Jamie Oliver Health Grill

This grill is obviously Tefal's attempt to get market share away from the George Foreman range. Looking at the instructions it seems to be one of their regular grills with Jamie Oliver's name stamped on it, so while he has had no say in the design (and nothing in the product note suggests this) he is happy enough with the quality and functions to endorse it, and I have to agree with him.

The grill looks modern and compact when removed from the box, a nice stainless steel finish. Instructions are not the best in terms of moving it around the 3 functions but moving it from grill to oven to BBQ is fairly straightforward - it is the 3 functions which make this a great kitchen (or garden) gadget.

Grill: this is the standard way to use it, for anything up to 3.5cm. The grill is fairly small but takes 4 rashers of bacon easily. Thick butchers rashers cooked in a few minutes, with my kids coming in to see what was making the great smell. The bacon was very well cooked on both sides and had nice stripes seared in to it. It remained moist and not at all dry. I didn't have any panini rolls but that is the next thing I will try - I would imagine this would work really well.

Oven: flipping a few bits around raises the top grill so there is more cooking space. I tried a couple of steaks this way (too big for the grill) and again got some well cooked meat. As it was my first time I kept checking, next time I will just leave for about 5 minutes for a medium/well steak.

BBQ: luckily I had some good weather and a plug socket outside so I took the grill in to the garden. Be very careful as kids want to touch it and some elements are very hot. Putting on a few kebabs was so simple and saved the hassle of heating coals. Again, the meat cooked fairly quickly and without fuss or mess and it looks good (and makes a delicious smell) outside.

Cleaning: despite a clear warning in the instructions I forgot to apply a small amount of oil to the grill when I first used it and was worried about how hard it would be to clean. Using warm, soapy water and a sponge the mess on the tray was removed with a tiny bit of effort. You can't use a scourer due to the coating but you won't need one. You could put the twin plates in the dishwasher but they clean so easily there is no need. Top marks for ease.

The fat catchers both in grill and BBQ mode (you need to add a bit of kit for the BBQ) work really well, I was amazed how much fat collected. Keep an eye on the levels to make sure they so not overflow.

Overall, this is a fantastic bit of kit when you just want to cook up some meat (or even fish or veggies) and maybe the oven is full or you want to do it in the garden, or you just fancy a change. Plus it is easier to keep an eye on it. Also good for students or maybe caravans.

Can't really fault the grill in any way, a bigger one would be good but would perhaps defeat the object of its simplicity. Highly recommended without qualification.

KAPOW! That's the noise that Jamie Oliver's Health Grill makes as it opens a can of whoopass on the George Foreman Grill. Ding goes the bell, its a knockout in round 1!

Having been a previous owner of a medium-sized Foreman Grill, I was initially very please with it. However, it was difficult to clean which resulted in it remaining dirty for a lot of the time, and then eventually I scratched half the teflon off it. So it was binned. Whilst it was certainly an inventive machine, it had many faults. Jamie Oliver's foray in to the world of healthy grilling offers many improvements.

Firstly, I should point out that I do wonder what input Mr Oliver actually had to this machine. The instruction booklet depicts a version without his name on it, and the English section is near the back, implying to me that Tefal simply approached Jamie Oliver for an endorsement and nothing more. Its fine by me, cos the machine is a lovely bit of kit regardless of whether the 'lisping one' has designed it or not.

The benefits:
1) The way this grill is hinged makes it far easier to cook just about everything. The hinge in the Foreman meant that if you tried to cook anything thicker than half an inch in it, the bit of meat/fish/toasted sandwich nearest the hinge would get squashed and burned, while the bit near the front would remain uncooked. The JO Health Grill is hinged so that it adapts to the thickness of the food in the grill, and rests flat on top. You might still need to do a little tactical manouvering to achieve this, but its pretty straightforward. So your whole burger is cooked nice and evenly and not squished!

2) You can open the grill and lie it flat, meaning you end up with a one-sided grill heated from below, rather like a gass BBQ. Initially I couldn't see the point in this, as why would you only want to cook food on one side? But I saw the sense in it when I was trying to fit a whole pack of bacon in to the thing one Sunday morning - by lying the grill out flat you double your surface area, meaning you only need to flip the bacon. Genius.

3) A dial on the front allows you to vary the level of heat coming from the grills, meaning you have `analogue' control rather than the `digital' on/off offered by Foreman and the likes. This level of control is useful for cooking different types of meat. For instance, you might want to flash grill a steak, but slowly cook some chicken. There is even a temperature indicator to show when its reached the desired heat.

4) The removeable grill plates (wait til they're cold!) and integrated drip tray are very easy to clean, meaning it feels like much less of a chore to use. I was always reluctant to use my Foreman because I knew I would have to go through the rigmarole of cleaning it after. The JO Health Grill is easier to clean than my normal in-oven grill pan!

So in all, the Jamie Oliver Health Grill is an excellent piece of kit. On top of all these functional aspects, it is also a classy looking bit of kit, which wouldn't look out of place in a cafe or restaurant kitchen.

However, I did have one small issue with it. From what I could see, there was no way to change the angle of the machine, to increase the rate at which grease etc is diverted away from the meat. The Foreman came with little additional legs which increased the height at the back. The JO Health Grill doesn't have this, and the angle is so shallow that only the loosest grease will roll in to the drip tray, and any blockage at all means it hangs about on the plate, making the Jamie Oliver more `Grill' than `Health'. It is of course perfectly possible to stand the back legs on a book or something to increase the angle, but this is hardly ideal and can be messy. Tefal have done a great job, but this is one aspect of design that they missed out. Nevertheless, this is heartily (and healthily!) recommended.

I have had a George Foreman Cafe grill in the past which I thought was excellent, until I got this one. My George Foreman then suddenly looked rather dated and not terribly clever in comparison!

In the last few years the world has gone health grill crazy and every company seems to have launched their own variations. In the flurry of research and development that has occurred in the last few years, the grills seem to have become increasingly clever with the functions they offer. This Tefal grill really impressed me. The designers have come up with some clever features that are not gimmicky, but really do add to the grills versatility.

It has a very clever hinging system that allows you to use it as a conventional health grill, or open it open 180 degrees and it becomes a massive BBQ griddle that you could use in the centre of a table or on the patio (complete with two drip trays to catch the grease on both sides), or the third option is to use it as a mini oven the two hotplates can be set apart but parallel using the clever hinging mechanism. This give about three inches clearance between the top and bottom plates allowing (so say the manufacturers) you to cook a quiche or pie etc, though I have not tried to do this.

The thermostat on this grill is a vast improvement over the George Foreman, it has clear indicator lights to tell you when the grill is at the correct temperature. The temperature dial itself is far better than my old grill and is digitally controlled. I seem to be able to get a far wider range of temperatures from this grill. The George Foreman seemed to only have one temperature no matter what the dial said.

The power lead can be detatched to make storing the grill easier. This is a great idea. I keep the lead in the cupboard and the grill on display, with no messy power cords getting in the way.

Finally, probably one of the best improvements of all over my old grill is the removable grilling plates. So simple really, but wow, what a difference and how easy to remove and wash in the sink rather than having to wipe the grill over and try not to make a mess on the worktop like the days of old! They are also supposed to be dishwasher safe but really, they can be cleaned in a matter of seconds, so I will stick to doing it manually.

I really like this grill and if I had realised how much grills had moved on since I bought my first one, I probably would have got one a lot sooner.