider and recommend purchasing. Thanks for reading.

Great multi cooker …… if you need one – When asked if we wanted to review a “Tefal Turbo Cuisine and Fry“ by Product Review I was quite exited. I would never have thought about buying one of these and the thought of being able to easily have Sunday roasts simmering away for hours on end with little input needed as well as being able to quickly make some one-pot dishes seemed quite… Read more

attractive and made me wonder why we had never considered buying one before.

It probably never occurred to me to buy one myself because my wife does most of the cooking at our home and whenever I cook efficiency / simplicity / time constraints are usually not “on the menu” (a kitchen looking like a bomb has gone off, the use of every single kitchen utensil/appliance we have and taking hours and hours to complete the cooking and having a couple of hungry and whining kids as a result however usually is…… and you do not need a pressure cooker/rice cooker / air fryer to achieve any of those). With great enthusiasm (and a few hungry kids in tow) we set-off on our way to trial the Tefal Turbo Cuisine and Fry and I have described our findings below.

THE GOOD In general the Tefal Turbo & Fry multi cooker is easy to use. The round button (“rotary dial”) with which the cooking program is set is very easy to operate and setting the time and temperature is also very easy. Switching from time to temperature or timer you can do in every order as you see fit (and back) which is convenient. If selecting a menu that requires the lid to be “locked” and it’s not locked an alarm will sound, the same applies if you “lock” the lid and use a menu that doesn’t requires the lid to be not locked. The multi cooker has a timer too that allows you to have it starting in a number of minutes / hours instead of straight away. What I love about the multi cooker is that’s its mostly just “set and forget” and when the alarm goes off the food is finished, couldn’t be any easier. This is perfect for roasts or other dishes that need to cook for a long time, I tried one that cooked for 6 hours and the taste was amazing! Much easier than using an oven that I end up constantly checking to ensure the temperature is right, the meat is not turning black, etc. What I also loved is when making a potato bake or cooking rice / rice pudding it’s all cooked to perfection in no time at all. I have tried potato bakes in the oven and even after 45 min’s the potato is sometimes still not properly cooked through while on the outsides the potatoes start to burn, none of that while using the pressure cooker. The bowl is spherical and I do think this does a lot for heating the dish equally and achieving a great result all the way through, it does make getting a dish out in one piece a bit of a challenge occasionally.

The Tefal Turbo & Fry multi cooker is very large which is great when trying to fit in a large roast or one-pot meal for a family of 4. It’s not so great when storing it in a small cupboard but thankfully we have a large pantry so no complaints from me (I’m typically a firm believer of “bigger is better” and this definitely falls in the “bigger” category). If you’re cooking for a small family and don’t have a lot of space a smaller multi cooker may be better.

On the air fryer: We do love our fries and I have a massive deep fryer (also Tefal) and I pride myself on making some kickass French fries (from scratch….. when I have the time). I have never heard too many good stories about using an air fryer for fries and I’m not at all impressed with oven-fries (they hardly ever end up being crispy and tasty) so my expectations weren’t high but we tried it anyway. I made some potato wedges to try (from potato’s, no pressed potato rubbish in this air-fryer) and I was quite impressed. Firstly the deep fryer is simple to use and I only had to mix the potato wedges once and the result was very evenly cooked and properly browned wedges. They were fairly crispy and tasted pretty good too (although with a deep fryer they are crispier, with the air fryer there is next to no oil taste which deep fried potatoes sometimes have a little). One point of critique is that it took “forever”. Using a deep fryer it takes about 5 to 6 minutes max (I fry potatoes in 2 “stages” to ensure they’re fully cooked and still crispy) but with the air-fryer this is close to 20 minutes. Not an issue for just the family (as mentioned before the bowl is big enough for that) but if you have a few friends over I expect you’ll have this thing running for hours when you want to make fries. I haven’t tried actual French fries yet in the air fryer but I will do so in the next few weekends and see how that goes.

Another thing I like of the Tefal Multi cooker is that you have all these appliances in one; a pressure cooker, rice cooker, an air fryer, etc. without having to buy (and store) them all separately. There is a down-side to that when you want to make a roast with a potato bake on the side but that can be resolved with planning properly. The multicooker can also be operated with a timer so in theory you can set everything in the morning and come home to a freshly cooked meal which sounds pretty good. I haven’t tried that yet however (I don’t quite like the idea of something being cooked at home while I’m not at home) and if it works as well as the timer on our coffee machine…… I probably never will try it. As all things Tefal this thing feels sturdy; The lid closes solidly, the buttons all feel well made and like they can withstand extensive use, it’s all easy to clean as well and everything fits perfectly. We have a number of other appliances from Tefal and they typically last a long time, this feels the same.

A nice little touch of the Multicooker is that it comes with a recipe booklet; While I’m sure over time we’ll find our own recipe’s that we’ll use more frequently it’s good to get started with some guidance. I have tried a number of the recipes already (roast, curry, coconut flan, wedges, rice pudding and potato bake to name a few) and most of it comes out as intended…… only the coconut flan looked VERY different than the photo with the recipe suggests but that could be a result of an error on my side, I tried a more conventional flan with milk and eggs and that was absolutely great and very simple.

THE BAD One thing I noticed is that the multi cooker makes cooking of a lot of dishes very simple, it does NOT make it fast though. While the pressure cooker itself allows for fast cooking, it does need to heat up and that can take quite a while. When cooking a curry, heating up for the frying and subsequently heating up for the pressure cooking took so long that it would have been quicker using a conventional frying pan. Note this issue does not exist with the air-fryer that is ready to go almost instantly.

The cooking time in the recipe booklet describes the time for the cooking programs only, it does not include the time for heating up so if you prepare everything only to switch on the cooker once you have all ingredients cut, cleaned and ready to go in front of you (like me, I am NOT good with multi-tasking) you can easily double the amount of time it takes to prepare a dish compared to what is stated in the booklet. Another downside related to that is that the multi cooker cannot indicate what temperature it is at (once you set it, that’s it), how long the pre-heating is still going to last etc. so you’re flying blind there. I did make the mistake to start cooking ingredients while the multi cooker was still heating up (I thought I’d try to multi-task….. it backfired immediately) and by the time the multi cooker had reached its operating temperature the chicken was getting dark-brown-ish as it had been heating up slowly for 15 odd minutes!

Another thing that I think is a bit underdone is how the selection of the cooking programs is displayed on the multi cooker. While the button (sorry “Rotary dial”) is easy to operate you’re relying on little icons lighting up to tell you what program you have selected. And while some are self-explanatory, there are 10 different programs / icons (not considering the air-fryer) and some icons look very alike so it’s difficult to keep them apart and know what you have selected. While there is a sticker provided explaining what the icons mean I dare say it is probably easier to install a small display that just shows text in addition to or instead of a symbol? I feel that would be much much clearer. Taking a step back in the menu selection and choosing another program is also not possible so when you have inadvertently selected the incorrect program and have set the temperature / timer / time already you need to press the start/stop button twice and start over, as mentioned above it is however possible to switch from time to timer to temperature in every order and back as you see fit so you can change those at any time before pressing the start button which is good.

While this multi cooker seems to have endless ways of using it I am not sure I really need all them as it doesn’t seem to do anything more conventional appliances (I mean pans, pots and microwaves) do not do and it’s not necessarily faster than the more conventional appliance. I do feel using the multi cooker is a very easy (and probably more convenient a large oven or pan in instances) especially when cooking roasts and things that need to stew for a long time but spending $499 for the occasional roast and to make cooking a little easier / more convenient but hardly any faster seems a lot to me.

THE UGLY Tefal seems to have tried to develop a simple manual predominantly using pictures and icons (I’m guessing to not have to rely on a written explanation so it can be used unaltered in a large number of countries). While I’m all for keeping things simple I think the manual is now so simple it misses basic information. I wonder if the process for removing and cleaning the valve is clear to everyone from the start and the process for starting / stopping / resetting the multi cooker and air-fryer was also not entirely clearly explained……. but in saying that there is always Youtube where the most basic of things are explained (I’ll need to doublecheck with the kids but surely there’s a youtuber that does clips on operating Tefal appliances…….. would be infinitely more entertaining than watching kids unpacking toys).

The lid for the air-fryer is completely separate and is stored separately as well. While not really a major issue surely Tefal could have come up with a more elegant solution that allows storing the air-fryer lid in some way that attaches it to the pressure cooker pan / lid so it’s just one appliance when stored. I would suggest they have a look at Dyson who seem to be masters in coming up with all sorts of funky solutions to store attachments.

VERDICT This multicooker is great if you’re looking for a pressure cooker / rice cooker / air fryer / electric frying pan / etc.…. even better if you’re looking for all of those as it can do all but I’m not sure if I would recommend buying it if you weren’t already looking for any or all of these appliances. While it is very easy to operate and makes cooking simple and convenient it offers little that you cannot do conventionally (perhaps not considering the timer function that can ensure the cooking is done by the time you get home / wake up) and while it is perhaps a little more convenient preparing dishes with the multi cooker than using conventional appliances it’s not necessarily faster. Considering all that the $499 price seems a lot of money for a bit of convenience.

Obviously the above only considers our specific situation, if you do want / need to have a multi cooker and / or air fryer; the Tefal Turbo Cuisine and Fry is a solid appliance that provides all sorts of options and is well built, large and simple to use and comes with a long list of recipes to support the experimenting with it so all in all a great good choice if you’re looking for one.

Good with some improvement needed – Was very excited to get a multi cooker with air fryer built in. Unfortunately you've still got to store the separate air fryer lid somewhere ( still trying to find a good solution) for that one. My first meal to cook was a roast lamb ( pictures before and after included). From this experience and some other dishes the following observations. Pro:… Read more

* Very large rounded base nonstick surface cooking bowl. This will mean you need silicon cooking utensils. * Air fryer lid works well as intended. * Delay timer not yet used but you could set the device to start cooking from midday if it only need 5hrs cooking time. * Appears very well built and of high quality construction. The black looks very nice on a counter top. * The food that was cooked in device was all fantastic.

Cons: * As noted in many reviews the whole system takes a while to heat up. So factor that into your cooking time. * Coming from another very popular multi cooker system the labels and associates cooking mode settings didn't make sense to me. From the best I could tell "stew" is pressure cook as it is on my other device. I set a roast beef to steam and barely cooked half HR later and changed it to stew which sorted the issue out. * The digital display seems to be under utilised for information rather Tefal have used little symbols that you then have to translate from a sticker you put on the side of device. Why not make use of the display to say the word associated with cook setting...

I would have given this device 3.5 stars but have rounded up to account for my learning curve coming from another similar device. ie. If you're new to multicookers or never used an electric pressure cooker you may have an easier time adjusting.

It’s ok, if you a have lot of time – I was very much looking forward to trying out the TEFAL Turbo Cuisine & Fry multicooker when asked by Productreview as one of their ambassadors. It was something I’d been considering for years! My first thoughts were, wow it’s big! It’s sits around 37cm high to the steam release button and about 40cm diameter from handle to handle but it needs to… Read more

be big because it cooks enough for 4 generous sized adult meals.

I’ve never used a cooker before, and this one is a one stop shop for air fry, pressure cooker and slow cooker. My kids couldn’t wait to try out the wedges which came in the recipe book included. I followed the instructions to the T. The instructions indicated the cook would take approximately 33 minutes which I thought was fine considering the potatoes go in raw. BUT what caught me completely off guard was how long the Tefal fry took to heat to the correct temperature…approximately 45 minutes!!!! OMG my kids were pulling their hair out waiting, waiting, waiting, because when the timer was up, after waiting another 33 minutes to cook, the wedges, they weren’t cooked enough! Some had a slight colouring on them but not enough and most were still raw (very firm when I placed a fork in them), so I reset the cooker for another 10 minutes. This left me with approx 3/4 cooked. The ones that were cooked were yummy, fluffy on the inside and browned on the outside - none had a crunch though.

I tried a few other meals from the recipe book and a McCormacks beef and mushroom Ragu from the supermarket. The one I chose from the included recipe book was heart beef and ale. There was a bit of prep time but this cooked beautifully. Again, the cooker took about 15 minutes to heat up to temperature. Also, once I added some of the beef to brown off, I noticed the sizzle did not last long. It appeared the meat cooled the cooker quickly. The cooker is very slow to regain the heat back. I found this a bit frustrating. But all in all it cooked really well and everyone enjoyed the meal. I did like that it’s a one pot cook. So I didn’t have to mess up my stove top pre sealing the meat. It can be done in the cooker.

I had to try a soup and this cooked well too.

One thing I really didn’t like about the cooker was the steam release. Once you press that button watch out not only for the hot steam but the cooking smell released with it onto your ceiling! I only released the steam once in the house as once was enough for me. I liked the meals cooked but I didn’t like smelling it days later. So when the timer was up, I’d get the oven mitts on and take the cooker outside to the middle of the yard (no joke) and released it out there. Just had to be careful not to touch or spill it but I could see no better solution!

I also struggled to lift the lid once cooked as there are no handles and had nowhere to place a boiling hot lid down as I couldn’t flip the lid over. I didn’t like the idea of placing it on the bench face down as the steam would have possibly impregnated the cooking smell into the bench.

Overall, and in my opinion, the idea sound great but the reality I found a bit frustrating. The pot smell from cooking really sat around a long time, the steam shooting onto the roof for quite a few minutes stank and the time it took to heat was a tedious wait. If there was consistency in the heat process you could time plan it a bit better but it seamed a bit random. Either that or I got sidetracked twiddling my thumbs waiting for it to heat up that I missed the start of the timer to actually cook. I did like the result of the meals once cooked but getting to that point seemed longer than if I’d just cooked them on a stovetop.

I wouldn’t used this as a daily cooker but on a weekend when I’m not so time hemmed would work for me better. The meals produced overall were delicious and I was pretty happy a substantial recipe book was included as I hadn’t a clue how to cook without it. You also get a measure cup, short stick spatula (I found no good as a longer handle is safer and easier to use) and a steamer trivet. Being nonstick, it is very easy to clean too.

Would I recommend the Tefal Turbo cuisine & fry? Yes and no. Yes if you have time, no if you’re wanting it to make a quick meal. For me personally with a bustling household of 5, it’s a miss.

A learning curve but an enjoyable one! – Ok, I was a bit daunted by this at first as it seemed quite complicated but after using it for a few weeks I can say that it’s much easier than it looks. I was asked to test this product at the perfect time - Two weeks before a rather major surgery with a 6 week recovery. So I spent a solid week and a half using it every day,several times some… Read more

days. I started with a simple vegie soup (I’ve never really been a huge soup maker) and OMG -perfect soup,enough to feed our family of 9 in 12 minutes! Yes 12 minutes. Then I progressed to chicken noodle soup and the best chicken and corn soup ever,all in under 20 minutes. So then I tried a beef casserole which would take me two hours in the oven and in 20 minutes we had the best casserole with meat that almost melts in your mouth. I managed to fill our rather large freezer with fresh homemade and very healthy meals for my recuperation time and it was actually fun to do. I have made a few chicken casseroles too,although I did have to experiment a bit with times so it was a bit hit and miss at the start. I haven’t tried all the functions yet but the air fryer lid works perfectly (quicker than our old air fryer) and so far every setting I’ve tried has worked perfectly. It is a bit big and bulky but with a large family I do often steer clear of these types of appliances as they are never big enough so it’s perfect for us. I would like to see a dedicated app for the turbo cuisine as I had to adapt most recipes from the cook for me and a more comprehensive list of foods with times would be helpful but all in all I am so happy I got try this as it’s not something I probably would have considered but now I can’t imagine cooking without it. As a soup maker alone I would buy it yet it does so much more. I will update my review once I use some other settings but so far I am actually quite blown away with the delicious meals made with not much effort at all - and it’s made me want to try new recipes too! I also love the way I can make dinner at any time and it keeps the food warm for up to 24 hours -handy when you have a house full of young adults that often have to work etc so they can help themselves when they get home. Oh and it does a great pasta sauce too, the possibilities are endless…. As for the unit itself, it’s large yes and you need a place to store the 2nd lid but it’s also sturdy, easy to clean,the bowl can go in the dishwasher and it looks good on the bench. I would definitely recommend the turbo cuisine and fry as an asset to any kitchen! (There is also an accessory kit available to purchase with a cake tin and pizza try and other accessories which we will be buying soon as my daughter loves to bake and make her own pizzas, so can’t wait to try those too). I would love a 2nd bowl though but I’m not sure if you can purchase one yet.

High quality product, excellent finish, poor instructions – I received this product to test, try and review as a ProductReview.com.au Product Ambassador. First impressions of the Tefal is that it is a very big unit. Easy enough to unpack. When unpacked it looks very impressive and the product itself looks of very high quality with very high-quality finishes. Looks wise it certainly lives up to the Tefal… Read more

reputation for building top of the range high quality products, but is it worth the $499 RRP price tag?

It comes with a service manual style folder with a Turbo Cuisine Maxi booklet, Turbo Crisp booklet and recipe book. However, from the booklets provided it is not very clear what you need to do. There is no separate quick start guide.

The Turbo Cuisine Maxi booklet has a series of images, parts list and a how to use and clean guide. The Turbo Cuisine Maxi booklet is a very poor booklet and the Turbo Crisp booklet is no better. I gather it is the norm in Europe for diagrams to be used in place of instructions where their marketplace has multiple languages but I feel it would be worth Tefal investing in creating detailed instructions in the language of the country they are selling their products into.

I spent hours trying to decode the booklets and researching the product on the internet before I even figured out what kind of product I had and what kind of cooking I could actually do in the machine. I’ve never had a multi-cooker before.

The product description is that it is a Tefal Turbo Cuisine and Fry Multicooker. I deduced that the product I have to test and review is actually 3 products in one. A slow cooker, pressure cooker and air fryer. From my research it appears that this product is a new product package in that previously you could buy the multi-cooker on it’s own which would do slow and pressure cooking but this bundle is the multi-cooker/pressure cooker with a bonus air fry attachment (Extra Crisp lid) which can be purchased separately.

Now that we have got all that out of the way what can I cook in it and can I use it to cook the foods I normally cook quicker and easier?

I’ve always been curious about purchasing an air fryer so the first item I wanted to cook was home made chips.

The Turbo Crisp booklet does give some basic instructions on how to prepare and cook them but I was still left scratching my head.

Do I just follow the instructions on the Turbo Crisp head lid or do I also need to turn on the Multi Cooker and get it up to temperature there as well? Do I need to pre-heat the multi cooker part where the chips actually sit in it in the basket?

I searched on the Internet to no avail so I just tried it with the Turbo Crisp head by itself.

33 mins later they are not cooked properly. It ended up taking 40 minutes and even then they still weren’t quite cooked how I liked them but my kids were hungry and I couldn’t wait any longer. Perhaps I wasn’t using the machine correctly? I wasn’t too concerned as sometimes cooking with a new product can take a bit of trial and error and getting used to.

As I couldn’t find any instructions on the internet on how to air fry correctly, the next day I called Tefal (SEB Group) to clarify it. Even the customer service person on the telephone didn’t know. She explained it was a new product and put me on hold to find out. She advised that you can use the Extra Crisp Lid on its own for air frying. You don’t have to have the multi cooker part on.

Not deterred my second attempt at using the machine was for a Thai red curry.

I used the green curry recipe in book and just replaced the green paste for red. The instructions were not clear enough especially for the preheat section. It took a while to figure out what I was supposed to do. I had to read through instructions a few times to get it right and made a few mistakes and had to start over. But now I know what to do it'll be easier. The flavour was great but very liquid for a curry. I even put it on again for the same time and it didn't change the consistency.

There aren't a lot of different recipes in the recipe book supplied. It's mostly stews or curries.

The next meal I tried was air fried broccoli chips and steamed carrots. The chips came up beautifully. Nice and crispy and didn't take too long. The steamed carrots worked well but took a long time to preheat when I could have just zapped them in the microwave, and the chips got cold while I cooked the carrots. Not ideal.

Trying to coordinate cooking for 5 isn't really the easiest with this machine. Because you can't cook more than one thing at a time. Dinner takes too long to cook

Next time we tried air fried pizza. The result was perfect but it took 20 minutes for 1 small pizza. I had 3 pizzas to cook but it took too long to cook. I’m not sure if there are any accessories but perhaps it would be better if there were stackable trays you can use to cook multiple pizzas at once rather than just cooking one small pizza at a time.

The last meal we tried was a roast pork loin. It took an hour, but the meat was delicious. Beautifully cooked. It wasn't too bad time wise. I meant to take a photo of the roast but the kids devoured it before I got the chance but I was delighted that it worked well on this occasion and saved time.

In summary.

I’ve rated it four out of five stars. I marked it down one star for the poor instructions, limited recipes in the recipe book.

Initially it is a very frustrating product to use because of the poor instructions and the absence of a lot of recipes. The included documentation doesn’t tell you about the pre-heat times required and this should be included in the recipe book to give an accurate time of how long your meal is really going to take to cook. What saves this product is it is very high quality and with practice and a lot of patience I believe it could be a handy kitchen tool to have in the cupboard.

I don’t know if it’s the kind of machine for a person who likes to cook quick and simple foods. I’d suggest it would be more suitable for those who like to have a gourmet experience every time they make dinner.

My suggestion would be for Tefal to improve the instruction books and to include a lot more recipes that suit Australian households; i.e. quick, simple, healthy, with links to cooking demonstration videos and user groups of consumers who have one and are using one.

Subject: Sounds great in theory. In practice, not so much – Disclosure: I did not pay any money for this unit, but if had I paid $399-$499 (market rate at time of writing, July 22) I would have been experiencing some serious buyer’s remorse right now! I was very excited when Product Review asked me if I wanted to test and review this product as I love slow cooked food, stews, etc and I also thought it… Read more

would be useful to have a larger capacity air fryer. I really wanted to give this a positive review, but sadly I cannot do so as it has too many issues both as a set and as separate products. My 2-star rating of this is a combined rating of both products in the box. I would have given the slow cooker part 2 to 3 stars and the air fryer lid 1 star if I was reviewing them separately. It you do decide to ignore the rest of this review and buy this combo it is worth shopping around between the official resellers recommended on the Tefal website. For example, at time of writing it was $100 cheaper to buy from the Tefal store on Amazon Au vs the Tefal Shopify store. It was also cheaper to buy the units separately!

I might be wrong, but for a whole host of reasons (mentioned below) the air fryer ‘lid’ feels very much like it has been added to a legacy (Tefal call it “classic”) product and re-boxed in an effort to try to shift the slow cooker base unit which feels like excess legacy stock. Note: Despite its more modern appearance the crisper/air fryer lid is the more problematic of the two devices and the reason for the lower rating.

What’s in the box ------------------- The outer box contains two large inner boxes: - The slow cooker/pressure cooker/base unit (Turbo Cuisine Maxi CY7778) big and heavy box with no handle on top and non-recyclable plastic/polystyrene packaging. This box also contained the instructions, recipe book and cable. - The air fryer accessory ‘lid’ (Crisper Lid EY1508) that can be swapped for the lid of the base unit. With a helpful handle on the box to get it out (despite being smaller and lighter than the base unit) and mostly recyclable cardboard-based packaging. This box also contained the instructions for the crisper lid Note: These two devices apparently MUST NOT be used at the same time and both inconveniently have their own power cables. There is nothing to stop you using them at the same time if your wall socket can take the load except possibly overheating/fire!

Review --------- As the slow cooker and air fryer are effectively two entirely separate products, I have tested them as such and will review them from now on in that way:

Multi cooker/Base unit review --------------------------------- I was more excited about this part of the combo than I was the air fryer as I already have a decent air fryer which I love and use every day. I was looking forward to doing some slow and/or pressure cooking. I did a couple of the recipes from the provided recipe book, and they were okay, but I tend to get my recipes from a site called RecipeTinEats (Nagi has yet to steer me wrong, I thoroughly recommend her site for all recipes!).

The base unit/slow cooker while not unattractive looks and feels right out of the early/mid 2000s with its bright orange 7segment LED displays (I’m pretty sure I used that display module for some of my electronics student projects in 2001!).

Since I have had it, I have made many tasty meals and if you have limited cooking facilities where you live it could be very useful but going forward, I will probably only use the pressure cooking function as I have better ways of accomplishing the other features. For example, if you have a big oven proof pot and a good oven, slow cooking followed by grill is pretty easy and heats up way faster than using the multi cooker.

I liked the pressure cooker feature, especially the simple mechanism for opening and closing the steam valve. Though one should ensure that it is sufficiently far away from any heat sensitive vertical surface (painted wall or laminated cupboard) when releasing as the steam goes backwards and WILL cause paint to bubble!

Issues with base unit ----------------------- - Bowl and utensils are NOT dishwasher safe (according to the instructions). For me this is a big issue! While I don’t expect the electronics or mechanical parts to be dishwasher safe, I don’t want to spend time handwashing the metal bowel, spatula, etc! Admittedly, I ignored the instructions and bowl has survived being dish-washed so far. The spatula not so much! - The lid is difficult to clean fully and still smells quite strongly of the slow cooked pork dish I made two days ago despite my best efforts. - Really slow heat up times. It took 20minutes to heat up! I can get my gigantic saucepan with contents to temperature on the hob in about 5-10mins! - Small bits of plastic debris from the packaging must have made their way inside the product. The plastic bag had holes punched in it (presumably for child safety) but the little round plastic discs from the hole punch were all over the place I thought I got all of them but apparently not! The first few times I used it I got a strong burning plastic smell! - The longest time this can be set to cook for is 4 hours except in sous-vied mode but that has a maximum temperature of 95’C. My recipe called for 7 hours at 140’C (high) or 14hours at 90’C (Low). There is slow cooking and slow cooking! 14 hours starts to get in the way of morning stuff. In the end I cooked the meal using the pressure cooker mode. It was okay but I would have got more flavour if I had slow cooked it. - The interface is not great and does require one to read the manual, but it is not the worst I have seen. - Rice cooking was a bit of an epic fail. Following all the instructions I ended up with very over cooked rice. (Basically, how my gran used to cook it). It took absolutely ages and I ended up redoing it with a pan on the hob as it was so overcooked it was going to ruin the meal. - There was no warning about how far back the steam was going to go and it caused the paint on the wall behind it to bubble slightly. Recommend not having it close to a wall when releasing steam.

Crisper lid review -------------------- I have a Philips air fryer which I love and use regularly, however it is not particularly big. I was hoping this product would allow me to air fry bigger things like a large chicken or turkey. While it did cook my roast chicken in about the right amount of time there were problems (described below) which made it much harder/less practical than using my normal air fryer.

I understand that the lid has multiple functions including grill and air fryer and it is used in many of the recipes in the provided book to finish things off, brown and grill the top, etc but it is very impractical and difficult to clean, not to mention storage of the beast!

The only good thing I can say about this attachment is that it doesn’t produce as much smoke as my other air fryer as the element is higher.

Issues with crisper lid ----------------------- - It is heavy and requires two hands to lift this makes checking food temperature difficult. - Unless you have a large heatproof surface nearby (within cord length) you will need to unplug it mid cook if you want to do anything with the food like check temperature. - It is big and requires a lot of cupboard or work surface space when not in use. - It adds an extra approx $150 to the cost of the combined unit. For that kind of money, you can buy a standalone air fryer. - Even as a space saving thing it doesn’t work because when using as a slow cooker you still have to put the enormous air fryer lid somewhere. - Cleaning is a challenge. Without disassembly I am not sure how one is supposed to clean this thing in order to store it! Despite my best efforts to clean it, it still oozed oil into the cupboard I put it in. A video on Tefal website shows someone ‘effortlessly’ wiping it clean… I had a good chuckle about that! - Conventional drawer-based air fryers are inexpensive and so much better - Lid is very much restricted by power cable. Doing a check on food inside is really hard without either unplugging it and putting it somewhere heat safe or getting someone to help you. - Height is a big issue. The air fryer lid is much higher that the normal lid and doesn’t really fit under our cupboards. (Or at least it does but you can’t see the display or access any of the buttons on the top of it!) - Getting big things out of the bowl is tricky. I practically destroyed a chicken trying to get it out. Thankfully I was planning to carve it in the kitchen and serve pre-sliced, so appearance was not important.

If it was my only appliance that did either of those 3 things... I would be very happy – The one thing that has always put me off things that do many things is that they usually dont do those things as well as the things that do just one of those things. So I was interested to give this one a go and see how it performs. The Tefal Turbo Cuisine & Fry is a pressure cooker, slow cooker and air fryer. We have all of those things, so it… Read more

would be nice to be able to save some space and have just one appliance instead of multiple to save space on storage as all of those items on their own take up quite a lot of space.

I only got to test 2 of the functions so far and that's the pressure cooker and air fryer and both of those functions worked well.

It is a relatively easy thing to use which is great and there are a number of cooking recipes that it comes with but also that others have also put on the web for you to try at home.

The fir fryer attachment works well but is one of those things where it doesnt exactly do that single function as well as an actual dedicated air fryer. You have to stop it half way through and flip things. Which is a slight pain but not a complete deal breaker if you dont have a dedicated fryer. I think where it works best is when you are using it in conjunction with the pressure cooker to create a meal.

Example: Cooking a Roast Chicken. You use the pressure cooker to cook the chicken (it comes out amazingly juicy btw) and then crisp up the skin with the air fryer. It works perfectly. The chicken we had was quite large, not sure it really comes out well in the images, and the whole process took around 1 hour. Which I think is probably 30-45 mins faster than in a conventional oven.

I used the air fryer only to cook some chicken tenders for the kids. Compared to our air fryer which is like a small oven, it is slightly more of a pain as you have to flip the tenders to cook both side. I feel like if you could put in a small grate of some sort to let the air circulate around it better it could work better but as it is they still came out perfectly cooked. So for a minor inconvenience I think it was worth it.

Again, for someone who doesnt have either of those things I think this would be an awesome appliance to have and save space on. I am yet to use all of its functionality but so far so good. Looking forward to testing out some of the other amazing functions.

One thing I would advise with anything like this, is get yourself some plastic or even better silicon utensils to use. Especially tongs to ensure you do not damage the coating on the bowl.

Other than Slow Cooking, it Doesn't seem to make anything that much quicker or easier – ***I received this as a Product Review Ambassador Unboxing: This thing is HUGE. Everything is packaged extremely well, and the quality of the packaging alone starts you off with a good feeling! Appearance: A mix of black and grey shiny and matte surfaces makes it look and feel very high quality. The buttons have no labels which I think is a… Read more

downfall considering that a lot of people have never used a pressure cooker before. And because this one has so many different functions, it would be helpful to have the options and selections labelled rather than having to rely on the instruction book or memory to work out what they are.

Instructions: This is my main complaint. And one of the reasons for only giving 3 stars. The instructions are very poorly written. It’s as if they were translated from another language without anyone double checking that they made sense afterwards. I am a novice with pressure cookers. I have never used one before. So the instructions lacking clarity, and missing vital points and steps made it very difficult for me. I almost ended up giving up halfway through out of frustration. The recipes have errors in the timing and the instructions. And the timing it gives you does not include the time to pre-heat. So in fact a recipe which states only takes 10 minutes could take up to 20. They really need to go through their instructions and recipe books with a focus group and rewrite them to be much clearer.

Ease of Cleaning: Amazingly easy to clean. Basically just a quick wipe out and it’s done!

Storage: It is very large and very heavy and the separate lids mean it takes up a lot of cupboard space. It’s way too big to store on my benchtop (think double the size of a Thermomix). This is great for big families of course but does make it a bit more cumbersome to store and pull out when you want to use it. For this reason I would probably never use it for rice as it’s much easier to just grab out a pot!

First try: The first thing I decided to cook was Mushroom and Leek risotto. It said it took 8 minutes which was perfect because I was running late getting the kids to bed. Well as mentioned above I very quickly realised that the timing is very inaccurate. Besides the prep time, the very first instruction was to stir fry the leeks for 2 minutes. So I put the leeks in, set the stir fry option and pressed start. And waited. And waited. And waited. It sat on “Pre Heating” for 9 minutes before I finally gave up and just left the leeks as they were because they were already pretty cooked from all that time heating up! Then I put the rest of the ingredients in, locked the lid, and set the pressure cook function. It pre-heated for around 5 minutes and then took around 6 minutes to cook. The end result was very nice and a great consistency for risotto. I just wish the times were more accurate and I don’t know why after 9 minutes it still hadn’t heated up.

To Sum Up

Pro’s: Huge bowl for big family meals (also a slight con as this means to machine is very big and bulky), super fast cooking for slow cook meals such as stews etc, super easy to clean, very good build quality.

Con’s: Air Fry function is slow compared to a dedicated air fryer making it kind of pointless. If I wanted to take 35mins to cook chips I would just put them in the oven or do them in 18mins in my kmart air fryer. The instructions are lacking, no labels on the buttons, pre-heat times and build up to pressure seems to be excessively long and makes the attractive shorter cooking times a bit pointless.

All in all I wouldn’t buy one. I’d prefer to stick with my slow cooker and air fryer as separate appliances and just cook things like rice on the stove. The only thing I would really use this for is stews which I probably only make a few of a year. But someone who does a lot of slow cooking, soups or stews would probably love this. I just don't find the times to be that much quicker, or easier than normal cooking even though I was really hoping to love this and use it all the time.

Has earned itself a permanent spot on my kitchen bench top – The offer of a Tefal Turbo Cuisine & Fry for review under ProductReview’s Ambassador Program was a godsend as I was being driven round the bend by the “lid not sealed” messages of my B-brand pressure & slow cooker, and I refused to buy another S-brand searing slow cooker due to the appalling quality of the non-stick inner pot (replacements are no… Read more

longer available).

After testing the Tefal for a solid 2 weeks, I re-arranged my kitchen bench top for the Tefal multi cooker to have a permanent, easy access spot next to my family-sized cafe grill. Next, I retired 3 appliances -my faithful ceramic slow cooker, the searing slow cooker and the temperamental pressure & slow cooker - to free up space in my cupboard for the Tefal lids. The silicon seal of the pressure cooker lid does retain faint smells, hence my preference to store the lids separately.

The 7.6L XXL size is BIG and TALL. That, plus my 5-foot nothing stature isn’t the best combo for comfortable cooking…BUT it’s mostly hands-off cooking and this, plus the fact that the pressure cooker lid seals each and every time clinched the deal for me.

In addition to Tefal's reliability (pressure seals EVERY time), other standouts were the flexibility of the 2 lids - Air Fry & Pressure Cook, and the delayed start and keep warm options of the pressure cooker lid. However, the wok-like round bottom bowl has its limitations e.g., almost all my casserole dishes and baking tins will not fit, and I’d have to buy accessories to cook items on multi-layers.

The Tefal cooker certainly does what it claims in being able to (with the appropriate lids) air-fry, grill, bake, stew, slow cook etc. If I were setting up my first kitchen this would be on my “must’ list - budget permitting - in addition to a toaster and simple microwave.

OVERVIEW - In the box: A very big round cooker with a 7.6L inner pot and 2 lids - a pressure cooker lid and an air fryer lid. The XXL non-stick inner cooking pot has a rounded bottom like a small wok, but there is also a flat base so that it is stable when placed directly on the kitchen counter. Included accessories are a round non-stick metal trivet with silicon wrapped edges, a clear plastic cup for measuring rice, and a black plastic rice paddle.

- Looks: All shiny & matte black plastic with gleaming polished stainless steel - beautiful in a Darth Vader kind of way. It’s HUGE compared with my pressure & slow cooker. (see pic).

- Build quality: Non-stick coating of cooking pot looks and feels Tefal quality, which in my experience with my Tefal Ingenio cookware is one of the best in the market.

However, I was surprised at the appearance of fine scratches in the non-stick coating after only 2 uses (cooking Bolognese sauce and frozen potato gens) with silicon utensils and hand washing with a soft sponge. But they have not gotten worse, so I suppose that's OK. What gives me confidence is that Tefal will stand by its products. In addition to the standard 2-year warranty, Tefal’s website states that its pressure cookers have a 10-year warranty on the pot and metal base. A sticker on the box states the multi-cooker is “repairable at fair price for 15 years”.

- Documentation: Manuals are supplied but difficult to read due to the tiny text. A Recipe book with colour photos of each dish is also included. It’s a guide at best, and may not be detailed enough for novice cooks. I like having printed manuals, but these were small with tiny type / fonts that were a challenge to old eyes. I gave up after a while, searched the Tefal site and downloaded pdfs to my iPad where I can easily enlarge the fonts to a comfortable size for me.

- Functionality: Controls & program icons were not intuitive to me and took a while to get used to. I loved that it had 2 lids - one for pressure cooking & one for air frying - making it a great multifunction appliance.

MY USER EXPERIENCE - Controls are not intuitive Excited to try the cooker out, I unboxed and set it up immediately to cook dinner, a quick Bolognese sauce that I usually cook on the stove top. I turned the cooker on … and struck the first challenge, the controls are not that intuitive. The LED control panel has orange-lit icons and no words! Consulting the manual, I worked out the steps: 1. Turn the big round knob to select one of the 10 inbuilt programs. 2. Tap the Stop Watch icon to set the cooking time, turn the knob right to increase or left to decrease. 3. Tap the Thermometer icon to set temperature, turn the knob right to increase or left to decrease. 4. Tap the Clock icon to activate delayed start, turn the knob to set time delay desired. 5. Tap the On/Off icon to start the cooking process. As I used the cooker over the days, recognition of the icons became easier and muscle memory took over in programming cook time etc.

- Key Learnings 1. Manually return Multicooker lid to “locked” position (button popped up) after each use, ready for the next session. 2. Don’t be seduced by the super-fast “cook times” in the included recipe book. This is the active cooking time and does not include pre-heating / building up pressure (up to 20+ minutes) and releasing pressure (approx 5+ minutes). 3. To speed things up, start pre-heating while you prep your ingredients and add hot rather than cold liquids. The pre-heating mode for Sauté is hot enough to start sauteing, so I often don’t wait. 4. As about a cup of water is needed to build up pressure, finished recipes may end up too liquid-y. Something to keep in mind when choosing the best cooking method and how much liquids to add. 5. To move from one program to another e.g., Sauté to Stew, requires manually stopping the first program with the On/Off icon then starting the second. 6. If unsure, choose a longer cooking time and set a manual timer to check progress. Otherwise, you’ll need to start all over again with pre-heating to extend the cooking time. But this only works with non-pressure cooking. 7. If using the Keep Warm function after cooking ends, DO NOT hit On/Off as this shuts the multi cooker down and there is no separate Keep Warm button! 8. Steam release is manual only. Turn your cooker hood to the max before you depress that steam release button! 9. The shiny metal parts of the lids get VERY hot. Be careful. 10. Plan ahead for a trivet to rest the lids on when cooking is done. Take care not to drip hot condensation on yourself. 11. The Air Fryer is fantastic for crispy frozen fried foods and home-made oiled panko-crumbed foods; and contains the mess of cooking bacon and sausages, crispy belly pork roasts. Plus, you can line the pot with baking paper for even easier cleaning.

MY WISH LIST 1. A design tweak of the lids to include an extension/prop to allow the lids to rest vertically on its side like Tefal’s Multi-lid. 2. An extra, lighter see-through glass lid to cover the pot on Keep Warm. (My Tefal Multi-lid is too large at 30 cm and condensation drips down the outside of the cooker).

RECIPES TRIED - Multi Cooker Lid: 1. Bolognese sauce - 'Sauté, then Stew' 15 minutes. No quicker than on the stove top. But I can see myself Sautéing then setting the delayed cook function. 2. Rice & Sweet Potato congee – 'Rice' 10 mins. My rice to liquids ratio needs work, but I see myself continuing to use the Tefal for congee. Unlike stovetop cooking, congee in the Tefal does not require hawk-like monitoring for boil-overs. 3. Chinese Sausage & Shiitake Sticky Rice – ‘Sauté, then Rice’ for 10 mins. From prepping to dinner was under 1 hour vs the traditional method that starts with a 3-8 hour soak for the glutinous rice. A definite win. (See pic) 4. Strawberry Cream Cake (box mix) – ‘Bake’ 20 mins, using 2 small spring-form pans balanced on the supplied steaming trivet. Surprisingly good. (See pic) 5. Honey Soy Chicken Wings (pg 32 of included cookbook) – ‘Stew’. Dud despite following the recipe to the letter. Resulting dish was soup. But it was melt-in-the-mouth tasty as pressure cooking seems to have driven the flavours into the wings. 6. Moroccan Beef & Date Tagine – ‘Sauté, Delayed Start, Stew’. The 2 cups of water and 45-minute cooking time from an Instant Pot cooking blog recipe produced a soup that required reducing. It was tender and delicious. A recipe I'll repeat with LESS LIQUIDS! 7. Smoked Pork Hock & Vegetable Soup – ‘Soup’ extended to 45 minutes. Sublime! Cooking under pressure concentrated the flavour more intensely than slow cooking. 8. Pumpkin & Chorizo Risotto – ‘Sauté, then Rice’ reduced to 6 minutes. Ignored liquid guidelines in included recipe book and went for 2 cups stock for 1.5 cups Arborio rice. Perfect al dente rice. At the end of cooking, stirred in extra hot stock with the parmesan and butter to the consistency – 35 minutes from prep to serve. A no-stir keeper.

- Airfry Lid: I have resisted buying an air fryer (where would I keep another appliance!!) and usually use the crisp plate in my convection microwave oven or the fan-forced program of my wall oven.

I found the Air Fry lid’s pre-set cooking modes curious. Roast, Grill & Airfry were all at a default 200C, and Bake at 160C. But you can adjust the default pre-set cooking times up and down. Temperature is adjustable too. Or you can go Manual all the way. 1. Frozen potato gems, pub-style chips – ‘Airfry’. Midway through the cooking time, it beeped at me to stir which I did with a silicon spatula. But the gems broke. So did the chips on another occasion. Pretty good, but no better or faster than cooked in our regular way. However, it is easier to dump the chips into the pot, spread it out and pop the Airfry lid on when cooking small quantities. 2. Home-made chicken nuggets – ‘Roast’ on 19 mins default and flipped mid-way. These were outstandingly crispy outside and incredibly moist inside. Basically, anything Panko-ed is good. (See pic.) 3. Thin beef sausages – ‘Grill’ on default 15 mins. Winner!! Hands off & no mess. No more stovetop pan frying for me. (See pic.) 4. Crispy Asian Chicken Wings – ‘Airfry’. Looked and smelt great. Moist and juicy. Crispy? Nope. The seasoned flour dredge didn’t crisp up despite the oil coating. Maybe more oil next time? (See pic) 5. Crispy-skinned Roast Pork Loin – ‘Manual’ 180C for 60 mins. 5-stars for a no mess crispy crackling roast! I didn’t have a silicon trivet, so improvised by placing a small metal trivet on baking paper to protect the non-stick pot. This worked great as the baking paper caught all the grease! No messy, oil-splattered oven to clean! (See pic) 6. Strawberry Cream Cake (box mix) – ‘Bake’ with cooking time dialled back to 12 minutes. Tops were slightly brown when done. Pretty good. (See pic)

IN SUMMARY: Going forward, the recipes I would use the Tefal for are: - pressure cooker lid: 1. All casseroles and stews that I would have slow cooked 2. Soups that I would have slow cooked 3. One-pot carb meals like congee, sticky rice, risotto and paella

- airfry lid: 1. Processed fried foods like chips, spring rolls, samosas 2. Anything panko-ed 3. Messy pan-fried items like sausages 4. Crispy-skinned roasts like pork belly or loin

You can tell that I love cooking when it's hands-off and easy-cleaning!

Favorite portable kitchen appliance – Some quick stats: * Dual power leads, one for the Air-Fryer and one for the main unit. I have NOT used both at the same time, and I don't think there is a need for both. This would hit the maximum 10A (2400W) of any Aussie power-point. * 1300Watt in Air-Fry mode, and surprisingly quiet. * 1100Watt in Pressure-cook/Bake mode. * Quite a large… Read more ·  2

unit, won't fit inside our appliance cupboards. 36cm Pressure cooker head, 41cm Air-Fryer attached. * Generous 7.5 litre cooking pot. Curved to fit ladles for easy leftover preparation. * Impressive 70 page recipe book covering breakfast through to dessert. * Warm to touch outer cooking body and air fryer lid. * Very HOT area on the decorative pressure cooking lid. This has warning labels, so please take note of them and be careful when removing the lid after depressurizing.

I was very excited to unbox and use this new kitchen toy. We have another brand (6 litre) pressure cooker, as well as a very early model Tefal Actifry 2in1 Air-Fryer which has been in faithful service for many years. The hope is to donate the older units to our about to leave home child, and this gives me a unique opportunity to compare the Turbo Cuisine machine to what we already use.

Also, I should point out that I don't actually know how to use the wife's current pressure cooker. I have never even attempted to use the device. With that out of the way, lets get into what I have successfully cooked and what I think of the Tefal appliance.

For my first test-run after reading the instruction manual and cleaning the cooking pot, I decided I would cook a cup of rice for our very hefty Bull Mastiff dog. She won't complain if the food tastes a bit weird from the first run. I followed the "Uncle Roger" rice cooking method off pouring in some rice, rinsing and then adding water to one finger knuckle above the submerged rice. I put the pressure cooker lid and turned it to the "Lock" position. Turned it on, selected the rice picture and pressed the power button again to start the cook. After about 15 minutes, the rice was done! It was cooked perfectly with no gloopy or bound up rice. Releasing the pressure on the Tefal is a lot safer than our other brands twist style.

The next exquisite dish to be tested was a 750g bag of frozen steakhouse chips with the air-fry head. The cooking instructions could not be simpler. Select the cooking "mode" (Roast, Grill, Air-Fry, Bake), which automatically gives you a default time, sweet. The unit will beep and stop exactly 1/2 way through your selection so you can give the contents a shake or stir. As for a bit of a nifty design feature, the lid can be placed on your bench in the operation position as it has much cooler plastic feet to act as a stand! Our older Actifry unit has a circular bowl with a mixing arm, which takes care of moving the contents but takes just as long to cook chips, and if you factor in the time to get up to 35 minutes from zero it may be slower. The new unit is a LOT quieter than the Actifry, so that's a big bonus. The teenage kids devoured the chips within minutes as an afternoon snack, so then I was off to prepare dinner.

Lamb Casserole. Set onto "Stir fry" mode and added some oil, onion and Lamb in the cooking pot whilst cutting up potatoes, celery and carrot. 10 minutes later I had all those in the pot, as well as the MasterFoods(tm) Lamb Casserole mix. By using the unit's "Power" button, I stopped the stir-fry and changed to "Stew" mode and the unit started beeping at me, flashing E2. I had no idea what that meant, so I put the lid on and turned it to the lock position. Low and behold, the error disappeared and stopped beeping. Clearly, it knows things and was telling me to "Put the lid on silly human!". I left the default 20 minute timer and let it do it's thing. I love this meal and have made it successfully in a camp oven, on the coals in the middle of the bush, so I hoped my lack of pressure cooking knowledge wasn't going to ruin it now. The machine took about 30 minutes to beep at me and say everything was done. After venting the pressure off and removing the lid, I was delighted to smell and see the creation was perfect. In 30 minutes!!! The coals took 2 hours, and the packet mix says 8 hours! Another win. I was expecting to see a bit of food material in the lid area, but it was only covered in condensation, so cleanup was very quick and easy. Oh, and the leftovers is super easy to remove from the still hot cooking pot thanks to the rounded bottom design. Our Tupperware ladle follows the contours perfectly and gets almost everything from the pot without removing the hot pot from the main unit. This is something that is impossible with our other brand as it has a huge flat bottom and minimal curve.

Today I thought I would try cooking a chocolate cake. As a 47 year old man, I have cooked exactly zero cakes in my life so I had no idea how this was going to work out, YOLO! With the supervisor (wife) at work, I set out to read the packet mix and get started making a great mess in the kitchen. Once everything was sufficiently mixed in the mixer, I greased up the 22x5cm round cake tin and placed it on the steamer rack. I had to put the steaming rack in upside down, as the non-removable handle would make it impossible to keep the tin level. It seems to work like this, so the batter was then carefully poured into the tin. The pressure lid was installed, but not locked on and 'Bake' selected from the menu, and left the default time, as it married up with the packet mix time. 40 minutes later, it beeped at me and I peered in with anticipation to be greeted with a perfect cake!

It's currently in use making another winter warmer, Chicken curry from MasterFoods(tm) again. It smells amazing as I sit here writing out this review.

I have to give this unit a double thumbs up for simple FAST cooking, and I look forward to every opportunity to use my new toy. Cleaning the cooking pot is super easy in hot soapy water, and you can simply use a tea towel to dry and start cooking again. I suggest reading the included recipe book for some inspiration. I'm keen to cook chicken wings and caramelized pork, as well as making Yoghurt as per the recipe book. In fact, I think I have found a new hobby. Thanks Tefal, this unit is great. I did not pay for this device, but after using it for the last 7 days straight, I would not hesitate in buying one tomorrow. I mentioned about it not fitting in our appliance cupboard at the beginning. This isn't a problem at the moment as it has not left the bench-top because of its constant use. Feel free to ask me questions, I will respond with what I know. I'm off to eat this chicken curry and cake :)