I have been reviewing a Halogen Oven for the past few weeks after being sent one by Clifford James. I had never heard of a halogen oven  before and I thought I knew about most kitchen appliances, I had visions of a new oven having to be installed. It is in fact a work top appliance that promises to perfectly cook most meals faster than conventional ovens with the halogen heat element which heats up instantly, and a fan to circulate the air to cook food evenly.

The oven comes with two different level racks and as extras a lid stand and tongs.Other accessories are available

Did it live up to it’s promises? Yes I think it did, a 2kg chicken in an hour – perfect! Crisp pastries- yes! Cheese on toast, easy! Boiled eggs…great!

See the gallery below of foods I have cooked in the oven.

The oven also has a thaw function and a self cleaning function which does cut down on washing up. I was pleasantly surprised at how little mess roasting a chicken in it made.

I would highly recommend this, the oven is perfect for people living alone, students with limited cooking facilities and also families. I am sure the instant heat would reduce fuel costs over a period of time because there is no requirement to preheat and it alleviates the necessity of turning a huge oven on just to crisp a pastry or make cheese on toast, for example. I am not a technical expert on these matters though so don’t quote me.

The downsides are that it isn’t the most attractive appliance and it is quite large and bulky so in a small kitchen would take up a lot of precious work top space. The dials are a little basic meaning the timer isn’t 100% accurate although this didn’t hinder what I cooked. The lid is very heavy and also very hot making it quite awkward to lift off and I would be worried about someone physically weak managing to do this safely. Lastly the instructions are very minimal, it took me a while to work out exactly how to use it and I hadn’t realised that the extras that came with the oven were in fact a lid stand, very good idea, and tongs to lift the racks out. I had to search on the internet to find out what these were.

Overall I think this is a fantastic product and at £39.99 in my opinion it is a bargain for what it does. You could theoretically replace a cooker and a microwave with the halogen oven.

I award it four out of five cupcakes