“No one is born a great cook, one learns by doing.” And, Julia Child knew what she was talking about. Did you know that she only started cooking in her thirties and it wasn’t until much later in life that she became an iconic culinary expert?

One of the beauties of food preparation is that whether you’re a novice or experienced, there’s always something new to learn. However, the success of your dishes often depends on the appliances you have, and how well you operate that stylish eye level oven of yours.   

No matter your level of expertise, getting the most out of a Defy multifunction oven is easy peasy. 

What Are Multifunction Ovens?

These days almost every oven on the market will offer multifunction capabilities and some handy accessories.

A multifunction oven, such as a Defy Gemini Oven, is engineered to include a variety of cooking features. Its design will include a grill, thermofan, and static heating elements. As you’ve likely guessed, the point of having so many heating functions built into one oven is to make cooking easier. You get to choose the oven function that will best suit the type of dish you’re making.

However, there is one problem with owning a multifunction oven. That is, if you don’t understand what all the settings, functions, and accessories do, then you won’t know what your oven can truly accomplish. You’ll have an oven that’s not living up to its true potential. How sad!

Getting to grips with the thermofan, conventional, and grilling heating methods is key to making sure you’re using your multifunction oven for maximum efficiency.  

Traditionally speaking, when shopping for an electric oven in times past, you would have to decide between a fan-operated or a conventional oven. If you’re thinking, “A what and a what?” here’s a quick explanation. 

How a Fan Oven Works

Here's the goods. A fan oven is also called a convection oven. There are elements at the top and bottom which are electrically fueled. When they heat up, the thermofan evenly circulates the heat around the oven cavity.

There is also the option of cooking without the fan if you’re baking or roasting. With a thermofan, your oven heats up quickly and you get evenly cooked dishes.

How a Conventional Oven Works

Convection, conventional… who’s confused? It can be a little tricky not to get the two mixed up! A conventional oven is a basic appliance, and somewhat out of date now. In the conventional version, the heating is done by the elements alone.

Some conventional ovens offer elements on the sides as well as on the top and bottoms. The problem here is temperature hotspots. So, the dish closest to the element would cook the fastest. And, you’d have to remember to turn dishes or rearrange trays halfway through cooking.

Conventional ovens have basic settings that are limited to which of the elements you’d like to use: top only, bottom only, sides, or all at once.

Hopefully, from the descriptions of fan and conventional ovens, you’re now able to see the wisdom behind multifunction ovens. A multifunction thermofan oven combines all the best features of traditional types into one convenient, modern, and powerful cooking appliance.

Thus, multifunction appliances, such as the Defy Gemini Petit Chef give you amazing control over your cooking.

Operating this product is pretty straightforward. So, if you’re new to this type of cooking, don’t feel intimidated. The first step is just turning the thing on and getting the correct heat setting.

The temperature you choose, function mode, and cooking time will all depend on what you’re making. 

How to Use a Defy Gemini Gourmet Multifunction Thermofan Double Oven

Let’s say you’re doing a roast chicken. First, you’d want to turn the oven to 240°C and give it little time to warm up and reach its temperature (this is called pre-heating). To get a crispy roast without drying out the meat, use the full grill mode.

Once you’ve seasoned the chicken and it’s ready to go, reduce the heat to 200°C and pop it in. It will take about 1 hour and 20 minutes to roast. Once it’s cooked all the way through you can turn everything off and leave the chicken to rest for another 10 minutes.

If you wanted to make pizza, all you do is preheat to 240°C, using the bottom heating mode. This will help you achieve a crispy base. Bake the pizza for about 10 minutes, keeping an eye on it so that it doesn’t burn. Depending on how thin the base is, it might cook in slightly less time. (Eye level cooking appliances are a safe and convenient option when cooking pizza!)

Here is a quick summary on using a multifunction oven:

Turning It On

When the oven is off, all the buttons will be pressed in and flush. Simply press one of the buttons and it will pop out. You can then turn the knob to get the setting you want.

To turn it off, reset the knob to the upper position and then push it back in. Easy.

Setting the Function and Temperature

There are two separate buttons for temperature and function. First, choose your function, or operating mode such as thermofan or static grill. Then, adjust the temperature according to the recipe.

Besides its particularly stylish look, this product is wonderful because it makes cooking simple and pleasurable.

If you want a great explanation of how to use a Defy Gemini Gourmet Oven, the user manual is full of helpful information. Yes, you read that right… the user manual. Before you stop reading, just hear us out!

To get you started we’ve pulled out the most useful bits so you can jump straight to the right pages.

Here is what you can expect to learn from the Defy Gemini Gourmet Oven manual:

●      Page 13: Tips for baking, roasting, and grilling

●      Page 14: A guide on how to operate the product

●      Page 15: Pictures of all the operating mode symbols and what they mean

User manuals are no one’s favourite but don’t be put off. Reading the manual is the easiest way to get the most out of any appliance. And, you can download one for free straight from the website before you commit to a purchase.

Move Over Julia Child

Even if you’re new to cooking and don’t know your way around the kitchen too well, you’ll find that you get the hang of it pretty quickly with a Defy oven. And, if you can cook like a pro, you’ll find you can make anything you want to perfection!

Now that you know how to get the best use from your oven, contact a Defy dealer with your wishlist and start getting excited about your pending delivery!