After studying my diet and realising that I was eating too many fatty foods and with a slowly increasing waistline, partly due to a shoulder injury that kept me from playing sport, I knew I had to take some action. I wanted to be able to cook food in a short space of time and in a way that was healthier. After reading a number of articles it seemed to me that grilling food was probably the best bet
I came across the Baby George Grill while shopping in my local Robert Dyas store, with £10 off it seemed a bargain and with an extra 10% student discount I felt that it was impossible for me not to buy it (it actually cost only £18 a massive £11.99 off the usual retail price). I’d looked at a number of different grilling
machines in a few stores but the price of this one was the primary reason I bought it. I also knew of
George Foreman as a boxer and celebrity and had seen the adverts for the
grilling machine on
TV on a number of occasions. This is the first time I have consciously bought an item under the strong influence of an advert. Looking back on my purchase now, it seems that the high impact advertising of this product associated grilling in my mind with George
Foreman. Iam sure there are other grilling machines which are just as good but they are less intensively advertised.
----Style & Design----
First impressions of the item were good. When compared to the other grilling machines it stood out as it looked stylish and funky. The item was metallic silver in colour with a translucent plastic bun warmer lid, on which there is a copy of George Foreman’s signature.
The item generally looks and feels robust and well built, apart from the bun warmer lid, which is made out of a very thin and brittle plastic and feels flimsy and very susceptible to damage. Even so the George Foreman grilling machines where, when I bought this one over a year and a half ago, and still are the only ones that incorporate a bun warmer. The grilling machine is also very heavy for its size, presumably the majority of this weight is the metal used to make the grills.
The two
non-stickgrill plates have a patented grooved design and are a joined by a moveable hinge at the rear of the Baby George, which means that you can cook food of varying thicknesses. In order for the fat and grease to run away from the food the grill plates are sloped down at an angle and the groves carry the liquid away. The fat and grease collects in a small grey plastic
dish, which you need to position just under the lip of the bottom grill plate.
On the top of the Baby George is the bun warmer, this is really just a non stick metal plate enclosed by a clip shut translucent plastic lid. On the few occasions its been used I’ve found it to be effective. Though the catch on the lid is rather fiddly to use and I have had problems closing it.
----Ease of Use----
To turn the machine on all you do is to plug it into the mains. A
small orangethermostat controlled ready light should light up at the rear of the grilling machine.
Once this light has gone off then the grilling machine is at the correct temperature.
In order to gain access to the grilling plates, lift the lid using the small handle at the front of the machine. The lid can be pushed right back to an upright position, with no risk of falling back onto you. Before you place any item on the grilling plates, grease the plates slightly with vegetable oil, this should ensure that the food does not stick to the plates even though they are supposedly non stick.
When cooking items try to ensure that they are relatively the same thickness. I’ve learnt this the hard way when cooking thick steaks and vegetables together. The steaks get cooked properly while the vegetables don’t as the top lid cannot touch the vegetables because of the thickness of the steaks.
There are two major drawbacks of cooking on the Baby George the first is its size. Its tiny about 5” wide by 4” deep this means its really only viable to cook on it when your cooking for yourself or say you just want to cook vegetables or meat on it, though it’s a squeeze to get two salmon steaks on the grill. If you want to cook whole meals on the grill then I recommend you consider purchasing the next size up.
The second major drawback is that there is no timer, this means you can’t leave it cooking by itself for too long unless you want over cooked food. The Baby George does come with an instruction manual, which recommends the cooking times for various meats and vegetables. This is useful but don’t follow the cooking times faithfully as I have found on occasions that they are both too short and too long.
----What does it cook?----
The Baby George can cook almost any meat and vegetable as long as it fits between the two grill plates. The only real limit on what you can cook on the baby George is what you can fit on the
small grill. The really nice touch of the Baby George is that it leaves grill lines on your food and in some foods particulary fish it produces a great tasting meat.
The only downside to the grilling machine is that sometimes it can remove too much oil and fat from the meat leaving it dry. This is probably because I’ve left the meat in there a little too long so it pays to watch the food closely to get the best results.
----How do I clean it?----
Be very careful when cleaning the grill plates. I’ve been using my Baby George for over a year and a half now and the non stick coating on the grilling plates is starting to wear away quite badly. The non stick coating is of a pretty poor quality and cannot stand up to sustained wear and tear. The grill plates also prove quite fiddly to clean. The fat and grease gets caught between the groves and proves difficult to remove.
The best way of cleaning Baby George is to ensure that the grill plates are properly oiled before use therefore reducing the risk of items sticking to them. To remove what every residue is left, wait until the plates are still a little warm and then use a damp
kitchen cloth. The machine is also supplied with a rather flimsy grey plastic scrapper which is supposed to help in removing any stubborn bits but which in effect is pretty useless.
The grey plastic drip tray is easy to clean, you can even place it in the dishwasher.
----Points that could be improved----
Rather than having the cheap grey plastic drip dish perhaps it would be better if the machine incorporated a drip dish, I’ve noticed that other machines do this and it would not prove so easy to misplace.
It would be great if this budget model like some of the more expensive ones incorporated a timer so you can avoid over cooking the food. I’ve over cooked my food on the Baby George so many times.
Another problem I’ve encountered when the grills are hot is that its very easy to burn yourself on them I’ve done this on a number of occasions especially when lifting the lid my knuckles have brushed against the edge of the grill.
The only other major problem is that the bun warmer lid is made out of a clear brittle plastic, very easy to crack. After a year and a half of use the lid has cracked and doesn't close properly as the rather flimsy catch has broken.
----To Conclude----
Despite all these problems I would recommend the George Forman Lean Mean Grilling Machine. I would not recommend purchasing the model I have, the Baby George. Its far to small to be of any real use and it has such limited features, a timer would be invaluable. Quality wise I would say its ok though certain parts are quite flimsy and the non stick coating is not the best in the world.
Don’t be influenced too much by the marketing for this grilling machine, there are other models out there, less well marketed and therefore perhaps cheaper and possibly better able to do the job of grilling. Grilling as a form of cooking is great, its amazing
to see how much fat meat contains and too think when watching the fat tray fill up, at least that’s not going to be clogging my arteries.
Check out the rather good website at Georgeforeman.co.uk
RRP £29.99 (Baby George)
Good value for Money? 
