The George Foreman Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine, also commonly referred to as simply the George Foreman Grill, is a portable double-sided electrically heated grill manufactured by Spectrum Brands. It is promoted by two-time world

heavyweight Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. Boxing Professional Boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 3 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the W ...

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

champion

George Foreman George Edward Foreman (born January 10, 1949) is an American former professional boxer, entrepreneur, minister and author. In boxing, he was nicknamed "Big George" and competed between 1967 and 1997. He is a two-time world heavyweight champi ...

. Since its introduction in 1994, over 100 million George Foreman grills have been sold worldwide.

History

The concept for the grill was created by Michael Boehm of

Batavia, Illinois Batavia () is a city mainly in Kane County and partly in DuPage County in the U.S. state of Illinois. Located in the Chicago metropolitan area, it was founded in 1833 and is the oldest city in Kane County. Per the 2020 census, the populati ...

. The original intention was to create an indoor grill that would provide a unique benefit of cooking on both sides at once. A second key benefit was to reduce the fat content of hamburgers and other meats by draining away the fat into a separate reservoir. Boehm designed the product with a floating hinge and slanted grilling surface to accommodate foods of differing thicknesses and drain fat away from the food. Engineering work was performed by Bob Johnson. Boehm and Johnson brought a JVC camcorder and a sample of the product in bright yellow to the office of Barbara Westfield at Salton, Inc. The video was played, showing fat dripping from the grill into the collection tray. They presented the product as "The Fajita Express". The

fajita A fajita (; ), in Tex-Mex cuisine, is any stripped grilled meat with stripped peppers and onions usually served on a flour or corn tortilla. The term originally referred to skirt steak, the cut of beef first used in the dish. Popular alternati ...

grill had been promoted at industry trade shows in the early 1990s, but garnered little interest. The slanted grill concept was pitched by Tsann Kuen to Salton, Inc. After one year, and several trade shows, Salton sent samples of the grill to George Foreman's colleagues, who then sent the grill to Foreman to test. Boehm was not involved in teaming up the grill and Foreman. Salton made several changes to the technical function of the product, removing the four risers meant for the user to lift up the grill, slide in one of the two included trays, and fill taco shells. One tray was for grease of fajita meat, and the second tray was to hold a taco shell, as was shown in the demonstration to Westfield in the original presentation at the Salton office in

Mount Prospect, Illinois Mount Prospect is a village in Elk Grove and Wheeling Townships in Cook County, Illinois, about northwest of downtown Chicago, and approximately 4 miles north of O'Hare International Airport. As of the 2020 census, the village had a total ...

. The Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine, as it became known, was introduced in 1994 and promoted with distinctive

infomercial An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of dire ...

s which featured Foreman. A combination of his affable personality and the unique features of the product made it a huge success. Such was the popularity of these infomercials that Foreman's

tagline In entertainment, a tagline (alternatively spelled tag line) is a short text which serves to clarify a thought for, or is designed with a form of, dramatic effect. Many tagline slogans are reiterated phrases associated with an individual, s ...

, "It's so good I put my name on it!", is now part of

popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...

. In Asia, the grill is endorsed and promoted by both George Foreman and

Jackie Chan Fang Shilong (born 7 April 1954), known professionally in English as Jackie Chan and in Chinese as Cheng Long ( zh, c=成龍, j=Sing4 Lung4; "becoming the dragon"), is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker, martial artist, and stuntman known for ...

Design

The product has a

clamshell design The flip phone or clamshell is a form factor of a mobile phone or other device which is in two or more sections that fold via a hinge. If the hinge is on a long edge the device is more likely to be called clamshell than flip phone (e.g., No ...

that simultaneously heats the top and bottom surfaces of the food, eliminating the need to flip it. Each heating surface is grooved to reduce contact area, and covered in a

non-stick A non-stick surface is engineered to reduce the ability of other materials to stick to it. Non-stick cookware is a common application, where the non-stick coating allows food to brown without sticking to the pan. Non-stick is often used to refer ...

coating. The lower heating surface is angled to allow hot, liquid fat and other fluids to drain through the grooves into a removable drip tray, which shows the amount removed from the food. This arrangement has been marketed as a way to "knock out the fat", suggesting a healthier way to cook. The grill is offered in various sizes for cooking individual or multiple servings. In 2006, the George Foreman "Next Grilleration" Health Grill was launched, featuring detachable grilling plates for easier cleaning. It has gone through several other versions, differing in their control interfaces and design. In 2014, an updated Foreman Grill was released called the "Evolve Grill". The Evolve grill features interchangeable

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-free ceramic plates. The plates available are the traditional grill plates, waffle plates, a bake dish, mini burgers, a flat griddle, and a muffin pan.

Reception

The worldwide popularity of the George Foreman grill has resulted in sales of over 100 million units since it was first launched, a feat that was achieved in a little over 15 years. Although Foreman has never confirmed exactly how much he has earned from the endorsement, Salton, Inc. paid him $138 million in 1999 in order to buy out the right to use his name. Previous to that he was being paid about 40 percent of the profits on each grill sold, earning him $4.5 million a month in payouts at its peak, so it is estimated he has made a total of over $200 million from the endorsement, a sum that is substantially more than he earned as a boxer.

Competition

The success of the George Foreman Grill spawned a variety of similar celebrity-endorsed products, such as the

Evander Holyfield Evander Holyfield (born October 19, 1962) is an American former professional boxer who competed between 1984 and 2011. He reigned as the Undisputed championship (boxing), undisputed champion at cruiserweight (boxing), cruiserweight in the late 1 ...

Real Deal Grill, for which Holyfield starred in a 2007 infomercial, and the

Carl Lewis Frederick Carlton Lewis (born July 1, 1961) is an American former track and field athlete who won nine Olympic gold medals, one Olympic silver medal, and 10 World Championships medals, including eight gold. His career spanned from 1979 to 1996 ...

Health Grill. None of these imitators, however, achieved the level of success of the Foreman Grill. The

Grill is the same grill as the George Foreman grill, but targets the Asian market, and is marketed by both Jackie Chan and George Foreman.

References

External links