Nigella Lawson has long been a home-cooking inspiration, but one ultra-popular kitchen appliance that took her a while to convert to was the best air fryer.
With the exciting news that the food writer extraordinaire is now set to feature as a judge on the next series of The Great British Bake Off, it's hard to believe the chef last graced our screens way back in 2023 with Nigella's Amsterdam Christmas on the BBC.
In that program, she made genius use of Amazon brand COSORI's 5.5L Air Fryer (which was £99.99, now £78.67 at Amazon) to turn chicken skin into crackling for her biriyani recipe like a seasoned air fryer pro.
But it wasn't always smooth sailing with her air fryer, with Nigella admitting earlier that year that she had been a 'longtime doubting hold-out' when it came to these game-changing countertop ovens. Here's a closer look at the air fryer that made her a convert.
Kitted out with 11 presets for corresponding foods, it's no surprise this easy-to-use air fryer had Nigella changing her mind on this type of appliance altogether. While we haven't tested this specific model, we're longtime fans of COSORI, most recently testing out the brand's Dual Drawer Air Fryer.
In the Christmas special, Nigella uses a red version of COSORI's 5.5 litre air fryer in order to put the finishing touches to one of her festive recipes.
As she comes to plate up, she says that she's 'whopped' her chicken skins into her air fryer at its max temperature and right on cue, the crackling emerges perfectly crispy and ready to top her dish.
This particular air fryer is especially good for jobs like crisping as it has a clever detachable basket which you can pull away from any oil that's formed in the bottom of the appliance. That means healthier air fried foods and a more convenient method of serving.
The COSORI's screen is also extremely easy to program, with a simple touch screen with icons, which surely helped Nigella get over her beginner's air fryer fear. In September 2023, she had posted a blog entry on Nigella.com detailing her journey with air fryers, confessing that she 'borrowed an air fryer from a friend' in order to try out recipes from Poppy O'Toole's The Actually Delicious Air Fryer Cookbook (now £10, was £20 at Amazon).
It seems it was this fantastically-reviewed cookbook that sparked Nigella's turnaround on air fryer altogether, calling herself a 'convert' and saying it 'banished my fear, eradicated my doubts, and led me to discover how to use the air fryer in a way that suits me'.
Nigella's change of tact with her air fryer shows that sometimes all it takes is a good cookbook and a little bit of courage to change the way you approach cooking.
Here's to hoping an air fryer week might one day grace the Bake Off tent so we can learn even more from Nigella when it comes to these super convenient appliances.
