The appliance Indians didn’t know they needed is taking over urban kitchens

Chennai: On New Year’s Eve, Shobhit Bakliwal laid out a vast spread for his merry gang of 12, who had gathered in his apartment to give 2026 a boisterous welcome. The menu for that first supper featured a wide variety of culinary items, from a cross between a pizza and a sandwich, to paneer tikkas, soya chaap, pakoras, fries and a host of frozen snacks. All those items, however, had one thing in common: they emerged from Bakliwal’s newly acquired air fryer.