Dreo ChefMaker Combi Fryer review

Best Prices Today: Dreo ChefMaker

The Dreo ChefMaker Combi Fryer has the reputation of being one of the best air fryers on the market. There’s no preheating – and no need for it. It’s got a 4.3inch LCD colour display. It boasts an app, a grilling tray and a cooking probe. And, to top it off, there’s a shallow water tank on top that’ll add steam to your cooking to ensure your food retains its juiciness and flavour.   

At first glance, however, you might not think this silver appliance with a glossy black front is anything out of the ordinary. The ChefMaker is a fairly compact air fryer that doesn’t take up too much counter space and isn’t particularly startling in its design.  

Following, we take a deeper look. You can also see our top recommendations among dual-drawer air fryers, air fryer ovens, Ninja air fryers and the best air fryers we’ve tested overall.

Design and Build

• Grilling rack
• Cooking probe
• Cook and marinade guide

The ChefMaker Combi Fryer stands roughly 37cm high, 27cm wide and 40cm deep (10.59 x 15.67 x 14.65-in). You can fit it under your wall cupboards, and it doesn’t stick out too far on your work surface. At 7kg, it’s also not particularly heavy.        

The main body is a hard, matt silver plastic. On top is a square, shallow 200ml water tank with a lift-up lid, and the front is a slanted, mirror-gloss black.  

The LCD display panel is an easy-to-read 9.5cm by 5cm, so you won’t be squinting at the digital menus. On either side of the panel are the touch screen controls: on the left are power, light and up and down buttons; on the right are up and down, back and start/pause buttons.  

The grey handle on the front pulls out a somewhat rattly drawer, which we would have thought could have been smoother for the price point, to reveal a 5.7-litre/6QT air frying basket that fits a typical crisper plate and a high-sitting grilling basket: both are dishwasher-friendly.

Now two cooking surface inserts is all rather exciting in the world of air fryers, but it doesn’t stop there. Dreo also give you a cooking probe. This is a silver metal probe with a cable that plugs into a spot at the top of the air fryer basket.

Admittedly, it takes a while to figure out how to plug in the probe, but once you do, it stays in place snugly.

You also get a user manual, a quick start guide, and a rather interesting cooking and marinade guide that gives you tips on what to cook at which temperature and for how long.  

Performance and Features

• App control
• Three cooking modes
• No preheating

After unpacking, wash the accessories with clean water, then place the ChefMaker on a stable surface, leaving some space around it, and plug it in. You run the ChefMaker on the classic cook air fryer setting at 190°C for 15 minutes to remove the remaining odour.      

From this point, you can just go ahead and use the ChefMaker. Alternatively, you can download the Dreo app using the QR code. You create an account on the app, go through email verification, and add the device. Then simply follow the on-screen instructions for the set-up.

The Dreo gives you three cooking modes: Chef, Classic and Probe. The Chef mode employs the CombiCook system, which may require the water tank or probe to cook the food. Once you choose the Chef mode, you’ll get six options: beef, pork, lamb, poultry, seafood, and vegetables.

From this menu, there’s a sub-menu from which you can choose a specific type of food or cut of meat. The ChefMaker will then either suggest using the probe, the water tank, or both, and set a temperature and time for the food. Then just press start.

Classic mode is a more conventional air fryer mode with air fry, defrost, reheat, broil, roast, toast, bake, and dehydrate. Choose one of these options and you can then set your temperature and timings.  

Use the Chef mode, with a probe where possible, because the probe really works

The Probe mode requires you to attach the probe, place it in your food and set the probe temperature. If you aren’t sure what temperature to select, there’s information in the supplied cooking guide.    

The first thing we cooked was a chicken thigh, using the Chef mode with the probe. It came out perfectly, with crispy skin and succulent meat. In fact, most of the meals we cooked in Chef mode with the probe worked out wonderfully. 

As the ChefMaker has a great reputation for cooking steak, we tried it out with sirloin steaks on Chef mode. The programme requested a full water tank and probe cooking, then asked us whether we wanted it rare, medium rare, medium, or well done. We choose medium rare, and the result was phenomenal: juicy, hot, medium-rare steak with a seared outside.

We then tried a topside joint on Classic mode, and this is where we ran into a bit of difficulty. We first broiled it at 230°C for five minutes to sear the outside, then roasted it at 170°C for two thirds of the conventional recommended time, and the joint was overdone.

This is something we found with the Dreo – it runs hotter than other air-fryers we’ve tested, possibly because there’s no initial pre-heating sequence. We found we had to really dial down the temperature and cooking time on the Classic mode settings, so be prepared for trial and error in the early days, or just use the Chef mode, with a probe where possible, because the probe really works.

That said, once we had gauged roughly how the Dreo works, it cooked breaded fish, sausages, and chicken portions very well. The ChefMaker seems to handle meat better than it does root or other vegetables, as sometimes chips or frozen roast potatoes had uneven browning.

UK users may find it awkward that a few of the Chef mode settings tend to be American names for cuts. We had to look up a couple of menu labels because we didn’t know what a “flank steak” or a “New York strip steak” was.

The Chef mode menu options for vegetables is also rather impressive: everything from asparagus and potato chunks to green beans and cauliflower.  

At 5.7 litres/ 6 quarts, the cooking capacity is reasonable for a family meal for four, but if you have a large household, you may need something bigger or with two drawers. Incidentally, we found you can’t fit a frozen garlic baguette in the drawer; you have to snap it in half.

 App Features

• App recipes
• Set cooking program through the app
• Real-time probe temperature

The Dreo app allows you to turn the ChefMaker on and off and select the cooking mode. It also gives you tips for the best results. You choose what mode you want and send the setting to the device.

However, you do need to physically start the cooking process by pressing the start button on the ChefMaker itself, so you can’t start the cooking process remotely. This isn’t a huge problem as apps and food don’t mix particularly well: it’s not a great idea, for example, to leave food in an air fryer at room temperature for long periods anyway.

What we did find intriguing were the recipes available through the Dreo app, recipes that you can sort by ingredient, diet, meal or cuisine. The recipes have videos for each step – Breakfast Puff Eggs Tart, for example, has seven videos guiding you through the steps, from dicing bell peppers to stacking puff pastry, to how to cut out a centre from a puff pastry tart and fill it.

You may need to translate the ingredient names from US to UK English – the infamous zucchini issue – but we felt that the recipes included in the Dreo app, along with the how-to videos, could really help someone with limited cooking experience and skills to be far more adventurous with their meals.

And it had certainly never occurred to us that you could use an air-fryer to make a stuffed puff pastry tart for breakfast out of some frozen pastry, a bell pepper and a bit of cheese.

Price and Availability

The ChefMaker has an RRP of £359/$359, which makes it one of the most expensive air fryers we’ve tested. However, you can now buy it for significantly less.

In the UK, you can buy it direct from Dreo for £239. At the time of writing, it’s still at full price on Amazon.

In the US, it’s been discounted to $239 on Amazon, and the discount is even deeper on the Dreo site, where it’s $216. At this price, it’s a good buy, particularly if you’re looking for a fast, precise way to cook meat.

Should you buy the Dreo ChefMaker?

The Dreo ChefMaker is pricey. There’s no getting away from that. And the slightly rattly drawer does feel a touch cheap for an appliance at this price point, plus the drawer may be a little small for a larger family.

However, we would say that if you are a steak lover, or you love your herby crust chicken legs, or you’re on a keto diet, then the Dreo ChefMaker is really going to deliver for you.

Cooking on Chef mode with the probe means you will get perfectly cooked meat quickly and easily with minimal washing up and no splatter on your hob. And you can get suggestions through the app on how to make more exciting meals.

Best Prices Today: Dreo ChefMaker