Satisfaction Not So Guaranteed

LOOK AT MY SALMON!!!! Would you just LOOK at my beautiful salmon fillets?! Do you have ANY idea what a beautiful piece of salmon, like the ones seen in the photo above, cost? Do you know what a treat they are to me and Pat? Let me tell you: a BIG treat. So what do you think it feels like to buy your gorgeous and pricey (ok, ok, I know, it's not a piece of Koby beef; but still...) and you bring it home and season it and put it on your GEORGE FOREMAN GRILL and the ridiculously faulty piece of cookware destroys it? INSERT ANGRY FACE HERE.

We have been using the George Foreman grill for years. Our first one was one of the smaller varieties. We treated the machine with respect, cleaning it after every use (and cleaning it with the grill sponge provided by the company and cleaning it the way it is outlined in their instruction manual). It wasn't long before I had to send the grill to the manufacturers with a simple note that read "should I be concerned about the non stick coating peeling off like this?" They sent back a new grill.

Some months later I sent that grill back with a note that said "Should I be concerned about the way the cord is smoking at the connection to the machine?" They sent back a new grill. A year later, they released a new model of the machine, with detachable grill plates. Heaven. Same drill: instructions on seasoning the grill, cleaning the grill and a special sponge to do so. We treated our newest George Foreman Grill with respect and love and we treasured it for the healthy meals it provided us.

Until I had to send it back to the manufacturers with a note that said "This two month old grill is losing the non stick coating - on all my food". They sent back a new grill. I actually only sent the plates and they sent an entire new grill. I realized that they send new grills with great ease, without argument or investigation. I bet they get these complaints a lot. A LOT.

Look what it did to my gorgeous Tilapia fillets. Just a little seasoning and a spray of Olive Oil based cooking spray and one should have a tasty, healthy meal. Instead I got a mess. A friend who is a cook said "you aren't leaving the fish on the grill long enough... if you try to remove it too soon, the fish will rip." Ok, I'm no expert in the kitchen, so I took my friend at his word and left the fish on longer. Still, my beautiful Tilapia, my gorgeous salmon, all ruined. I tried to leave the fish on longer and longer -- but I was making Tilapia Jerky!

Have Mercy.

I would just stick to chicken, I guessed. I prepare my chicken with great care, buying large chicken breasts, trimming off all of the fat and cutting them up into a variety of forms: some are filleted, some are strips, some are diced. We use the chicken, in all these different shapes, in different recipes and at different times of day. It is kind of tough to tear up a filleted piece of chicken on a faulty grill. The same could almost be said of chicken strips. The cubes of chicken, however, just stuck to both sides of the grill! I couldn't win with the dangnab George Foreman machine.


It was becoming, what I would term, a nightmare.
How many of these machines would I have to send back? How many new versions would I be given? I have to admit: when the machine is working properly, it is DA BOMB. I love the machine. Between the non stick peeling off and the ruined fish and the fire hazzard (smoke! smoke coming out of the cord!), though, it was just getting to be too much. I couldn't deal with it any longer. Something HAD to be done! But what? Keep sending them back? Go back to cooking the old fashioned way? Just suck up and suffer? What? What?

We use the NuWave Oven now.