Smeg multifunctional worktop oven: a stylish, versatile worktop Hog

Price upon review

$999.95

Best prices today: Smeg countertop air fryer with steam

Air fryers, steamers and other small appliances: Smeg’s 10-in-1 multi-function countertop oven aims to replace them all while offering a comparable amount of capacity to a combi microwave. To this end, it is equipped with a water tank on top so that it can steam food, an air fry setting and a perforated baking tray.

This countertop oven doesn’t just bring functionality to the table, though: it features a menu of preset programs, allowing you to do everything from proofing dough and baking to roasting potatoes and steaming vegetables.

Design and construction

• Hangs over a standard countertop when opened
• Huge capacity
• Multifunctional controls

Those with small kitchens may struggle to make room for the 10-in-1 multi-function countertop oven: it’s a whopping 50cm wide and deep, with a height of 40cm, meaning it might not fit under wall cabinets (plus it 800 ml/27 oz water tank at the top must be accessible). With the door down it takes up the full depth of a standard 60cm worktop and goes over the edge.

He also weighs a whopping 17.5kg, so make sure you find him a permanent home. If you have the space, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the 30 litre/32QT oven space: you don’t have to compromise on the size of a piece of meat or cake, which can be a common problem with countertop ovens.

On the outside it’s more attractive than most: finished in gloss cream or black – although there are more color options in the US – there are just two center button controls, giving it a pleasing symmetry.

Using various combinations of turning the knobs and pressing the buttons, you can select one of the standard cooking modes (including combi steam and defrost), or one of the preset recipe programmes, plus food weights and a timer.

Rachel Ogden / Foundry

In the middle there is a screen where you can see what you have selected, although abbreviations and symbols mean that you will have to keep the manual at hand. There’s no shortage of power, though: the 1800W power translates into a 900W grill, a 700W lower heating element and a temperature range of 40-230°C/104-445°F.

Performance and features

• No suggested times for dry cleaning
• The timer can be adjusted during cooking
• Oven and accessories difficult to clean

One of the most attractive aspects of the multi-function countertop oven is its versatility, followed closely by the amount of cooking space inside. This makes it ideal for medium-sized households and families who often need a second oven, or like to try different methods without purchasing multiple appliances or upgrading an existing oven. It would also be great for tenants.

We started our tests by steaming fresh broccoli using the pure steam cooking setting and the perforated baking tray. The temperature can be changed, but we chose 100% steam for faster cooking. The oven heated up and beeped when it was ready to add food.

Rachel Ogden / Foundry

There are no guidelines for times for steaming different foods, but we estimate that 15 minutes would be sufficient. We found it quite tricky to set the timer – it wasn’t clear how to set it while it was heating up, but we were able to set it once the oven had started cooking. A separate timer button would be useful.

Over time, the broccoli was still a bit firm but edible and retained its bright green color. We liked that you could add or subtract time from the timer while the oven was cooking, and that the timer paused when the oven door was opened.

We then made chips from washed and dried potato pieces tossed in a small amount of oil, using the air fry setting. After the oven had heated up, these were spread over the hot perforated baking tray and cooked at 230°C for 27 minutes. Halfway through cooking the fries were turned over.

Rachel Ogden / Foundry

However, many of them stuck to the tray and were difficult to clean afterwards. We had to soak the container and scrub it with a non-scratch brush to remove the grime, as the instructions advise against cleaning the accessories in the dishwasher.

One of the Chef recipe programs is for a whole roast chicken: this uses a combination of steam and conventional cooking. However, it is limited by the weight of the bird: our chicken weighed 1.62 kg, but the maximum option for this program is 1.5 kg. We chose this weight and estimated a cooking time of 1 hour and 22 minutes.

Once the temperature was reached, we liked that the program automatically started counting down (for standard cooking you have to start counting down the time yourself).

When the program finished, we discovered that the chicken was actually overcooked and falling apart when we removed it from the enameled baking tray. However, the meat was not dry and the skin was dark brown and crispy. The tank also needed to be soaked and scrubbed as before.

Rachel Ogden / Foundry

When cooking the chicken and fries, a fair amount of burnt fat remained in the oven cavity. Using the oven’s steam function softens some of it for cleaning, but overall we found it took several rounds of this and a lot of scrubbing to get it clean enough. We found it frustrating that the oven wasn’t easy to clean, and felt this could be a barrier to using it often.

Price and availability

Aside from the complicated controls, size and cleaning issues, the real problem with the Smeg oven is its extraordinary price. Granted, you’ll always pay a little more for Smeg kitchen appliances thanks to their sleek, desirable design, but compared to other multi-function countertop ovens, the difference is huge.

In the UK it retails for £849.95, and you can buy it directly from Smeg and Freemans for this price. At the time of writing, The Appliance Depot is selling it for just £769, but this is still hugely expensive compared to competing models.

The American price is also high. It costs $999.95 from Wayfair, Crate and Barrel, and Williams-Sonoma.

The most expensive appliances we would recommend in our roundup of the best air fryer ovens we tested are less than half the price of the Smeg oven. If you can make do with a little less space, without the Smeg design and the steam setting, there are excellent alternatives available.

Should you buy the Smeg multifunctional countertop oven?

The 10-in-1 multi-function worktop oven from Smeg is attractive in many ways. It’s more attractive than most countertop ovens, offers more interior space than many other ovens, and the variety of features offers excellent flexibility: for the most part, we were happy with the actual cooking.

However, there is a trade-off for his beauty and brains. It’s far from easy to program – without the instructions a new user is likely to be confused – fiendishly difficult to keep spotlessly clean and be prepared to part with a good chunk of your kitchen worktop.