This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Read our disclosure.
Professional ovens and home ovens are very different machines, but the lessons from one carry over to the other. Here’s what years of cooking with professional ovens taught me, and the independently tested countertop ovens that bring those lessons into a home kitchen.
Chef’s note: At work I cook with combi steam ovens, convection ovens and conventional ovens. At home I have a built-in electric oven, a gas oven and an air fryer. Four lessons carry over: convection matters most, steam makes a big difference, the temperature on the dial is rarely accurate, and even heat is everything.
Step 1: Check your oven’s real temperature (the cheapest upgrade)
Before you buy a new oven, find out what your current one is actually doing. America’s Test Kitchen notes that under NSF International standards an oven can swing as much as 25 degrees above and below the set temperature and still count as acceptably calibrated on average. In their popover test, a 25-degree difference was enough to ruin the batch: cool ovens gave popovers that didn’t rise, hot ones gave misshapen, overly dark ones (America’s Test Kitchen).
- Best value: ThermoPro TP16. America’s Test Kitchen’s Best Buy digital pick, around $17 on sale: highly accurate despite minimal features (America’s Test Kitchen).
- Simplest: CDN Pro Accurate Oven Thermometer. Their best analog pick: a budget dial thermometer with a wide, stable base and clear markings.
- Top pick: ThermoWorks Square DOT. The premium digital option, showing a rolling average of the oven temperature.
Step 2: Get convection in a countertop oven
A good countertop convection oven heats up fast, uses less energy for small batches, and gives you a fan-driven oven even if your main oven doesn’t have one.
Best overall: Breville Smart Oven (BOV800XL)
America’s Test Kitchen’s toaster oven winner. It aced every test, turning out evenly baked cookies, golden pizza, tender-crisp asparagus and a crisp-skinned chicken, with intuitive controls, programmable settings and quartz heating elements for accurate temperature control (America’s Test Kitchen).
Best value: Toshiba 6-Slice Convection Toaster Oven (AC25CEW-BS)
The Best Buy in the same test: even toast, good baking and roast chicken, plus a crumb tray and rack-position markings. The trade-offs are a limited broiler (350°F max) and a slightly confusing digital interface (America’s Test Kitchen).
If you want an air fryer too: air-fryer toaster ovens
- Best overall: Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro (around $400). America’s Test Kitchen’s winner: intuitive controls and consistently the best food across air frying, toasting, roasting and broiling (America’s Test Kitchen).
- Best value: Instant Oven 18L Air Fryer Toaster Oven (around $200). Admirable at air frying, roasting and broiling for less than half the price, though its toasting is limited (America’s Test Kitchen).
Step 3: Add steam
Professional combi ovens combine convection with steam. For home cooks who want that steam side, countertop steam ovens are the closest option.
Top pick: Anova Precision Oven
America’s Test Kitchen’s top countertop steam oven, around $599. It controls humidity in 5% steps, can cook sous vide without a water bath or bags, has a built-in probe thermometer and five rack positions, and made excellent toast and bread. The honest drawback: the app connection was unreliable, and remote start from a phone “fell far short” in their testing (America’s Test Kitchen).
Which one should you buy?
- Your oven bakes unevenly or burns things: start with an oven thermometer.
- You want a fast second oven with convection: Breville Smart Oven, or the Toshiba on a budget.
- You also want air frying: Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro, or the Instant Oven 18L.
- You bake bread or want steam cooking: Anova Precision Oven.
More from a head chef’s kitchen: the tools I use every day, including the instant-read thermometer that tells you when food is done.
Leave a comment