About Chefman
Chefman is a small-kitchen-appliance brand headquartered in Mahwah, New Jersey, operating under the corporate name RJ Brands. Founder Ralph Newhouse started out around 2009 sourcing closeout inventory of small electrics for resale, then moved into designing and building appliances under the Chefman name -- a path he later described to The Spoon as a company built on taking real product features and delivering them at an affordable price point rather than an elevated one. The brand has since grown into a broad small-appliance line spanning coffee and espresso machines, air fryers, electric kettles, and toaster ovens, and in 2020 it launched CHEF iQ, a connected-kitchen sub-brand extending that same affordability approach to app-enabled smart cooking.
On the espresso side, that positioning shows up directly in the Crema Deluxe, a grind-to-cup machine built around a genuine dual boiler -- letting it pull a shot and steam milk at the same time, a feature more commonly found on machines costing considerably more. It pairs that with a built-in 30-setting conical burr grinder feeding a 58mm commercial-standard portafilter, so owners get fresh-ground, pro-size shots without buying a separate grinder. The listing carries Amazon's Choice status with several thousand owner reviews, which is real market traction for an all-in-one machine in its price tier, a category where owner reliability is typically the biggest unknown.
Brand website: chefman.com
What Chefman makes
Chefman's range runs wider than the products we review. The lines we know best from our own testing are marked with a star:
Crema Deluxe
dual-boiler espresso machine with built-in 30-setting conical burr grinder, 58mm portafilter and steam wand -- featured on Brew Gazette — featured on Brew Gazette
Crema Supreme
espresso machine with conical burr grinder and steam wand
Multifunctional Air Fryers
digital air fryer line spanning compact 2-quart to 14-quart capacities
Toast-Air Touch
combination air fryer and toaster oven
Electric Kettles
gooseneck and standard electric kettle line
CHEF iQ
Chefman's connected-kitchen sub-brand, launched 2020, covering app-enabled smart ovens and multicookers
Why we recognized Chefman
The Brew Gazette Top Brand recognition isn't paid for and can't be applied for. We award it to the brands whose products consistently stand out in our hands-on category reviews. Chefman earned it on the strength of the products below, evaluated the same way every product on this site is: bought, brewed with daily, and judged on what lands in the cup.
Chefman products we rated highly
Chefman Crema Deluxe Espresso Machine with Double Boiler
A genuine dual boiler lets the Crema Deluxe pull a shot and steam milk at the same time, the fastest morning workflow in Brew Gazette's roundup and a feature normally reserved for machines costing far more. Its built-in 30-setting conical burr grinder feeds straight into a 58mm commercial-standard portafilter, so owners get seconds-fresh grounds and pro-size baskets from a single grind-to-cup machine with nothing separate to buy. Amazon's Choice status with over 3,200 owner reviews signals proven reliability that's rare for an all-in-one machine at this price, and its 101 oz (3L) removable tank is among the largest in the roundup, cutting down on refills for multi-drink households. The tradeoff: there's no PID or temperature readout, so extraction is dialed in by feel rather than against precise numbers.
Read the 7 Best Espresso Machines of 2026 guide →What earned Chefman the recognition
- The Crema Deluxe earned its place among our top espresso machine picks on a genuine, distinct strength: a true dual boiler that brews and steams simultaneously, normally a feature reserved for pricier prosumer machines.
- A built-in 30-setting conical burr grinder feeds directly into a 58mm commercial-standard portafilter -- grind-to-cup convenience paired with pro-size gear, in a machine priced well under many single-purpose semi-automatics.
- Amazon's Choice status with over 3,200 owner reviews signals real market traction for an all-in-one grind-to-cup machine, a category where reliability is usually the biggest gamble.
- Chefman is an established small-kitchen-appliance brand founded in 2009 by Ralph Newhouse and headquartered in Mahwah, New Jersey, with a product history across coffee, air frying, and connected cooking (its CHEF iQ sub-brand) that predates its espresso line.
- The Crema Deluxe's 101 oz (3L) removable water tank is among the largest in Brew Gazette's roundup, meaningfully reducing refill frequency for households pulling several drinks a day.