Owning an air fryer could be life changing - but I don't want one

I am hoping that by repeating this mantra for at least two hours a day I can successfully resist the drip feed of information being channelled into my brain as to how much I need one of these appliances and how much my life would be transformed if I owned one.

I am tired of the continuing barrage of information from everywhere and everyone about how amazing they are, how they have revolutionised cooking and how they have made people’s lives so much easier. I’m weary of hearing how people wish they had got one centuries ago.

‘It’s a game changer,’ ‘my one regret in life is not getting an air fryer sooner,’ and ‘I’m in love with my air fryer,’ are among the many online comments made by devotees.

Air fryers are omnipresent. Picking up a newspaper in Tesco at the weekend, the front page of the Guardian promised an ‘Air fryer adventure’ - maybe Bear Grylls took one up the Amazon.

On a neighbouring rack I spotted AirFryer magazine. Is there no let up?

“We wouldn’t be without ours - you’ve got to get one,” said my neighbour, who hasn’t got one, or even two, but three, of different strengths: the top model is called Ninja - from what he tells me I think it’s the one tested by NASA.

An air fryer is one of life’s ‘must have’ products, along with kitchen islands and bifold doors. The devices have spawned many a TV series: ‘Air fryers: do you know what you’re missing?’, ‘Air fryers made easy’, ‘Air fryers: Sunday lunch made easy.’

Now Jamie Oliver has got in on the act with Jamie’s Air Fryer Meals. His air frying repertoire includes ‘ultimate’ bacon sarnies and ‘epic’ grilled breads and flatbreads. So many superlatives. It can’t be long before Air Fryers: The Movie starring Ryan Gosling and Jennifer Lawrence hits cinemas nationwide.

I don’t recall any cooking appliance warranting their own TV show before, let alone multiple TV shows. We were never treated to ‘Microwaves: the revolution’, ‘Aga: the homecoming’ or ‘Invasion of the pressure cookers’. What makes this so different? I’m intrigued by the fact that anyone would want to watch an hour-long show about using an item of kitchenware.

Granted, I haven’t seen any of these programmes. For all I know, air fryers may make riveting TV, beating Happy Valley and Strictly into a cocked hat.

Air fryers are seen as a must-have kitchen appliance

As for using an air fryer to make Sunday lunch, I’ve hear that you can stick a few ingredients in it, pop to the loo and hey presto, there’s it is. I’m sorry to say I’m not convinced. I’m one of those people who wears a hazmat suit to use the microwave, and even then it’s only to part-bake potatoes before I transfer them to the real oven. I’ve never used it to cook an actual meal.

I am not persuaded that roasting chicken faster than you can boil an egg is entirely without risk, although what that risk is I don’t know.

Maybe I would relent if I had space for one of these things. Sadly, I don’t have one of those kitchens with enough worktop to land a plane on. We can just about accommodate a toaster, kettle and bread bin. So even if I craved one, it would be a squeeze. I suppose I could put it on my bedside table.

I’ll just wait it out. It won’t be long before the next fad comes along and air fryers will be so last year.