Why Your Kitchen Still Needs a Toaster (Even If You Have an Air Fryer) [Video]

Your kitchen should have the right tools. Welcome to A Guide to Gearing Up Your Kitchen, a series where I help you outfit the space with all the small appliances you need (and ditch the ones you don’t).

In the age of smart tech, it can be difficult to assess when simple is actually better. Such is the case with the modest toaster. Why even buy this clunky, single-task appliance when you can use your conventional oven or, better yet, your prized air fryer? Even with the exciting advancements in modern kitchen gadgetry, when it comes to perfectly toasted bread, the slot toaster outperforms them all.

My partner and I are obsessed with our basket-style air fryer. Its high-velocity, convection-forced winds roast veggies quickly, and crisp crusts like no other, but I’ll never toast bread with it. The problem is, both the conventional oven and the air fryer dry out your bread in the worst way.

Perfect toast has some dryness, naturally, as evaporation is part of the process, but it should …