Customer Ratings & Reviews

The Home Chef 7-in-1 Compact Oven is a home chef’s dream, complete with 18 auto-cook programs, 2 kinds of convection baking, steam, air fry, slow cook, ferment, and even sterilize both the oven itself and baby bottles. I love the bottle sterilization feature because the bottle sterilizer we received as a baby shower gift takes up a huge chunk of countertop space. This feature allowed for combination of a previous counter-top oven with the sterilizer, and with a baby at home that is a major plus. This oven has a 0.7 cu. foot interior and can fit a 10” pizza, whole fish, or small chicken. Perfect amount of food for a family of 2-4. The large display featuring the operation panel is very straight forward and easy to navigate. One is not overwhelmed by fancy features. The system has a convenient and effective timer so that your food always comes out perfectly... when you remember to get it out at least. It’s been a delight to use this countertop appliance when I need to make something instead of making the entire house hot by turning on the regular oven, and the Home Chef heats up much quicker than my regular oven as well. The oven has a 27 fl ounce water tank that can steam cook food for up to 60 minutes. With the baby at home, steaming has become an every day venture as we discover new foods, and this function has been a godsend. Although this oven does not feature a “microwave,” it can certainly replace it. Leftovers and food in general taste much better and fried foods are crispier when heated in this appliance. I'd choose this over a counter-top microwave anyday. The oven comes with oven racks and metal trays, which based on the size is perfect to have accessories to facilitate cooking. I am impressed with how easy it is to clean. Once the oven cools down you simply wipe down the inside and with little effort ready for the next venture. In her free time, my wife loves to bake and was excited to use this oven for baking breads, buns, and so many yummy treats. The ferment option is such a convenient feature to help speed up the dough rising which usually takes anywhere from 1-2 hours. By following up with convection bake, the bread comes out fluffy and perfect in a shorter amount of time as well. We also like to make dumplings and steamed buns which can be tedious but this appliance cuts the time down significantly. Cooking steak is also a breeze and the fat drains directly into the rack provided. If there was something I wish the oven had, that it doesn't, is a meat probe built in. Even if you are not an expert in the kitchen, this compact oven is so easy to use and can help someone make consistently tasty dishes.

Panasonic - .7 Cu. Ft. HomeCHEF 7-in-1 Compact Oven – Black This equipment is advertised as COMPACT, and compact it is. To me, it’s ideal for a dorm room, single people, or a couple without kids, or in our own situation (grandparents, kids long gone). This machine fit ideally onto a shelf, under kitchen cabinets, replacing both a portable convection oven and microwave. My wife loves the additional space this afforded her. We duly note the warning, if using the STEAM function, that steam emits upwards from the machine and that could have a very bad effect on one’s cabinets above. We have not tried, nor I suspect will not use, the STEAM function anytime soon. We just did a complete kitchen renovation and the cabinets are "works of art." Having said the above, this same “compactness” limits the equipment to working with certain food items. One cannot whip up full sized pizza, for instance … as you would in your full sized stove convection oven, better call Dominoe’s. Works great on pizza slices, however. I will sheepishly admit to not being well versed in the culinary arts. I can boil water and make a mean tuna sandwich, but my wife (a.k.a. THE CHEF) is a magnificent cook and she handles all the cooking (for our 57 years together). She really likes the HomeCHEF, and remarks often the amalgamation of - Air Fry - Convection Bake - Steam - Steam Convection, and - Slow Cook all in one enclosure. I also like the fact we have been able to clear off that counter top of the microwave and convection oven. Much neater. In buying anything, I read the reviews. I noticed most reviews on the HomeCHEF were very positive. Though I did see several mentions of the “learning curve” when starting up with this machine. Yes, as was the case with myself exploring the microwave when we first got it, there are things to learn and get used to (no different in mastering the basics of a camera or setting up a TV, for instance). This is a time when you keep the Instructions booklet close by and experiment. Before long, you'll be zipping along and astounding friends and enemies. The HomeCHEF comes very well packed/double boxed. Depending on one’s size and basic strength, it might be a good idea that one gets another to lend a hand in unpacking this machine (I did it myself … thick headed Irish derivative). Due to its compact size, it can be a little awkward if carrying yourself … though I don’t want to overemphasize this aspect … I had no problem. Again, it depends on one’s circumstances. If you’re senior in age, or smallish in stature, PLEASE do get someone to assist you in unpacking/moving this machine to your ideal location! The machine has two racks to insert inside for cooking, as well as two pans for the same. The instructions are very clear. Unless you’re a total culinary deficient soul such as myself (figuring that’s why the Big Kahuna made McDonald’s), you will find this compact/enormously efficient machine to be a total delight. My wife, THE CHEF, gives her full Seal of Approval for my summation.

This is a great 7-in-1 compact oven. You get 7 functions in 1 compact oven, if that is not a great deal then I do not know what is. Before I go on about what I like about it, be warned that the one thing I really wish they would someday update and improve is the preheat time. I get it, you have to preheat an oven to get it to a temperature that is desired, but 7 minutes is kind of a wait. If you turn it on to preheat and are not back in time, it will just turn off. I like that for safety reasons, but I do not like that if you walk away to do something and you get tied in longer than expected... you could come back to the oven being off. The good part is when you turn it back on it won't take 7 minutes to heat up because should still be somewhat warm. That is just a little warning for those who may be on the fence of whether or not to get it. The things I love about it is how versatile it is. I can bake, convectional bake, steam, air fry and slow cook. I love air frying almost everything. What a wonderful way to cook items without the oil and grease. I have cooked all sorts of items from chicken tenders, french fries, croissant rolls, veggies, etc. Like how awesome is it that you can ferment and sterilize! 2 options that you dont have available on many compact ovens. If you can handle the preheat time, I think this would be a solid choice for anyone who loves to cook and is trying to get away from the microwave. The oven is well made and the trays that it comes with are very nice quality. On my old toaster oven/air fryer...the inside of the oven a long with the tray would burn so easily when using the air fry setting. It cooks at such a high heat that the tray would just get so damaged we ended up putting foil on it because you could not take the stains off. This is some quality trays. It feels well made and feels well coated to keep the oils from your food from sticking to it. I love that it is tall enough to fit 2 trays or a rotisserie chicken or ham. It is a very decent size for a tabletop oven. I really do love this. We try to get away from using our microwave as much, and this is going to make it easier to do that.

Unboxing - I like the compact size of this compact oven because it does not take up too much counter space which is not an issue for me, I just don't like clutter on my counters. Set was easy just plug in and read through directions. A majority of the features of this Panasonic HomeCHEF is by now a lot of home users are familiar with, such as convection, air fry, and toast. This was easy to use and set up on this unit. The functions that set this oven from the rest is the Steam-Convection Bake combo, Slow cook, Ferment and Sanitize features. Hands down this is the only thing you will need in your home and if allowed in your dorm room. This unit has a total of 7 Functions, 1 Oven: Versatile oven with an incredible range of options for cooking and prep—Convection Bake, Steam, Steam-Convection Bake combo, Airfry, Slow Cook, Ferment, and Sanitize. I love the steam-convection and steam options because I love steamed vegetables and they came out perfectly cooked and crispy when I followed the cooking directions in the instructions manual. I cooked asparagus, spinach and mixed frozen veggies and they all came out nice and crisp. This oven is compact and does not fit a 12 inch frozen pizza like my other oven but if you like square pies this cooks it perfectly. Thin crust and crunchy. The only thing that I had an issue with is the display and buttons. The display is not busy looking but you have to press and select to many buttons in order to get the settings needed to cook. It would be nice to have a little more buttons to you don't have to select one button and then select a mode and then within the mode another mode and then set the temperature. Overall, hands down this is my favorite compact oven. I don't know why I purchased an oven with my kitchen suite because I rarely use it. This is a must have for every homeowner, the features make you want to cook some of the foods suggested in the manual. One major thing I forgot to mention was that if you have to sterilize baby bottles or containers this over does that as well.

Out of the box this unit is quite hefty and feels of good quality. Minimal but effective packaging assured it arrived undamaged. This is not a toaster oven per say but is really a small version of a full sized oven with extra features. Toast is possible using the air fry or convection bake settings but there are many other things that you can prepare. Lets start with the cons. The tray size is quite limited in terms of large flat items like pizza. You will need to "choose wisely" at the store or you will be using your full sized oven. The air fry function works but is a little slower than other units I have used. For me, the controls are a bit too condensed. I would prefer specific buttons for temp, function, start and stop instead of sharing the functions. Also, in most modes, you need to preheat before you can program in the time. Yes there are instances when your masterpiece will appreciate waiting until the device is at temp. But with this, you need to wait for some quiet beeps before you can set the time. I have ADHD and really would like to just tell it to convection bake for 4 minutes and have the timer start when temp is reached. Now for the good. The inside of the oven is very smooth with no exposed heating elements. This makes for ease of cleaning. Also the racks fit into trays which are great for collecting the various drips and spatters that happen with especially in air fry mode. Speaking of racks and trays this has duel level which makes up for the lack of horizontal space. Heating is very even even with a full load on both levels. One thing that really stands out is the steam function. From sterilizing baby bottles to steaming veggies and other dishes, this function sets the unit apart from others. I love to steam various dishes but it is such a pain to set up a separate device on the stove or counter top. Here you can just push a few buttons and off you go. The unit comes with a few recipes but has tons of information on how to cook just about any of your favorites. The online cooking guide gives the settings for everything from chicken breast to veggies to fries to dumplings and rice.

The Panasonic HomeChef Compact Oven has been a great addition to my kitchen and has made my cooking needs much easier to handle. With its 7 in 1 design I have been able to use this oven along side my regular Air Fryer, and it provides much more capacity so I am able to air fry more than one food at a time with out having to have it all mixed together. Out of the box, this oven is on the big side as far as countertop ovens go. It is tall and deep. Adequate countertop space is going to be needed. It also sits very close to the bottom of the cupboards, so trying to have it out more in the open for heat dissipation would be better. Set up is easy and requires very little effort. There is a small guide that simply explains the different settings. It comes with 2 racks and 2 cooking trays. It has a water tray on the bottom that needs to be filled for steam cooking. It is easy to remove and fill or clean. On the initial bake there is a bit of an odor that comes from the oven but went away quick. The baking requires the oven to preheat, oddly even for the air fry setting. It would be nice to see instant heating but it's not that big of a deal for me. It does preheat quicker than my main kitchen oven and has more accurate cooking temps. I do a lot of cooking for a family of 5 and this oven serves great as a backup oven to help get things done, or to handle a lot of smaller things to bake when making large complex meals. I am excited for it to be a great use to help handle Thanksgiving dinner so I can cook sides while the turkey cooks in the main oven. Its steam convection leaves roasts and meatloaf juicy and delectable. The air fry setting can be tricky to use and again I really only use it in addition to my regular air fryer. Overall I would recommend for larger families that need extra cooking power in the kitchen or those who do not have a range. The black is sleek and it is nice with such a large viewing window. It is a little tough to accommodate counter space for it, but fits my needs perfectly.

I love this oven. I'm always looking for a great new kitchen appliance that lets me cook in diffy ways and I can say the Homechef has really brought different ways to cook into my kitchen. This high tech cooker is easy to use, fun and provides excellently cooked food in a compact package. The first thing I'll say is that while it is compact, for a countertop kitchen appliance the one is fairly large. If you have big kitchen counters you shouldn't have any problems but if you lack a lot of countertop space you may struggle finding a place to put this one. It fit great for us though and the sleak black design looks very high quality and fits in great in our kitchen. I have no problem leaving this out all the time given he much we use it. This really is a unique little device and like nothing I've ever cooked with. It combines convection and steam to give you seven cooking modes, convection, steam, air fry, ferment, sanitize, slow cook, and this wild steam convection combo. All of the modes work great for what they are designed for and create amazingly cooked food. Cooking with the oven is great. The size is perfect for a full meal, but sense it's not a full size oven the preheat times are super quick. The functions are all easy to navigate with the front buttons and setting everything and leaving it to cook works great. Overall I'm impressed with this. If you're looking for a fun new way to cook that's easy to use I'd recommend giving this oven a try. You'll end up with some really well cooked food every time!

There are so many new countertop ovens available today and so many of them do more than just toast bread. To get more for the money, we expect a product to have multiple uses. The Panasonic Home Chef compact oven is exactly what it says it is. It's not a toaster oven, in fact, there's no toast setting at all. It's a convection oven that can use steam, either by itself or in conjunction with convection. Panasonic is known for making innovative microwave ovens in this country as far as kitchen appliances go. It sounds like they tried to make a countertop oven using the same playbook. It doesn't work for what you conditionally think it should do. There are no heating elements on top or on the bottom, so no cooking in the traditional sense. The heating comes from the back wall and is circulated using the convection fan, so no baking in the traditional sense either. The simple 4 button layout is probably too simple, I would've liked a knob. I put the oven through its paces and here's how things came out. I steamed Japanese purple potatoes using one of the 18 autocook presets. They steamed on both racks for 16 minutes (fill water reservoir on bottom tray) and, to my surprise, were cooked perfectly well. I mashed them up and used them in batter for mochi pancakes. I used convection bake at 350 for a loaf of sandwich bread and placed it directly on the bottom of the oven. After 40 minutes, it appeared well browned on top, but was still quite raw inside. I compared this with a loaf I put in my normal oven at the same temp, and it was fully cooked in 35 minutes. I had to put the second loaf in the normal oven to finish. I used autocook setting 16 to bake some cookies on both racks, it preheated (like it usually does) then was preset to cook for 43 minutes which was obviously too much and we took it out in 20. In the manual, it actually says the airfry mode is really just convection bake, to explain the fact that it has a fixed temp of 445F. Therefore, if you want to "airfry" at a lower temp, you need to use convection bake. I've looked everywhere for the temp for the slow cook function and it's nowhere to be found. I slow cooked (with steam) a rack of BBQ baby back ribs (cut in half to fit) set to the max 3hrs, but didn't get a temp setting, let alone choice. The ribs actually came out really well so I can't complain there. I noticed all the recipes and most of the autocook settings were for Chinese favorites. In a far east market, this oven would be the ideal product, where steaming is a necessity. In the American market, where crisping is more of a requirement, this oven fails to deliver. I would recommend this as an oven to those with a small kitchen in an apartment or a boat. It's no replacement for a toaster, which you will need in addition to this if you want to broil or toast. But if you're looking for a do-it-all toaster, this won't work.

A fantastic multi-function oven. Only missing the microwave feature but I'm sure that you already have a microwave. I have an affinity for Panasonic. Everything I buy from them is always top-notch. Their lithium batteries are world renowned for their dependability and I personally own a Panasonic Toughbook CF-20 laptop that I purchased new in 2016 and still use quite regularly. They're one of the last premium companies left where you know exactly what you're buying and this oven is no exception. You can make so many dishes in this oven. It's literally seven ovens in one and I have tested every function and have not ruined one dish. It has a fool-proof programming sequence and after that, enjoy your food. So far we have made steamed eggs, slow cooked tri-tip, chicken wings air fried, toasted several breads via convection feature. It is a one-stop powerhouse. The footprint is very compact too. The included oven trays fit inside our small low profile dishwasher so clean up is super easy as no food really ever touches the inside of the oven. It's quiet too. One thing that could be improved is the included booklet as it leaves a lot of needed information out like various cooking times and temperature settings. I found myself checking air fry times on the internet just to make sure that I get good results. Booklet aside, I highly recommend this oven.

I really wanted to like this oven. It's a great size and looks nice. It seemed to have a lot of features that would make it very versatile. It easily holds a 9x9 casserole dish, which I thought would be helpful when preparing Thanksgiving dinner. Unfortunately, none of those features make this oven anything better than mediocre. I tried cooking a good mix of foods. My first try was to use it as an air fryer and make some tater tots. I found that the over cooked them very unevenly. I had to remove the rack and turn it around to get most of the tots properly cooked, and then the ones in the middle of the rack were still undercooked, while the ones around the edges were properly cooked. On top of that, it took the oven over 30 minutes to cook them, where my air fryer does the job in about 20 minutes. Next, I tried the steam function to cook salmon filets. They turned out OK, but also took quite a while to cook. It would have been easier to cook them in a skillet, or on the grill. They also did not get browned. Finally, I cooked a broccoli cheese casserole for Thanksgiving. This is a disk that usually takes 30-40 minutes in a standard over. After an hour in this oven, it was still not done, and like everything else I tried, it was more down on the edges and less done in the center. Besidesthan the cooking issues, the controls are not easy to use. There are two few buttons, so setting the temp and time is not intuitive. It’s nice to have two racks, but they are not adjustable. Also, it is not possible to pull a rack halfway out to check on the food – it’s not like a traditional oven rack where it is “capture” and can be slid out like a drawer. Once these are over halfway out, they will fall out of the oven. Overall, this oven is useful, but there are other much better options.

I'd been waiting to review one of these ever since using a couple different models over time. I don't often cook large meals, so the small, efficient, quick-heating/cooking package of the compact oven is what I was looking for. In practice, though... - the pre-heat function seems to take a while - setting the temperature and the time happen at two different times and require a separate set of button-pushing. The first meal I tried to make (baked spaghetti) took 2 tries because the first attempt never really started when I didn't set the timer & hit "Start" again after pre-heating. It's not a mistake that will happen again, and I'm not opposed to instruction manuals, but out-of-the-box intuitive controls is sorta one of those things we all expect nowadays. - compared to my much smaller air fryer (which I'd hoped to get rid of with this), it took longer and produced less crispy results in the Panasonic The oven seems well built and I'm not giving up on it, but it hasn't lived up to what I expected from my previous countertop oven experiences.

This is an unusual oven. I say unusual because it’s more or less designed to be used in specific, pre-programmed, “auto-cook” modes, rather than as a typical oven where you set the temperature, put the food in, set the time, and let it cook. This unit can be used in this fashion for sure, but it’s hard to see it used for regular food-preparation purposes because of its small size. You aren’t going to fit a casserole or lasagna dish or something like that inside this oven. You aren’t going to make a main dish for a family of six in this oven. Rather, you’ll use something smaller as a “baking dish” (I generally have been using small plates) for cooking individual pieces of chicken or fish, etc., or a handful of vegetables. The oven can be used as a conventional oven (so you can set cooking time and temperature), as an air-fryer, for slow-cooking, and as a steam oven, and it is the last of these that I have grown to really like. Recipes are provided for a variety of dishes, many of them seemingly far Eastern in origin, and we have tried and enjoyed several of them now. The steaming capability really cooks food in a clean and taste-enhancing way. The chicken and fish we have cooked comes out moist and delicious with whatever spices you chose to coat the meat with prior to cooking infused throughout. Another nice feature of steam cooking is that there is no mess to clean up. All of the baking drippings stay in the dish, and the only thing on the oven itself is water droplets from the steam. Clean-up is easy. The only annoyance I’ve come across is that no cooking times are given for any of the pre-set, auto-cook modes. You don’t know if mode #2, “steamed egg,” is five minutes or 15 minutes. You don’t know if mode #18, “home-made pizza,” is 15 minutes or 25 minutes. A chef needs to know this so that other dishes can be prepared in such a way that they’re ready at the same time. Of course, pressing the “start” button on any of the modes indicates the cooking time immediately, but you shouldn’t have to go through a fake set-up for a particular mode just to find out how look that mode takes. Having said the above, I can get used to it, and I think we will find many uses for this most unusual oven.

Panasonic home chef 7 in 1 compact oven with steam and convection is a definite game changer. I was very excited about this one. It has steam functions as well as convection functions. Not to mention a slick little air fryer as well. I got this from my mom, and she immediately began to bake holiday pies without a problem. We also were able to make burritos, and we were able to steam the tortilla to make them soft and very pleasant. The convection function was very nice. There are so many functions on this one that it was terrific. My mother made everything from cornbread muffins to pumpkin pie, and The air fryer functions were fabulous. This one has something for everyone that wants easy stress-free cooking. The convection oven was great for the frozen pizzas. I was also impressed with the slow cook function. If you're new to air frying or you've been doing it for a while, the Panasonic home shove is want to check out. Max temperature at 445 Fahrenheit. Easy cleanup with the removable drip tray. As well as the removable water reservoir for steaming that's easy to refill. I wish they included a rotisserie function, but you can only get some of it. I recommend this one to anyone getting into air frying.

Love the many features on this oven. The steam function is incredible. It has two racks so if you air fry, there is plenty of surface space. Offers convection, slow cooking, and many other modes. Menu's are easy to use. I like that there is no clock on it-too many items have clocks. I like the quick cook features that has pre programed cook setting built in. There is a directory on the top and all you do is enter the item number in and it does the rest. The oven size is perfect, fits under the top cabinets perfectly. Not too big or too small. Easy to move and clean. The oven is well built, very solid. The door has a sturdy feel to it. There is a light inside too so you can see inside the oven. The only problem I have with this oven is it is not level and rocks on my counter top. It's not my counter top as my last one did not rock at all. Other than this small issue, this oven should meet any needs you have. It's packed with features. This oven competes well with the competition. If it wasn't for the wobble, It would be 5 stars.

An ideal replacement for gas oven or stove. Excellent usage now over a year old and still like brand new. Its functionality is excellent it's air frying technique produces excellent results... For people like me who like the nuke food with the microwave please note this is not a microwave This is a unique oven takes up very little space and cooks Food a tiny bit slower than a microwave warms U food better than a microwave and does not consume as much energy and time as a full blown oven. Dehydrating feature as well as yogurt making feature is outstanding, I can easily make homemade yogurt as good as the store using a good starter, And it does a professional job. This is my one year check in your oven can survive at least one year I'll check back in maybe 5 or 10 more years, I tend to keep good things for a very long time and Panasonic is a good company.