These days, it seems almost impossible not to have one of those small, compact boxes at home that allow you to cook any food in about 10-15 minutes: you already know what we're talking about, because we're sure you have one too. Yes, it's the air fryer, the appliance that in just a few years has driven everyone crazy, for its speed of food preparation, its discreet size, and its catchy name that promised something it couldn't actually deliver (frying without oil).
An invention that seemed almost revolutionary, only to discover that there's actually nothing fried about it. In any case, it's undoubtedly a very useful appliance and a lifesaver when you don't have much time to cook. A lifesaver that only recently appeared in our homes: but what if we told you that this little technological miracle was actually born 26 years ago?
Once Upon a Time There Was the Italian Frittolosa…
"It fries without oil, Frittolosa! It fries without oil, Frittolosa! And there's no more oil!" Anyone old enough to remember the early 2000s will surely have sung the jingle from this cute, 90s-style commercial. Made by Termozeta, it was a small, very powerful electric oven… ring a bell? The Frittolosa is undoubtedly the closest relative to our beloved air fryer.
So what went wrong? First of all, it was quite expensive —about 250,000 to 300,000 lire, or about 211$ (€180) today—and it wasn't as small as today's models. But the main problem likely stems from marketing. One of the reasons for the air fryer's success lies in its naming: setting aside the broken promise, the name combines the idea of something everyone loves—frying — but done with something that, by its very nature, has no calories: air. In the case of the Frittolosa, however, the only image it brings to mind is that of fried food, without specifying the benefit for which the appliance was created: a name that perhaps would have been better suited to a real fryer.
The Official Story of The Dutchman Who Loved Chips
Almost all articles online, however, place the birth of the air fryer a few years later, in 2005 to be precise, when Dutch inventor Fred van der Weij began researching a way to prepare his beloved French fries without actually frying them (practically everyone's dream). After years of research and experimentation, finally, as Archimedes would say, eureka: a prototype in which short-range radiation combined with a powerful airflow, cooking food evenly. The first air fryer, recognized as such, was presented in 2010 in Berlin, produced by Philips: a success, even redundant to say, that since 2020 has conquered everyone's hearts (and kitchens).
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