Laughed First, Loved It Later

Sure, I could probably live without my DeLonghi Retro Toaster Oven. My $9.99 two slice Hamilton Beach toaster in pale black trim would suffice for most of my toasting means. But every once in a while you see something that catches your eye. And, every once in a while you have the opportunity to add things to a wedding registry with full knowledge that you won’t pay for any of the items on the list. As such, I added the DeLonghi Retro Toaster Oven as a joke to our registry – imagine my surprise arriving home one night to find this 20 pound box outside my front door.

I had no inclination if the “purchase” of the DeLonghi Retro Toaster Oven was a good one or not. Honestly, it was its looks that made ask for it as a wedding present. The toaster is coated in stainless steel with black and silver trim, and a large glass window with a large handle that makes it extremely easy to open up no matter how hot the toaster gets. Plus, there are three “retro” looking knobs that control the major functions of the toaster.

The top knob controls the temperature functions of the toaster oven. The settings begin with Keep Warm and increase up to Broil which also doubles as the toasting function. The middle knob controls the timer of the toaster oven. Turn it to the right to determine how long you want your bread to toast (light, medium, dark) or quickly turn it to the left to turn the oven on. The oven itself has no timer, so you’ll have to keep an eye on how long you cook your food. I normally use the timer in our microwave when I need to cook using the toaster oven. The bottom knob controls the two major heat functions. For the most part you’ll always leave it on Toast/Oven since at least personally I don’t Broil things too often.

As for actual cooking I couldn’t be more impressed and pleased with the DeLonghi Retro Toaster Oven. For one, there’s an internal light that always stays on during cooking. Now, this isn’t some pale Christmas tree like light, this light is bright enough to brighten up the entire confines of the oven. The toaster oven also comes with an adjustable rack that switches between putting food in the center of the oven (perfect for toast) and lower in the oven (perfect for putting pans into oven for oven cooking). The toaster oven also comes with a pan and a drip rack perfect for cooking chicken and having the fat drip away from the food. The only problem however, is the bottom pan is not non-stick and already we have scrubbed and scrubbed to remove burnt on grease. A simple solution is to line the bottom of the pan with tin-foil and spray it with Pam to prevent this mess again. On the flip side, the drip rack is very easy to clean even with burnt on grease. It is too bad DeLonghi didn’t make both the drip rack and the pan non-stick. The oven also came with some tool that I have yet to figure out what its for and of course a manual (maybe I should read it so I can learn what that tool is for!)

As for toast, I am very surprised how good looking it comes out. Each piece is perfect and the heat does such a good job that each time it comes out looking exactly the setting you put the toaster on. Want medium golden toast, put the toaster on medium and that’s what you’ll get. Light or dark and anything in-between is just a turn of the knob away.

I especially like the fact that the toaster doesn’t get too hot on the outside. The front handle is always cool to the touch and large enough that I’ve never had a problem opening it. The outside does get warm to the touch, hot enough that I move some things I store on top of the toaster when I use it, but not so hot that it burns me the split second I accidentally come in contact with it.

Now, the one thing I can’t touch on personally in this review is the price. I believe the toaster runs around $100.00 – that’s a lot in my book. Would I spend the same amount of money on a toaster oven if I had to? Probably not. But that’s the beauty of getting it as a gift.

Overall I love this toaster. What a perfect wedding gift! It’s not like we really needed it and it’s not like another toaster oven would be less ideal if it had been purchased. But the DeLonghi Retro Toaster Oven is just so cool to look at in our kitchen and delivers more than just looks in the long run. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to those pale two-slicer toasters that I’ve used most of my life. I’m married now! Things have to change!