‘It’s one-button cooking’: The air fryer QVC host and foodie David Venable swears by

Julie Tremaine
·5 min read

David Venable, host of In the Kitchen with David, has been QVC’s resident foodie since 2009 but his love of food started at a very young age. Growing up in Charlotte, N.C. as the youngest of three children, Venable enjoyed helping his single mother prepare family meals. Even though he went on to work as a broadcast journalist for six years and has since penned three best-selling cookbooks, the food expert truly shines as QVC’s expert on all things related to cuisine. Venable’s cooking focuses on creative comfort foods that are deceptively simple to prepare. Having tested hundreds of kitchen appliances over his career, we asked him to share the items he swears by that’ll make preparing and cooking meals a breeze now that we are all spending more time at home.

Spill-proof storage

“No kitchen is complete without an airtight, watertight storage system,” says Venable. He loves that the LocknLock 10-Piece Storage Set from QVC’s top-selling storage brand for over 20 years is durable, versatile, easy to stack and holds together even when dropped. “There’s not a day that goes by in my kitchen that my hands don’t touch LocknLock.”

Make ahead and store: Blueberry Oatmeal Snack Bars or Roasted Mixed Nuts with Cinnamon and Sugar

A smartly designed food processor

A food processor saves countless hours of chopping, slicing and shredding. But older designs weren’t perfect: the bulky attachments needed to be stored separately, and unless you lined up the exact right safety latch in the exact right notch, the machine wouldn’t start. Not the KitchenAid 7-Cup Food Processor Plus with In-Unit Blade Storage. “This piece is great because it has become a product of customer feedback over the years,” notes Venable. “This one is totally self-contained. All the blades store underneath it, the top pops off for easy cleaning, and all the parts that touch food can go in the dishwasher.”

Make with this machine: Creamy Cucumber Salad or Classic Scalloped Potatoes

A once-in-a-lifetime mixer

“I don’t think any kitchen can be without a stand mixer,” Venable says. He uses his KitchenAid 5-qt 325W Stand Mixer with Flex Edge not just for sweet food, but for savory foods like pizza dough as well. “You can put poached chicken in there and shred it, and use it in barbecue chicken sliders, or whatever you like.” While it’s an investment piece, he explains, he’s spoken to people who still use their grandmothers’ KitchenAid stand mixers. “This is the kind of kitchen appliance you can pass down to the next generation of cooks in your family.”

This machine comes with a flex edge beater, which David says is a gamechanger. “The flex edge beater not only mixes your food, but scrapes the sides of the bowl as it mixes,” he says, eliminating the need to stop the machine, take the bowl out, scrape down the sides and restart. “It just slowed the whole process down. This is a multi-tasker.”

Make with this machine: Grilled Party Pizzas or Chicken Cordon Bleu

A blender that can do it all

“This blender is doing 17 different things in your kitchen,” Venable says. “Everything from making a restaurant-quality, velvety soup to a perfect breakfast smoothie to your own nut butters and the best margarita you’ll ever have.” What the Vitamix 7500 64-oz 17-in-1 Variable-Speed Blender with Aer Disc Container can do, he explains, would burn out the motor on other blenders. While it’s a little pricey, he said, it really is a versatile piece. This Vitamix can do everything from blend and chop to whip, foam, muddle, and emulsify. It also cleans itself with a little bit of soap and water in the blender.

Make with this machine: Acorn Squash Soup or Loaded Frozen Pina Coladas

An air fryer for healthier choices

“Air frying has become, literally and figuratively, one of the hottest new categories in kitchen,” says Venable. This PowerXL Vortex 1500W 5qt 7-in-1 Digital Air Fryer with Presets delivers the same crispy, crunchy taste and feel of frying, with almost no oil. “Everybody is longing to make smarter choices, but don’t want to give up the foods they love,” he adds. “If you were to fry French fries in a deep fryer, you’d probably need five quarts of oil. In this air fryer, with about a half a teaspoon of oil, you can achieve very similar results with a fraction of fat and calories.” The 10 presets, like for roast, bake and reheat, make using the machine practically mistake-proof. “It’s one-button cooking.”

Make with this machine: Buffalo Wings with Gorgonzola or Butternut Squash Fries

A press-and-go single serve coffee machine

“I couldn’t live without my Keurig. Well, I couldn’t live without my coffee,” he says. “You want coffee and you want coffee in a hurry.” There are Keurig models that can make hot beverages like coffee, cocoa and apple cider, and iced coffee and iced tea as well.

Make with this machine: Irish Coffee or Pumpkin Spice Coffee

An easier-to-use cast iron skillet

“When I order a new piece of Le Creuset, I don’t care what season it is, I’ll sit on my front porch and open that box like a kid on Christmas.” Venable loves this French brand for its durability and performance, and the fact that the enamel lining on the cast iron eliminates all of the hassle of seasoning the pan. This Le Creuset Signature Cast-Iron 3-qt Oval Baker can go from stovetop to oven, works especially well with casseroles, and is dishwasher safe. “There’s a reason that this has been around for generations. Le Creuset has just done it better.”

Make with this dish: Baked Gnocchi or Bacon Cheeseburger Tot Casserole

This article was paid for by QVC and created by Yahoo Lifestyle's custom content team. The Yahoo Lifestyle editorial staff did not participate in the creation of this content.