The Tefal Actifry is a kitchen innovation that allows you to get perfect, tasty and crispy chips every time at the touch of a button. It usually requires one spoon of oil..they claim giving chips around 3% fat. I have owned this gadget for over a year now and have got a lot of use out of it and whilst I have had some rubbish chips (mainly from misuse on my part)...I have also had some brilliant chips.

THE TECHNICAL BIT, The Actifry is a hot air oven which uses a rotating padel to circulate the food and give even cooking. For usual food i.e. one that are not pre-fried it requires only one spoon full of oil to cook effectively. It has two buttons on the face of it, one for on/off and a button which for each press adds a minute to the timer that is a screen in between the two buttons. When the timer is complete the Actifry will beep continuously until you attend to it, so no overcooked chips if you get your original timing correct. It has a decent length mains connector that is located at the rear of the device.

DAY-TO-DAY, The device is very easy to use. With its one and only control, the on/off button, there is no temperatures to worry about just turn it on and put on the timer if desired. The only thing that is a small annoyance is there must be some sort of internal battery for the timing beeper as even when disconnected it has been known to go off. To fill you just pop up the lid with one of the two buttons on the front and fill the circular pan. When your food is cooked the handle on the front pops up allowing you to lift the pan out for serving, which can be a little awkward as the paddle inside is not secured and becomes very hot so sometimes drops out and causes problems. It comes with a green spoon for putting the oil in that fits onto a little ledge inside the unit. There are no safety worries as when you open the lid during cooking the heating fans automatically turn off, just watch out for hot parts after use.

RELIABILITY, I have been using this gadget for over a year and to date have not experienced any deterioration in functionality or performance. It seems very sturdy and well built in my opinion.

CLEANING, The cover, basket and vanes can all be removed and are dishwasher safe so the Actifry is easy to clean. The pan itself in non-stick so no worries there I would recommend giving it a thorough clean each time as it is quite and investment and you don't want your chips to start tasting of stale oil.

THE FOOD, The Actifry is not just for chips...you can cook vegetable, strips of meat, flavoured wedges the list goes on and the only thing is that pieces have to be small enough to be stirred. I have found that once you get to know the right amount of cooking time for things you can get brilliant, lower fat results from the device...It does take a few practices though. It comes with a cookbook with some quite quirky ideas is that are worth a look at.

IN SUMMARY, at around £180 the Actifry is a considerable investment but for me, a worthwhile one. It allows you to have that fried taste at a fraction of the fat level, and guilt level. It is easy to use, clean and experiment with. There are some limitation like the pan size and the need to have the food stir-able but it will easily cook for 4 people. I would recommend this product.