On a Tuesday night like any other, the smell of “air-fried” chicken nuggets hangs in the kitchen. The countertop looks like a tech graveyard: the slightly greasy air fryer, the forgotten blender, the slow cooker that only sees daylight at Christmas. You stare at the limited space left to chop an onion and wonder when cooking became a game of Tetris with appliances.
Then a friend sends you a photo: one single machine on her counter, quietly steaming salmon, while bread dough proofs on a warming function and vegetables roast on a second level. Same footprint, nine cooking methods, hardly any noise. It feels like that moment when smartphones appeared and your MP3 player suddenly looked… old.
There’s a sense that the air fryer may have had its moment.
The quiet dethroning of the air fryer
The air fryer didn’t just arrive, it invaded. One day your kitchen was calm, the next it was full of hot circulating air promising crunchy fries without guilt. People queued in supermarkets, YouTube exploded with “air fryer hacks”, and suddenly everything from banana bread to boiled eggs went into that noisy little box.
But over time, something changed. The whirring fans, the limited basket size, the constant shaking of food mid-cook started to feel less magical and more… chore-like. When a new all‑in‑one device comes along offering grilling, baking, slow cooking, pressure cooking, steaming, sautéing, roasting, sous‑vide and yes, air frying, your old favorite suddenly looks very 2019.
Take Emma, 37, who lives in a small city apartment with a galley kitchen barely wider than her fridge. During lockdown, she swore by her air fryer. Nuggets for the kids, “crispy” veggies for her, everything went through that machine. Over two years, she burned through two models and a cluttered cupboard of accessories, from tiny skewers to silicone muffin cups that never really worked as promised.
Last autumn she bought a new all‑in‑one multicooker with a frying lid. Now she roasts a whole chicken, steams broccoli on the upper rack, and finishes with a high‑heat crisp in the same bowl. The air fryer is still there, but it’s unplugged, pushed back behind the toaster. She admits she hasn’t touched it in three months. That’s how trends actually die: not in drama, but in slow silence.
What’s happening is simple. The air fryer solved one problem — “crispy food, less oil” — but everyday cooking asks for more than that. We want to simmer a curry, bake bread, steam dumplings, reheat leftovers that don’t taste like cardboard. A device that handles nine different methods doesn’t just save space, it changes how you think about meals in the first place.
You start from “What do I want to eat?” instead of “What fits in this basket?” That’s a big shift. And it explains why more brands are launching these hybrid machines that pressure cook, steam, roast, grill, dehydrate and even sous‑vide in one single pot. When one device can replace your slow cooker, steamer, Dutch oven and air fryer, the hierarchy on your countertop rearranges itself without asking permission.
How the new all‑in‑one actually changes your cooking
The first surprise when you use one of these new all‑in‑one devices is how many “cooking verbs” quietly move into your daily life. On Monday you slow cook a beef stew all day, then finish it with a high‑heat roast function for caramelized edges. On Tuesday you steam salmon gently, switch to sauté for a butter sauce, and keep plates warm on the low‑heat setting while people straggle to the table.
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You’re no longer stuck in the “fry or don’t cook” mindset that the air fryer accidentally created. You can layer methods: sear, then pressure cook, then crisp. Grill, then bake. Steam, then roast. It feels oddly like going from a flip phone to a smartphone. Same basic idea — heat and time — but the number of things you can actually do with it explodes.
Of course, there’s the honeymoon phase where you try to cook literally everything in the new machine. Lasagna? Inside. Yogurt? Why not. Bread? Let’s see what happens. Some experiments are brilliant, some are comic disasters, but the key difference is that the device allows for very different styles of cooking in one place.
A fairly typical evening with a nine‑method device might look like this: sauté onions and garlic on the bottom, dump in canned tomatoes and beans, pressure cook a chili for 15 minutes, then open the lid and use the “bake” mode to crisp grated cheese on top. While that finishes, you steam corn in the upper tray. One pot, one plug, very few dishes. Let’s be honest: nobody really does this every single day. But even doing it twice a week already changes your feeling about “home‑cooked food” versus “I just reheated something.”
The logic behind the shift away from standalone air fryers is not just about features, it’s about rhythm. The more cooking methods a device integrates, the more it adapts to the messy realities of life: late meetings, hungry kids, partners texting “I’m on my way” when they’re actually 40 minutes out.
With an all‑in‑one machine, you can hold food on warm without drying it out, cook from frozen under pressure, or switch from slow cook to high‑heat grill at the last minute when plans change. That kind of flexibility reduces the stress that the air fryer never really solved. *Crunchy fries are fun, but a full meal that survives real‑life timing is a different level of relief.*
Making the leap: from single‑use hype to real kitchen workhorse
If you’re tempted to say goodbye to the solo air fryer, the smartest first step is not shopping, it’s watching your week. For three or four days, just note what you actually cook: pasta, frozen food, soups, weekend roasts, reheated takeout. Then ask: where could a pressure function save me time, where would a steam mode improve texture, where would a grill function avoid turning on the big oven?
Once you’ve seen your real patterns, you can pick a device with the right balance. Some models emphasize pressure cooking and slow cooking, others shine with grilling and baking. Check the inner pot size, how easy it is to clean, and whether the interface feels understandable at a glance. A machine can have nine methods on the box, but if you can’t find the “saute” button when the oil is already hot, it will just gather dust behind the mixer.
One trap a lot of people fall into is replacing clutter with… new clutter. They buy the all‑in‑one, then keep every old gadget “just in case” and end up with less usable space than before. There’s also the emotional pull of the air fryer. It feels simple, friendly, familiar. It crisps your fries reliably and doesn’t ask you to learn any new tricks.
That’s why a transition period helps. Keep both machines for a month. Every time you reach for the air fryer, ask yourself: could the all‑in‑one do this plus something extra? Roast chicken wings in the multicooker but use the pressure mode on the same night for rice. When you see that one device is doing the heavy lifting week after week, it becomes easier to let go of the others without guilt. We’ve all been there, that moment when the cupboard door won’t close because of yet another gadget we “might use someday.”
“Going from my air fryer to a multicooker with a crisping lid felt like going from a bike with training wheels to an actual car,” laughs Marco, 42. “At first I only used the ‘air fry’ button. Now I pressure cook beans, steam buns, even dehydrate fruit. The old air fryer is in the basement, and honestly, I don’t miss it.”
- Start with familiar recipes
Switch your usual air fryer potatoes, wings or veggies to the crisp function of the all‑in‑one so you don’t feel lost. - Use one new method per week
Try steaming fish one week, slow cooking soup the next, then test the bake or grill function on a free evening. - Decide what to keep, not what to throw away
Choose two or three core tools you truly rely on — maybe a good pan, the all‑in‑one, and a kettle — and let the others go. - Watch for hidden costs
Non‑stick baskets and extra lids wear out; one durable pot and a solid inner bowl often last longer than multiple cheap gadgets. - Listen to the noise level
These new devices tend to hum rather than roar, which matters a lot if you have open‑plan living or sleeping kids nearby.
A new kind of “normal” in the kitchen
Once the novelty fades, what stays is this: dinner becomes less about wrestling with devices and more about choosing what feels good to eat tonight. An all‑in‑one that can sear, steam, slow cook, pressure cook, grill and crisp makes everyday improvisation possible, even if you’re tired and the fridge looks half‑empty.
The farewell to the standalone air fryer isn’t a dramatic breakup. It’s a gentle shift toward tools that respect both your time and your curiosity. You might still use a pan for a quick fried egg or turn on the big oven for a holiday roast. Yet the quiet, compact machine that can handle nine methods starts to feel like the actual center of your kitchen, not just the latest toy.
People will keep arguing online about “best appliances” and “must‑have gadgets”. What matters more is the device you reach for on a chaotic Wednesday night when you just want something warm, tasty, and reasonably healthy on the table. That, more than any marketing slogan, decides what truly stays — and what slowly migrates to the back of the cupboard.
| Key point | Detail | Value for the reader |
|---|---|---|
| Nine cooking methods in one | Pressure cook, slow cook, steam, sauté, bake, grill, roast, sous‑vide, air fry | Replaces several gadgets, frees counter space, adapts to many recipes |
| Layered cooking in a single pot | Sear, then pressure cook, then crisp or bake in sequence | More flavor, fewer dishes, faster weeknight meals |
| Real‑life flexibility | Warm mode, from‑frozen cooking, quiet operation, compact design | Handles delays, last‑minute changes, and small kitchens with less stress |
FAQ:
- Is the all‑in‑one really better than a regular air fryer?
For simple tasks like frozen fries, both work. The all‑in‑one wins when you want full meals, different textures, or the ability to slow cook, steam, and pressure cook in addition to crisping.- Does food still get as crispy in these multicookers?
Yes, as long as you use the crisp or grill lid, don’t overcrowd the basket, and give food a light coating of oil. Some users even find the browning more even than in standalone air fryers.- Will it replace my oven too?
For small households or everyday cooking, often yes. You can bake, roast, and grill in the pot. For large holiday meals or big trays of cookies, a traditional oven still has the advantage of size.- Is it hard to learn all the different modes?
The learning curve is real for the first week, but most people end up using three or four core modes daily and the others occasionally. Starting with familiar recipes helps a lot.- What should I do with my old air fryer?
If it still works, consider donating it to a student, a shared kitchen, or a community center. Otherwise, look for local electronic recycling so it doesn’t just end up in the trash.
