What is an all-in-one oven and do you need one?

We’ve entered into a new era of oven capabilities. If you’ve been in the market for a new oven over the past few years, you may have noticed they offer a lot more features than the standard bake and broil of the past.

From convection and air fry, to pizza, proof, warm, and more—manufacturers like Bosch, Frigidaire, KitchenAid, and Bertazzoni are making ovens that deliver more features than ever before. Bosch coined the term “all-in-one oven” for its versions of the do-it-all appliance. Specialized functions and smart features are designed to help you get the most out of everything you cook or bake, all while saving you time and energy.

These feature-packed ovens not only make cooking easier, but hopefully more enjoyable. If you’re considering an oven upgrade, here’s why you should consider an all-in-one oven—and why they’re worth the investment.

Tailored oven modes deliver better results

If you love to cook and bake, you may have been frustrated by the limitations of oven settings or uneven baking results from ovens past. In an oven with a single bake mode, cookies, French fries, and pizza are all treated exactly the same. While that method may be what most of us are used to, it doesn’t have to be that way anymore.

Ovens like the Bosch HBL8454UC offer settings that change the conditions in the oven to suit what you’re cooking.

All-in-one ovens not only offer traditional bake and broil settings, but add convection in multiple forms, including convection bake, convection broil, air fry, and pizza settings. They also offer proof and warm settings to round out all your baking needs. The availability of so many different modes means you can tailor your cooking more precisely to the food you're making.

Convection

Convection is not only a helpful feature, it has become a standard spec to look for in new ovens. If you haven’t experienced it yet, convection uses fans and an additional heating element to circulate hot air around the oven, cooking food more quickly and evenly than still, radiant heat.

This benefits most foods, from roasts and veggies to cookies and breads. Things like delicate soufflé or cake still do best with conventional bake mode.

Air fryer

As fans have become a standard element in ovens, the addition of air fryer capabilities has also emerged. The difference between convection and air fry modes is the speed at which the fan operates.

The fan in air fry mode is faster, garnering crisper exterior results—something you’d want for chicken and bacon, but not necessarily for cookies and muffins. Not only does this feature turn your oven into an air fryer, but a well-functioning air fry mode eliminates the need for a separate countertop air fryer.

Pizza

To obtain that ideal balance of crisped crust, melty cheese, and perfectly cooked toppings, pizza mode cycles the convection fan on and off, tailoring the baking conditions for optimal results.

Crank up the heat and your pizza will need far less time in the oven to obtain drool-worthy doneness.

Convection broil

Turn your oven into a grill for thick-cut steaks and chops. While conventional broiling is great for browning cheese on toast or a casserole, convection broil can actually be used to cook thick cuts of meat, keeping them tender on the inside with a crisped, golden exterior.

Use a broil grid and pan that’s designed to drain away fat from the cooking surface to avoid spattering that causes excessive smoking.

Smart features make cooking easier

Wi-Fi connectivity lets you control settings from your smartphone, and built-in temperature probes take the guesswork out of roasting everything from turkey to meatloaf to salmon. Bosch calls it “purposeful connectivity,” and its thoughtful design is a benefit to any home cook.

From remote preheating, so your oven is ready to cook when you are, to temperature monitoring, you can be less hands-on and still cook great meals. Through Bosch’s Home Connect app you can also check if your oven has been left on while away from home, call out oven settings to your connected Amazon or Google device, and get recipe inspiration you can act on immediately.

You can also monitor the oven’s integrated temperature probe. When inserted into anything from a beef roast to a salmon fillet, the built-in probe allows you to easily check the temperature of food in the oven without having to open the oven door. In this mode, the oven will even shut off when the desired temperature has been reached. That’s not only convenient, it saves cooking time and energy costs—plus, your meats will always be perfectly cooked.

Even more time and energy savings can be realized with Fast Preheat, or skip preheating altogether when using Roast, Convection Roast, Proof, and Frozen Food modes, and get dinner on the table sooner.

Wall ovens allow for more customization

You can find most of the features listed above in both wall ovens and electric ranges, but for those who want ultimate customization, a combination of wall ovens is the way to go.

Celebrity chef Curtis Stone, who partners with Bosch, recommends, “If you love to cook like I do, then the number one thing to keep in mind when it comes to designing your kitchen is to build a setup that can support your culinary adventures.”

What better way to embark on culinary adventure than to literally double your baking capacity with a double wall oven? Or, opt for one standard wall oven and pair it with a specialty oven, such as a speed or steam oven, to suit your cooking needs.

For a Mediterranean-style culinary adventure—or for those who simply follow a Mediterranean diet—a steam oven with convection offers the best cooking methods for seafood and vegetables. The Bosch Steam Oven combines convection baking, broiling, and steaming capabilities that you can use individually or in combination—steam fish and veggies to maintain moisture and nutrients, then give them a quick broil for flavor and crisp texture.

Steam ovens are also known for baking bread that’s moist on the inside with a crisp, crackling crust. There’s no limit to the culinary adventures a steam oven could take you on.

Stone says he’d personally add a steam oven to his kitchen because “the steam oven takes cooking to a whole new level. We try to eat healthier at home and the steam oven helps preserve nutrients, flavor, color, and moisture in food. It is also great for reheating leftovers as it essentially rehydrates meals that may have lost moisture in the cooking and storage process. This means that leftovers come out fresh and delicious, instead of dry and tasteless. This all goes back to food waste and making the most out of every single ingredient and every meal.”

As a bonus, these upgraded features add immense value to any kitchen setup. Stack the steam oven above the 30-inch single wall oven for a powerful combination of cooking features.