George Foreman GRV80 14053 > Reviews (1)

I have a couple of George Foreman grills and think they are brilliant little machines for eating healthy. When I first got one I bought a smaller one and although I found it was ideal for cooking for one person it wasn’t very practical when you wanted to make more than one portion of food at a time so I decided to invest in a bigger machine so I could cook for family and friends when they came to visit me.

I ended up buying the 14053 model which is marketed as a 5 portion family grill.

The grill comes in silver and is reminiscent in shape and design to the other George Foreman grills I have seen but instead of being curved is more square shaped. Like all other George Foreman grills it is designed to sit at an angle when placed on your kitchen work top so that the fat from the meat you are cooking drains off into the supplied drip meaning that the meat is healthier as it doesn’t sit in its own fat reabsorbing them into the meat. The grill part is also ridged meaning that the meat never touches the fat which is released from the meat making it an ultra-healthy way to cook.

The grill is double sides which not only cuts down on the cooking time quite significantly compared to putting something under a normal grill and having to turn it but the double grill parts are ridged which gives the meat lovely scorch marks and really gives it a genuine char grilled flavour. I like the fact that as well as being quicker to cook it is almost impossible to dry meat out using this grill and 99% of the time it ends up being lovely and succulent and even with all the fat being drained from it moist and juicy.

It has floating hinges which means it adjusts to the thickness of the meat you are cooking so in theory you can cook bacon as well as thicker cuts of meat like steaks. In reality I do find that bacon is the one meat which just doesn’t cook as well in this grill as in a conventional grill. For some reason although it cooks through fine it ends up sticking to the grill and it just doesn’t get a nice uniform colour to it and is the only thing I prefer doing under my gas grill.

Also although it claims to be a 5 portion grill this is a little deceptive because it really depends on what you might be cooking on it. Yes you will get five pieces of chicken on it but you would struggle to get even four decent sized portions of steak on the surface of the grill.

With this grill it is also important to either have a big enough kitchen to leave it out at all times or else enough cupboard space to store it in as it is on the large side and does take up quite a lot of space. I just leave mine out as I use it all the time but it is quite cumbersome looking sitting on my kitchen worktop.

My one bug bear about the grill is the fact that it doesn’t have an on/off switch or a safety cut off point and unless you unplug it the grill will stay on. I have often forgotten to unplug it after use and realised a few hours later it is still on. Although there has never even been a hint of it causing a fire or being dangerous to be left on I would still feel safer if it shut itself off after a certain amount of time.

I would ideally also like some sort of temperature control just so I could adjust it for foods that tend to burn quickly as it can be a bit of a pain having to constantly watch them.

As with most George Foreman grills cleaning is a bit of a faff. You have to make sure that you run a damp cloth over the grill plates as soon as it is cool enough to touch and this does make a difference in just how easy it is to clean but I have found that no matter how careful I am with cleaning the non-stick coating does have a few scratches on it and isn’t quite as non-stick as it was when it was new. I would love it if the grill plates were removable on this so that I could put them in the sink or dishwasher to clean but that’s me just being lazy.

The drip try is also one of those things that need to be cleaned as soon as possible before the fat begins to congeal and harden which is not only disgusting to look at but also much more difficult to get rid of.

Although I have gone on about how good the grill is to cook meat you shouldn’t think that this is the only thing that you can cook in it as this grill is amazingly versatile and can cook all manner of foods. Vegetables taste amazing in it and the char grilled flavour really does make them taste better. You can also use it to cook food such as Panini’s and grilled sandwiches and unlike a sandwich toaster you can fit them easily on the surface of the grill without having to squash them together to make sure you can fit them on.

I personally love my George Foreman grill. There are a few little niggles with it that I would change if I could but on the whole it is definitely one of the most used items in my kitchen. I tend to have large portions of food so even when I am cooking just for myself I usually go for this one as opposed to my smaller one as I can cook meat and vegetables on it at the same time. It is well made and feels sturdy and good quality and unlike the cheaper ones I have seen in the supermarkets for sale I wouldn’t be worried this would break just because I put the lid down a little too hard.

I paid £39.99 for this grill which I thought was a fantastic price but if you are willing to have a look online and search a little you can now pick this grill up for under £30 which I think is an absolute bargain.