It is possible to use a Forman to cook a hamburger with pseudo grill marks on it, but the end result is really a fried hamburger. You may as well fry it in a skillet.
There is barely anything a Foreman grill can do that an outdoor grill can. Foreman grills can barely cook rather thin pieces of food, that’s about it. Virtually any frying pan can do everything a Foreman grill can, and do it faster and better. However, if you can’t tell the difference in taste between a hamburger and a circular piece of Styrofoam then I strongly recommend the George Foreman grill.
That grill sounds like a boxer.
I can’t find any online confirmation but does anyone remember that grill that used crumpled up newspaper as the fuel? I seem to recall that was what Foreman was the frontman for many moons ago. Did I dream this?
We use newspaper in a chimney lighter to start the charcoal, but I don’t think you can really cook with it alone.
There was a gizmo that would roll newspapers into a firelog.
I believe the newspaper was just to start the charcoal in a little fold up grill. I recall seeing those advertised in CA because lighter fluid for starting charcoal had been banned.
Don’t get me wrong, it seemed ludicrous to me but I distinctly remember an infomercial advertising a cheap grill that was designed this way. Maybe it was a dream. Lol
I think I was mistaken. It was charcoal that was banned in CA at the beach so the little grill was said to work with newspaper instead of charcoal. I don’t think it could burn very long with just newspaper, but you can get a very hot flame from newspaper for a short time, good enough to cook a thin hamburger or a hotdog on.
I found it! It was the “Qwik–Cook Grill” Youtube link of infomercial:
And though the video is apparently lost to the ages, Dick Butkus was the spokesman at one point not Foreman.
Well, outdoor grills can actually make good hamburgers, so there’s that.
Taste the meat, not the heat.
I thought the plus was that unlike a skillet or frying pan, the fat would drip away into the channels in a Foreman grill. If you don’t have a handy propane grill outside, I think a Foreman grill would be handy when it’s freezing outside for chicken boob, burgers, or hot dogs. Maybe not too thick steaks too.
I thought the whole point of the Foreman Grill was so perpetually dieting non-cooks could heat up meat and remove a lot of the fat, thus making eating the meat and enjoying it pointless/impossible.
Wow. I love my George Foreman grill and use it a couple times a week. It’s certainly not a charcoal grill, but it cooks what I need pretty quickly without the added oil of frying. I can clean it in about a minute and it’s much easier than washing an oily pan. Turning it off isn’t that complicated: I unplug it!
When it dies I’ll get another one. Looks I’ll be able to go to the second-hand store and get a barely-used one for cheap. 
Seems to steam, and not sear. I have one, but seldom use it. Really, is there something a cast iron skillet can’t do that the George Forman can? Other than cook on both sides at once.
It’s a completely different method of cooking. It can’t safely get very hot because the PTFE will decompose. So you’re cooking conductively only. Whereas a grill has a high temperature radiative heat source.
Whenever I use a GF grill, I am impressed with how good the food comes out. Typically, I either burn or undercook on a charcoal grill.
Having said that, I hardly ever use my GF grill because of how difficult it is to clean after. I feel like I waste a bunch of paper towels trying to clean the grease off without burning myself.
Though perhaps the GF grills have changed and made cleanup easier?
I don’t always toast marshmallows.
But when I do,
I never use a George Foreman Grill.
Continue burning the roof of your mouth with a molten ball of sugar, my friends.
A GF grill does in fact drain much of the fat into a channel outside the grill itself.
A charcoal grill simply allows much of the fat to drip into the fire. Not much difference there, except that I find a charcoal grill easier to clean.