When we first moved to Llandudno we purchased a three storey Victorian house as mom and dad were moving with us and we all intended to live together. Dad had Alzheimer's disease and I was to become his full time carer (with mom's help). The idea was that mom and dad would have the ground floor of the house as a 'flat' and Dave and I would have the rest of the house. When we first moved we wanted to get the downstairs done first so that mom and dad would be able to get settled.

This meant that we didn't have a proper kitchen as the kitchen in the house was on the ground floor - obviously. I 'made' a kitchen in one of our bedrooms using bits of furniture that weren't needed anywhere else - tables, drawers, cupboards etc and my cooking facilities were a kettle, toaster and microwave so we decided to treat ourselves to a George Foreman grill.

We chose the large George Foreman 10099 in silver which currently retails on Amazon for £53 with free delivery. It was at the time when the grills were first being marketed and the idea of grilling food and draining away the excess fat.

The cooking surface of the grill is 680cm in width which gives you an idea of the amount of food that you can cook. It is allegedly a six portion grill but that would only work if you were just cooking the meat on the grill and cooking the vegetables separately. The grill has a 75cm cord and it weighs 4.2kg so it is fairly heavy to move around. The size of the whole thing is 170 mm high by 365 mm long by 350 mm wide.


The grill itself looks very classy in sliver and is a chunky almost round shape with a lift up lid. On the top of the lid there is the George Foreman logo, the temperature control and the digital timer. It stands on short legs at a slight angle meaning that the fat will run off easily.

As you lift the lid the hinge feels unusual and this is because it is a 'floating hinge' meaning that it will adjust to fit thicker or thinner items on the grill plate. The non stick plates are black and ridged making it easier for the excess fat to run away when grilling is in process.

The other part of the grill is the grill tray which sits on the work surface right in front of the grill to catch the fat as it runs off. Before you ask - yes, I have actually started cooking before putting the tray in place! This is not recommended as it gets very messy! LOL! Incidentally the grill also comes with its own spatula

Using the grill is very easy. First you need to plug it in and switch it on - always a good start! The drip tray needs to be put right in front of the grill to catch the fat as the cooking process takes place.

Next you need to load your grill with the food that you intend to cook. As I said earlier the grill hinge will adjust so that you can fit anything from a slice of bacon to a chicken breast or a thick steak in the grill. The lid must then be closed as the grill will cook both sides of the food at the same time.

The temperature can be changed from minimum to maximum using the slider on the lid of the grill and the digital timer can be set for anything up to twenty minutes just with a few presses of the buttons. Once the required heat is reached a 'ready to use' indicator light will come on - you then press the start button and away you go. When the timer runs down to zero the grill will beep to let you know that your food is cooked.

This is obvious but it is worth mentioning that the grill plates will be VERY hot when in use so be careful you don't burn your fingers when turning or removing the food.

We used this grill to cook bacon, sausages, chops, chicken, all sorts of vegetables and even toasted sandwiches. The grill cooks food fairly quickly and evenly and the amount of excess fat that drains away when cooking meat is nothing short of amazing!

The food tastes excellent when grilled although you do need to check that thick meats have been cooked through properly. If it needs a bit longer than originally anticipated just reset the timer for a bit longer and press the start button again.

Initially the grill was very easy to clean and just needed a wipe over with a damp cloth with a bit of washing up liquid on it. As we used the grill more and more we did find that bits of food stuck to it more and cleaning after grilling certain foods could be a bit of a pain.

When we didn't have a proper kitchen we used this grill pretty much every day and cooked some really lovely meals using it but since we had the kitchen fitted we have hardly used it as the oven and the grill are easier to use.

I would certainly recommend this grill if you want to cut out some of the fat from your diet although, as with many other kitchen gadgets, it gets a lot of use initially but then gets confined to the cupboard!

As I said earlier this is the 6 portion version but there are quite a range of George Foreman grills on the market. Mom and dad had the little two portion one and they loved it.