With more brains and fewer boxing metaphors than the competition, T-Fal’s new OptiGrill indoor grill claims to bust out a perfect steak while you’re not even looking. The OptiGrill shares a similar stainless-steel clamshell design with its pugilistic indoor grilling brethren, but adds smarts with a large multi-colored doneness indicator, doing away with the need to obsessively open the top every few seconds to poke at your meat. Beeps also accompany the colorful progression from rare to well done at each stage, so you can focus on other food prep while the OptiGrill does its thing.
A number of built-in cooking presets cover the most commonly grilled foods: burgers, fish, sausages, poultry, and of course, steaks. It’s also got a sandwich mode for making paninis at home, a defrost mode, and a manual mode for fruits and vegetables. The magic behind the OptiGrill’s done-ness indicator is an integral thickness sensor; combined with programs for different kinds of meat, it can adjust cooking times accordingly to get meats to the perfect level of doneness every time. An ample drip tray ensures that an extra-fatty meal won’t overflow goo all over the counter, and the dishwasher-safe cooking plates are easily removed for cleaning.
We’re still waiting for the OptiGrill’s North American debut, but if the prices here are similar, expect it to set you back a couple hundred bucks.
