The air fryer isn’t as new a phenomenon as the current cost-of-living spike in its popularity might lead you to believe. I first encountered one about 13 years ago, one of the bulky Tefal Actifry things intended to replicate the effects of a deep-fat fryer on chips. I recall the owner being effusive about it but then giving the concept little thought until the last year or so as they’ve gained so much traction. I had various objectives in mind when I picked mine up, in particular speeding up the cooking of frozen beige food demanded by Little Fork as well as being able to knock up bacon and sausages etc for a speedy breakfast. The added cooking space when putting together a Sunday roast would also be a bonus and the thought of it shaving a bit off of our huge energy bills was enticing too.

Unboxing my new Ninja Air Fryer was as exciting as ever for a new kitchen toy. I noted minimal use of plastic in the packaging too with cardboard inserts replacing what would in years gone by have been blocks of polystyrene. First impressions of the appliance itself are good: it’s sensibly proportioned and fits perfectly into the space I’d assigned for it. I’d feared that it would be somewhat monolithic and dominate the kitchen but it’s perfectly unobtrusive next to the microwave. Accompanying documentation is comprehensive, giving details of how the various modes work and how to adapt cooking times for air frying. So after giving the cooking tray a quick wipe down I’m giddily comtemplating what to first subject to its fan assisted clutches. Rather unimaginatively this turns out to be a handful of frozen chips, but I may as well start from the beginning and see where I fancy going next. Unlike some other brands I researched, Ninja recommends preheating the appliance for 3 minutes which slightly undermines the perceived benefit of being able to cook from cold. Still, 3 minutes is hardly an undue inconvenience and the machine only takes two button presses to get heating up, a marked improvement on the eternity my grill takes to come up to temperature. Even with that 3 minutes taken into account it was about a dozen minutes later that I was tucking into crispy, fluffy chips that were a marked improvement on the oven. An impressive first gambit.

Showing a distinct lack of imagination, I then threw in a couple of chicken Kievs for dinner which were perfectly crisped, cooked through and not at all dry after twenty minutes. Bacon is turned around similarly quickly and before long I’m confident enough to ditch the oven for days at a time, happily cooking anything in the air fryer that’s appropriately sized. Obviously there’re a couple of missteps such as the pizza I took perilously close to carbonisation and the small piece of parchment I set fire to by not securing properly, but what’s life without risk eh…not nearly as close a call as those kebabs I set fire to in my bedsit that time. After this the positive reception continues pretty much unabated: it saves a great deal of time, is easy to clean, produces results at least equal to a conventional oven and as a lower power device powered up for a shorter time must by definition be cheaper to run.

Downsides? It’s taken a mental recalibration to accept that meat can be cooked to a safe temperature so quickly that I use a probe thermometer for reassurance still. I’ve had to buy a rack to provide more internal real estate for bacon and so on… and I can’t think of much else. Earlier today it produced perfect roast parsnips and carrots for Sunday lunch, saving me from needing to use the smaller side of the double oven and I’ve just heard it beep from downstairs where it’s turning out a grilled cheese sandwich for an early evening snack. Most tellingly it’s been adopted without hesitation by Mrs Fork, who’s just returned from a week abroad for work. She has a pathological aversion to “gadgets” so I’d intended ordering one to be delivered mere hours after her flight departed so I could spend a week familiarising myself and cooking in a smaller appliance suitable for solo meals. However, my nerve failed me when I realised the heavily discounted model I’d ordered would take up a fair wedge of our counter space. Having confessed my intended misdemeanour, I grabbed the Ninja, which had a smaller footprint than the Tefal model I’d seen, and after those early experiments she was sold.

Clearly it’s made a positive impression on this household and my hoped for ability to bring food to the table speedily enough to counter Little Fork’s journey to the snack cupboard has materialised. I still need to play around with dishes that would more traditionally be deep fried and really get into the breadth of the baking and dehydrating functions it has but I couldn’t be more pleased with my Ninja. It’s achieved everything I hoped it would and more, immediately becoming a staple of the kitchen. Clearly as the last decades have illustrated I could live without it, but I wouldn’t want to now.

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There are a few cookery schools dotted around Yorkshire, but this is the most grand new cookery school I’m aware of inside York’s walls and, having had the opportunity to look around, it’s certainly an impressive facility. There are 16 well equipped cooking stations that have enough space for either solo cooking or more collaborative efforts as the occasion demands, along with a comfortable dining area in which to enjoy the fruits of your labour. The demonstration area also offers enough seating for all participants to get up close with the tutor and ensure they understand what their own efforts should resemble. It’s particularly pleasing to see that the facility is also accessible with provision made to ensure that wheelchair users are able to enjoy all elements of the courses on offer.

In charge of the courses is Andrew Dixon, who joins with decades of experience in catering and hospitality including, notably, earning 3 Rosettes within ten months of opening a restaurant with rooms in 1999. These days Andrew is less focussed on awards than delivering an accessible, enjoyable and educational experience for course attendees. Browsing the courses available shows an impressive breadth of options that will also feature guest tutors. Already lined up are renowned forager Alysia Vasey and bestselling food writer Sabrina Ghayour.

I’ll be joining a course when things have kicked off so I’ll update you then. For the moment I’m just looking forward to seeing the doors open to another exciting player in York’s food offering.

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The Riverford Veg Masterclass was held near one of Riverford’s farms not too far from York up at South Otterington, in whose village hall we gathered to receive instruction from a friendly young tutor by the name of Ben. Nine of us were in attendance to put together a rice salad, a curry and spiced dip while taking tips on the broader points of cooking with vegetables. I like to think that I’m a competent home cook, but it was nice to have my technique reinforced by a pro’ as we ran through basics such as chopping onions and basic knife skills.

Over a couple of hours we talked through suggestions such as ‘curing’ spring greens with lime while we kept on chopping, and ended up with a delicious spiced carrot and cannellini dip and a spinach, green bean and chick pea curry along with a delicious rice salad that used those cured spring greens.

All the attendees commented that they had learnt something new as we enjoyed the fruits of our labours over lunch so Ben deserves great credit for keeping the day moving to schedule and making sure that all skill levels were taken into account while neither boring the more experienced nor patronising those newer to cooking. One thing I’d not realised about Riverford was that there’s no subscription; if you have an account you just order as and when you fancy taking a box. That being the case, it’s certainly something I’m going to be looking at more closely.

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Walmgate Ale House has been making a name for itself as a place to drink over the last few years since it made the decision to move the majority of its eating offering onto the first floor and concentrate the downstairs into a relaxed bolthole in the centre of town that offers good quality bar snacks. The bistro is, of course, still intact upstairs though and continues to offer its now traditional food festivals, such as this week’s Lobster Festival. It was in this context that I met with some lucky competition winners for a coffee downstairs all ready to be walked through how to prepare a lobster by Michael Hjort, owner of this establishment as well as Melton’s, who also dedicates a huge chunk of time to the York Food Festival.

Lobster isn’t an ingredient I’ve ever really set about at home, the risk of failure making it too expensive to experiment with (even with those worryingly cheap five quid frozen ones), so the chance to get some proper tuition was entirely welcome. We started with a conversation about the best way to humanely cook a live lobster, our examples of which had been placed in the deep freeze for an hour or so before our arrival to render them docile and effectively comatose. From that desensitised state, they went into a colossal pan of boiling water, with Michael judging how long would be appropriate.

When that first stage of cooking had been completed, we took it in turns to bisect our hard-shelled friends, carefully locating the knife as instructed and bringing to bear more force than one would expect. It must be said that the resulting lobster halves were not immediately appetising, coloured with sections of lobster anatomy that wouldn’t be one’s first choice to eat, but could be pressed into service later on to leverage greater value from the creature, giving that lovely lobster flavour without having to use any of the precious lobster meat.

As we extracted those morsels of meat, it became obvious just what a small amount comes from each lobster, and what a challenge that must pose to a restaurant wanting to headline a dish with lobster while not driving prices through the roof. As Michael effortlessly knocked up some pasta for us, we mixed through some of the less immediately appealing bits of the beast with some salmon and cream to knock together some ravioli that could rightfully claim to be a lobster dish without costing a fortune for either establishment or guest. It goes without saying that I need to head back and try out the finished lobster menu, watch this space for my thoughts!

Speaking of returning, that’s exactly what I did a few hours later thanks to a coincidence of planning. That evening I found myself back in the Walmgate Ale House downstairs games room, casually flicking at a game of bagatelle and enjoying some bar snacks with a couple of friends. We munched through battered sausages with curry sauce, chicken wings, halloumi and a cheese plate along with a couple of pints before making our way home to find cats entranced by the lingering smell of lobster that I, apparently, hadn’t quite shaken yet, a situation that I suspect will be repeated in a few days when I return to check out the finished dishes.

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