Is the Instant Pot Worth It? One Professional Chef Makes the Argument For Why He Loves It

What I do not use my InstantPot for is cooking any kind of magical, super fast meals. I’ve never followed an InstantPot recipe because the idea of putting a bunch of disparate ingredients in, waiting for it to achieve pressure, blasting those ingredients in a high-pressure environment, and then letting it naturally release sounds neither like a time saver nor like an awesome hack for chicken breasts with asparagus. In other words, it’s not a food replicator from Star Trek: The Next Generation. I use it to make components of meals, but it seems unfit to make a main dish, unless that dish is maybe a stew or soup that would normally take a long time.

It also has a slow cooker setting but I’m just not a slow cooker person. I do not get slow cookers and I would like to apologize to my mother-in-law, Kathy, who thinks they’re cool. I think Kathy is cool, but I’m not into it. You put food in it, turn it on, go to work (which is terrible, but I am almost starting to miss it, though I still don’t actually miss it), and then come home to that same food that has been cooking all day? But you can’t stir it because you’re at your horrible job? Does it work? I can see soup working because everything is submerged in liquid, but, like, stew? Does that work? I can’t see why you’d want a separate device for unevenly cooking your food while you’re at work.

So if you so asked for my honest opinion about electric pressure cookers because you’re considering purchasing a device to give you something to look forward to while you’re at your terrible job, I say skip the fancy gizmos and make pizza dough in the morning and then come home and cook pizza because that’s much cheaper, easier, faster, more appropriate for food that sits out on the counter all day, and I mean, it’s pizza! But if you like DIY-ing yogurt, obliterating leftover chicken bones into stock, making rad beans and perfect rice, or getting in on trends a little bit after they’re trendy, then I say go for it!

If you already have an Instant Pot and you love it and you just wanted validation, then I would talk to somebody about that. Seriously, I just started taking anti-anxiety/depression drugs and while the dose is so low and needs time to build up in my system, just knowing that I started the process of trying to feel better is already making me feel way better! And seriously, I could not have started taking that medication at a better time!!

Either way, do not try to grill tuna marinated in pomegranate molasses in a grill pan because tuna is not a sustainable food to eat and Naomi and I will be able to taste it wherever you or she or I is at that moment. I’m here for you if you have any more questions—my daughter doesn’t understand what’s going on right now, but I think it makes her feel better when I say, “Daddy has to go to work!” and then go into my bedroom in my pajamas and shut the door.

Have a question for Tyler? Email it to eatbasically@gmail.com.