Breville's Skinny New Grill Panini Press Offering

There aren't many, but one special purpose appliance I do like (in theory alone at this point) is the removable plate grill/griddle/panini press.

Before all you kitchen purists roll your eyes, consider that in addition to making paninis, you can come home from work late and cook fresh chicken breasts and pile of asparagus and be done in 10 minutes flat..with carmelization! Then just throw the removable plates into the sink or dishwasher and you're ready to settle down to a reasonable dinner. The lid of the press not only cuts cooking time down significantly by applying two heated surfaces, it also shields spatter and cuts down the mess.

The Skinny on Breville's New, Skinny Offering
I was excited when Breville, a brand that makes a very nicely designed home coffee burr grinder and water boiler came out with a mid-size removable plate grill. It costs around $140 if you shop around.

Compared with its larger Ikon predecessor, the new smaller model improves on some features and skimps on others. Unlike the older model, the grill plates are fully removable so they're extremely easy to clean. The knobs are simple and self explanatory. And there's no on or off switch, you just plug it in and dial up the heat. I like the simplicity of this approach because it helps ensure I don't leave the house with the grill inadvertently powered on but on a low heat setting. I always unplug it.

They also kept the integrated fat drain/drawer feature from the older model, which is a great idea, but on this one it's a bit too small and shallow, making it awkward to pull out when it's full of drippings. In addition, the drawer has a metallic strip (for looks) glued onto the outside which gets very hot. So you have to wait for everything to cool off before you can handle it. I burned myself the first time I went to clean up.

While it looks great, the metal body feels a bit tinnier and more cheaply made than other Breville appliances I've bought, but it's not badly made by any stretch. The handle is solidly made, as is the base, cord, and very handy integrated cord storage.

It also features a clever tilting mechanism that lets you keep the cooking surface flat for pancakes, but then tilt to drain off fat for cooking meat. This two mode approach is clever but also this leads me to it's biggest flaw: it lacks the 180 degree hinge. Since you don't gain a larger griddle surface by being able to open it out flat, pancakes are pretty impractical. The cooking surface is simply too small to make more than three at a time without them running together. If you're expecting a fully fold-out model, this one isn't it.

Overall, it doesn't feel well made enough to be a Breville, or well justify the price. I'm rooting for Breville, because I have a lot of respect for the brand overall, to rethink and retool this design to be a little smarter and well made like it's many siblings.

Update on the Breville...(April, 2009). We've now burned out two of them using them normally. Let me explain, we use our first one 2-3 times per week, and after about 8 months, it just stopped working. It "burned out" so to speak. I contacted Breville, and to their great credit, they immediately offered to replace it. Sadly, after another 6 months, the second one failed the way the first one did. To me, this proves one of two things: either the electricity in our house is wonky, or that the smaller panini press isn't that well made (I suspect it's the latter). I admit, we may have been using it more frequently and intensively than it was designed to be used... but still. I have no doubt Breville would replace it again, but who wants an appliance that keeps failing?