Chantal Guy: We have had the Crock-Pot, the Thermomix, and now the hot air fryer. Is it another little thing that will clutter up our kitchen or a truly effective tool? Is it just a fashion?
Alexandra Diaz: It’s impossible for it to be a fashion, as long as it makes everyday life easier. It doesn’t just help one day of cooking or one recipe, like the pressure cooker or the Thermomix, it makes every day easier, three times a day!
CG: What would the air fryer give me that my oven doesn’t?
AD: Several things. The first is the cooking, which is impeccable. The crunchy melt, Chantal! This is what the microwave revolution could not provide. In the air fryer, you can hardly miss anything. After a short period of adaptation, it’s so user friendly that whatever you cook, it will be crispy and remain melting and tender inside, both the proteins and the vegetables. If it wasn’t this good, if it didn’t taste good, I wouldn’t be talking about it.
CG: I already bought a small air fryer which I ended up giving to my brother, who doesn’t use it anymore. I got it back to make two of your (very good) recipes, following the steps, but it seems to me that I could have put it all in the oven with the same result.
AD: I have my recipes standardized by a chef, because I respect the expertise of someone trained at the Grande École. And a leader always has stages. But you can do it all in one step, in my opinion! The other argument for the hot air fryer is speed.
CG: There’s not that big of a difference in cooking time, right?
AD: Yes, all the same. Above all, you don’t have to watch. Boiling an egg or frying it in a pan is quick, but you have to be there, while the air fryer is quick and solo. In the morning, I crack my eggs in there, I add a little salsa, some grilled cheese, I put my toast on top, I leave that for five minutes, I go get dressed, and when I come back, my lunch is ready. I don’t even have a toaster anymore! It’s fast and secure.
CG: Actually, we recently saw in the news a family who lost everything in a fire caused by a hot air fryer…
AD: But on this account, I can give you people who have been in the fire because of heated stockings!
CG: OK, I understand, the perfect cooking, the taste, all that. But it seems to me that I have spent my life developing my knowledge in the kitchen and now I would abandon my skills to a machine that does everything for me? Aren’t we going to unlearn how to cook with this?
AD: You can continue cooking. But we have a tool and we cannot be against modernity. It’s like an assistant. I was resistant at first, I thought it would take away the sensuality of cooking, but you still have to cut your food and make a recipe. It’s just that it’s so simplified and it enhances the taste! There is a fun and entertaining aspect to cooking with the hot air fryer, which gives pleasure to eating well.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Our columnist Chantal Guy with Alexandra Diaz
CG: I want to make your recipes… but not in a hot air fryer !
AD: I understand that romantics like you are resistant to new technology.
CG: It’s not romantic, I have the impression more that it’s four and a half cents for a piasse!
AD: But the speed, the efficiency, the better cooking results, don’t those convince you?
CG: Is it better, really?
AD: Really. I am the salmon champion and I will never cook my salmon anywhere other than my air fryer again. The arguments are this: impeccable cooking quality, flavor, speed, safety. And we must encourage people to do the act of cooking, it’s the closest thing to health, along with physical activity. It uses less energy than an oven and it encourages non-waste because anything that is stuck in your fridge “reclamps” in there. After the advent of botox, came the advent of the hot air fryer !
CG: I have my cooking habits, I’m not very excited by a machine that beeps without you being able to see how it’s cooking inside.
AD: You’re still in your slippers, but I guarantee you that the hot air fryer is for the better, that there’s more fun, for definitely successful cooking. I would never have eaten my pasta any other way thanal dentebut reheated in my air fryer, they are equally tasteful. And if, on a Wednesday evening, you forgot to defrost your filet mignon, all you have to do is put it in the air fryer and…
CG: But the whole pleasure of filet mignon is to saute it in the pan, with butter, smell the smell…
AD: Except that we don’t always have time to do that.
CG: A filet mignon is just two minutes of cooking on each edge!
AD: Are you sure that without putting your thermometer in, you will have the right cooking?
CG: Yes. Since the time !
AD: Listen, with this tool, I arrived at the crossroads between the pleasure of eating well and simplicity. It’s lazy, safe for kids, and tastes perfect. Friday, I had 12 people over for dinner for my birthday, I made squid and fried eggplant, it didn’t smell like cafeteria frying…
CG: I find it hard to believe that you can accommodate 12 people with just an air fryer.
AD: If we cook by batch, Yes. When you cook for 12 people, unless you’re a chef, you eat a little lukewarm. The calamari for 12 was great, and I had salads alongside that. I had cooked all the pieces of salmon in the afternoon and just had to reheat them in the air fryer just before sitting down at the table.
CG: You can’t make a turkey at Christmas in there!
AD: No, but you can add a chicken. And it’s juicy, I’ve made it 1000 times. There’s something about this powered hot air ventilation that doesn’t dry out. Other than boiling something, that does almost everything.
CG: I see two clans forming: those who love the hot air fryer and the others who don’t see the point. I initially bought it to make healthier fried foods.
AD: I think the air fryer has been very associated with chicken wings and fries, which are extraordinarily good in there, but it’s very much a La Cage type menu. I’ve bought just about everything there is to read about the air fryer and I haven’t found what I eat in it. For me, these are things from the earth, I don’t eat processed products. I wanted to cook good healthy dishes, not too much meat, vegetables and plant proteins. I haven’t changed my habits.
CG: Hence, surely, the success of your book. Because it’s true that we are far from brasserie fried food. Do you think the air fryer will replace the oven one day?
AD: I think if I moved into an apartment today, I would have a convection hotplate and an air fryer, that’s it. The only two things you need in your kitchen are a chef’s knife and your air fryer. This is your wedding kit!
CG: (Laughs) But I love my old unkillable Crucible!
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Alexandra Diaz
AD: One does not prevent the other, but I think that in an active modern life, we would be crazy to deprive ourselves of something that revolutionizes cooking without taking away the pleasure of cooking, of eating healthy, save time, reduce washing up. I think I win this match!
CG: Well, I wonder if I should introduce the hot air fryer in my life…
AD: For sure. No one can be disappointed. A guy said to me yesterday at the grocery store, “Because of you, I bought myself an air fryer ! » That sums up the type of cuisine that I defend.
Love is in the air fryer – 75 crispy and tender recipes à la Diaz
Les Éditions de l’Homme
240 pages