As a former professional chef and part-time recipe developer, I have found that in both restaurant and home kitchens, toaster ovens are a sleeper hit. In restaurants, we treated them like tiny salamanders or ovens: they heated small portions of food faster – and saved more energy – than a full-sized oven. (This is why you’ll often see a toaster oven residing on omakase counters, where they’re used for broiling eel or fish.)
At home, it toasts, of course, but it can also dehydrate, broil, churn out snacks and help make quick meals with modest portions. (No wasted leftovers here!) Even if you possess a toaster oven that only has a basic heat function, so long as you can control the temperature, you have a powerful workhorse on your hands. And if you own a toaster oven with every preset imaginable, from bagel to cookie dough, you can still unlock even more uses.
