Why The George Foreman Grill Was So Popular — And Why It Isn't Any More

If you were a '90s kid, there's a good chance you remember American pro boxer George Foreman appearing on commercials or QVC segments to sell his "lean, mean, fat-reducing grilling machine" — also known as the George Foreman grill. When it comes to kitchen appliances, the George Foreman grill was a veritable phenomenon during its peak in the late '90s and early 2000s. Foreman himself didn't invent it, but by signing on as its namesake, made one of the biggest celebrity brand deals in the world.

Roughly resembling a panini press in shape and size, the George Foreman grill was a straightforward gadget. You'd basically just put your meat into the countertop grill as you would a sandwich press, and both sides would be grilled simultaneously. The grilling surface had a slight downward angle and a drip tray underneath that would then drain fat from the meat as it grills. Of course, you could also grill veggies with it, but the grill was typically presented as a meat-cooking machine, for grilling anything from bratwurst to chicken to burgers.

It was an astonishing success, with some 100 million grills sold. Part of its success was its convenience: Not only was it small, but it was incredibly easy to use. You would just turn it on, throw meat in, and, thanks to a non-stick surface, wipe it clean right after — as a result, it was sometimes held up as a way for men with poor cooking skills to get into the craft.

While the George Foreman grill's convenience was definitely a selling point, perhaps the bigger draw was its health claims. '90s diet culture was huge, and a particular fixation of that mass movement was the misguided idea that fat was bad. While some fad movements like the Atkins Diet took other directions, targeting carbs, the '90s were marked by an endless parade of low- and no-fat products (ironically, these were often high in sugar, causing sugar-related health problems like diabetes). This was backed up by the popularity of weight loss programs like Weight Watchers, and ultra-skinny models like Kate Moss being seen as the height of beauty in popular culture.

With its promise to squeeze the fat out of burgers (complete with before and after pictures) George Foreman grill played right into this anti-fat movement, even if the grill only reduced the fat by a few percentage points. Eventually, the George Foreman grill faded from prominence, as fad appliances inevitably do, likely helped along by new understandings of fat as part of a balanced diet. But if you think the George Foreman grill died, you're wrong: While the company behind it, Salton, was sold a couple of times, the grill is still for sale and relatively successful, with Amazon still selling thousands per month, outpacing plenty of competitors. After all, it's still a convenient cooking device — and in case your old one no longer works, it's still available for around $35 on Amazon.