Dreo ChefMaker Combi Fryer, Cook like a pro with just the press of a button, Smart Air Fryer Cooker with Cook probe, Water Atomizer, 3 professional cooking modes, 6 QT

This combination cooker reminds me of my first bread maker back in 1990. All of a sudden, you could put the ingredients in, push a button, and go away. It has done that for me for meals. It Broils, Bakes, Defrosts, Air Fry's (and Convection cooks), Dehydrates, and cooks with steam/humidity (“steam cooks” using a water tank (my words)). There is a “sous vida” capability, which is pretty neat with meat. It has a temperature probe which allows it to control the types of cooking with recipes you choose from those inside and those provided in an Apple or Google App. It has an impressive control system which is nicely integrated with the display screen. This allows you to effectively turn the whole cooking operation over to the Chefmaker, from when you put in the ingredients, to when you “plate” them. It also has 4 modes which you use to cook Chef Mode which allows you to use all the capabilities built in, based on Chef recipes for various foods, Classic (air fryer) Mode pretty much like my old air fryer, Probe Mode (sort of air fryer mode with a probe, that turns off the air fryer when the dish gets to the desired temperature. There is also the App, which has recipes like those of Chef mode, but can use whatever other way of cooking the chefs and engineers decided to have the device follow. This is all pretty cool to us, and we have had nothing but successes. The downsides? The device is new and desperately needs documentation and Cookbooks. For instance, you can easily choose a meat dish from your favorite recipes and search through the Chef Mode and APP recipes to find something similar, which you can use to cook your dish. There are a good number of cooking with Chefmaker videos out there, with everything from cornbread, which work great in your Chefmaker, but you Have to go looking, and generally, you better write down the instructions, because they usually are not in the YouTube video. You can take Air Fryer Recipes, and adapt them, but you better be careful to watch them, because air fryers vary widely, and the Chef Maker has a pretty powerful heating element. It would sure be nice to have a paper or on-line “Map” of the options and recipes in the device’s inherent modes. I expect these problems to go away pretty quickly, because Dreo has engineered the device to be able to change both its software and the recipes. The current Chefmaker’s size, and therefor portion sizes seems to make it most useful for meals for 2 or 3 people, or you get into “batch cooking”. For instance I love cooking bacon in it, but can only get 5 pieces in. Well, I’m going to eat two of them (but I sure loved sitting down with my wife and coffee when the bacon was cooking. Got breakfast done in half the time. P.S. My first Filet was Exactly Medium Rare in Chef/Sous Vida Mode. I cooked it with the probe in my (larger) filet. Wife prefers Medium, and next time, I’ll set the steaks to Medium, stick the probe in hers so the smaller steak is medium and the larger is less rare. Just not going to be able to get the Thanksgiving turkey in there next week (you can get a little rib roast in though.

So on the kind of person to watch & read hundreds of reviews of a product before buying it, and ignoring most of them being paid or affiliate, I was still fairly convinced this would be a good purchase, but not an amazing one. Man, do I stand corrected. The very first time I ever used this product, I cooked one of the biggest choice grade ribeyes I have made that I got from my local meat market. I properly seasoned it and coated it in butter as per instructed. Then finally I let it cook. Sure it took quite a long time to cook fully, and I did pop it back in for another minute on broil after flipping it, but if it wasn’t the most amazing steak I’ve ever tasted at home, I don’t know what it was. Never would I think making a steak in a glorified air fryer would taste this good. It cooked it to a perfect medium rare as I instructed it to in the app before sending the recipe to the machine, and it was still so juicy after all that time cooking. Besides that amazing first meal, the thing is built extremely high-quality, made almost completely of metal and some very high-quality plastic so it looks really nice on my counter. It is a little big for having such a small frying bin, but that doesn’t subtract from the functionality if you’re able to understand that I can’t cook for an amazing amount of people usually. I’d say one to two people is a good range for how many people it can cook for. Weirdly enough, the screen is not a touchscreen, but that’s fine since the buttons are pretty easy to understand. I will notice that some of the product pictures in the manual do look different than the ones that you get with the product, like the grilling rack for the steak is this metallic metal piece, but on the images in the manual, and sometimes the app seem to depict a thicker, black piece. Overall, I think this combination device has been an amazing purchase so far, allowing me to cook things with little intervention, as well as being able to cook things like side dishes, while my main course can cook on its own, or vice versa! A handy little gadget I don’t see getting rid of anytime soon… I just hope they add more recipes on the app! (Like maybe more basic things such as fries or chicken tenders).

Very impressed so far. We'll see if it holds up over the long term, and I'm hoping it does because I'm liking the features. Wondered if I would actually use the "CombiChef" (or whatever it's called) feature, and found out it works really well. I don't have to guess about the temperature or the time for cooking and then test with a handheld digital thermometer. And the food comes out surprisingly good even when I don't spend a great deal of time and effort doing seasoning and other prep. I cook for myself and cook for my dog. Even the pork chops I cook for the dog come out juicy and tender and very tasty. I abandoned my Ninja Foodie pot cooker for this and I'm pleased about that. The Dreo is much easier to clean and maintain. It's so quiet that I have to look to see if it is actually cooking and I see the digital screen telling me what stage it is in, which is very helpful. Only cook small quantities so I can't report on cooking larger batches, but even with smaller amounts of food it seems to not overcook anything. Seems the Dreo is a winner. Hoping it has the chops to last a long time.

I did NOT get my Dreo ChefMaker through Kickstarter, nor was it given to me for free for an "impartial review". So no, I did not get any kind of heavy discount. I just bought mine on Amazon, for a paltry 10% off...$315 before tax. There was little to like about this thing, but much to dislike. e.g.: - No presets for simple functions. When I first got this machine, I kept looking for presets for french fries, tater tots, fishsticks, reheating pizza etc. Nothing! REALLY? Even the cheap $75 air fryers have these presets! AND, many of those cheaper air fryers provide you with a reminder alert to shake/toss your fries. But not with the Dreo ChefMaker. - Steaks cooked with programmed sous vide mode DO NOT produce sous vide like results. When I chose to cook two New York strip steaks medium rare, one came out medium rare AND medium. The other steak ended up mostly medium. I'm guessing that the uneven cooking was likely due to the position of the heating element, and the source of the circulated air. Worst of all, the medium rare parts of the steaks didn't even come close to the tenderness you get with sous vide cooking. What little crust you get, is only on one side too. Total cooking time was around an hour (it needs time to "calculate" before it actually starts cooking). I'd rather sous vide my steaks for two hours, and torch sear like I always do. It's worth the extra time and effort for the dramatically better results, including getting an actual crust on BOTH sides of the steaks. - Salmon steaks came out mushy, not flaky and moist, as with baking in a conventional oven. The ChefMaker took 17 minutes (plus "calculating" time) vs when I usually bake for 20 minutes in a conventional oven. AND with a regular oven, cleanup is easier (when using foil on a baking sheet). Like with the beef steaks, cooking was also uneven with the salmon. - PITA to clean. I don't use my dishwasher (I cook for one), so manually cleaning the basket, cooking tray, grilling rack, and the probe is cumbersome. If I want to fry up something with the ChefMaker, I immediately think that "I really don't to have to clean those parts again". So I basically don't want to use the cursed thing. - The smell of melting plastic never goes away. I have used this machine quite a bit since I got it, but that new melting plastic smell is always produced when cooking. I was hoping it would go away, but so far, it hasn't. So, now I'm stuck with a $315 mediocre air fryer, that I won't waste costly proteins on.

I have owned a lot of air fryers because I have owned dozens of homes up to 25 homes at once - and most of them have had air fryers. This is the type of kitchen appliance. I've always been looking for... Something with a lot of style with an interface that has a beautiful color screen with an easy to use and intuitive interface. And doesn't look like it was designed by somebody who designed a cheap American car. Having a basket is truly superior to any other air fryer like the ones that just have a door... I used to think that those were better but after having so many different air fryers having a basket really is the best. But this is a basket that also has a window which is fantastic. The fact that this has a water tank for steamer functions is fantastic. I really love that a lot. My suggestions for this company is that they allow us to make a few more custom programs or that they even include some better custom programs for things like breads... There is no bread function, but it would be great if there was a function for making frozen rolls or biscuits or for heating up pita bread which is best heated up with steam. I also wish that you could select a favorite from the menu on the screen rather than going to your phone, but that's okay for now. This company makes really fantastic products. I have five of their wall heaters and this air fryer and everything about their interface on the app is just so good. Like so good that it's unbelievable. Also this is kind of like the Tesla of air fryers... I say that because it seems that they make frequent updates and add functions to the air fryer about once a month so far, but it is a new product, but I like to see that they are continuing to support it and improve it even once it has been delivered to customers. I'm sold on Dreo as a company and I can't wait for them to make some more products... I really hope that they make at bread maker because with their interface I bet it would just be so good. Maybe one day they could also be the first company to make a home based boba tea. Tapioca Pearl maker because that would be incredible and it's something I've always wanted.

I wasn't sure this appliance would live up to its claims or its name, but the ChefMaker proved me wrong with almost every dish I cooked with it. I tried a pork tenderloin first using chef mode and it was amazing, all tender and juicy with a succulent crust. It's no joke that this machine cooks like a chef, turning the heat up and down and even spraying water all by itself to keep the meat perfect. - Expensive but worth it It might be a bit more expensive than a regular air fryer but it does so much more, the presets are based on chef recipes and there are about 40+ ingredients to choose from. The probe cook mode was perfect for tweaking doneness and trying some exotic cuts of meat without messing it up, and the traditional broil, air fry, reheat, bake, roast, toast, defrost, and dehydrate modes just make this appliance one of the most versatile I've had. The app from Dreo also adds a bunch more recipes to try, they are simple, less time-consuming, and come with step-by-step videos so it's impossible to get it wrong. - Easy to clean The fact that this machine simplifies it all to just one appliance really reduces the clutter in our kitchen. Besides most parts are dishwasher-safe (except for the base and probe). It just takes us about 10 min to get everything nice and clean. - Great Built Quality and Design The overall build of the product is on another level, it doesn't look or feel plastic and cheap like other fryers do and its design is full of surprises like the transparent glass window and light that lets you take a look at your food while it's cooking, the glass and the machine itself doesn't get heat up while cooking which is nice. Overall this machine is absolutely perfect for anyone looking for great quality food without all the hassles that often come with it. It definitely has a learning curve if you are used to the more straightforward air fryers, but it doesn't take a lot of effort to start making chef-quality meals, plus, the Chef Mode really makes it hard to get cooking wrong.

What an incredible appliance. I cannot say enough good things about this air fryer/kitchen assistant. This thing is packed with all kinds of cool, very helpful features. The most impressing thing to me is how well it can cook a steak while making it easier than any other method out there. In addition to all of the cooking assistance you could ask for, it also does the basics extremely well like air frying and toasting/roasting. Cleanup is a breeze with the nonstick surface and its a great size whether you want to leave it on your countertop or store away when not in use. Could not recommend this product anymore.

A friend recommended this and we needed a new air fryer that was not too big. Everything about this DREO is crazy good. The Teflon coating is amazing and it cleans up so easily. The Chef Mode is basically like AI cooking with probe. It is as close to Sous Vide cooking you can get with very little effort. I'm a cook. I'm a griller and BBQ guys. I cook the best steak ever. This thing in Chef Mode cooked the best damn Ribeye steak I've cooked in a long time. It does need to be a thicker cut of meat though to really work well. It takes a little extra time, BUT you don't do a thing except season your meat, put the probe in and it cooks it to perfection while you do whatever else you want. It's only good for a small family or single people this thing will save you a fortune in time and not wasting food. I've had it for 2 months and I still haven't gotten through all the bells and whistles. Yes, the app for your phone is really good. You can use it to go through all the menus and it's faster than the touch screen plus gives you an expected time of finish and lets you know when your food is done. It's pricey, but in my opinion worth it. I used some credits I had which helped, but I would go back and pay full price for it. Vegetables and Potatoes are cooked to perfection. It even has a setting for mushrooms and it nailed it! This thing has so many permutations of settings it would make a statistician dizzy. I plan to try them all. No, did not get paid anything to say this and I really bought one. If you are on the fence, don't be. It has a money back guarantee. But I guarantee if you take the time to learn how to use it and really use it, you won't be sending it back. Kali Oreksi!