Hi Lisa! To use the warming drawer, all you have to do is put the cooked food in its container into the warming drawer and turn the knob to set the Warming level (Lo-Med-Hi). As far as if the warming drawer is better than a storage drawer, that would depend on your specific needs and what type of cooking you typically do. I personally love using the warming drawer when I'm cooking multiple different dishes and need to keep some of them warm while others are cooking. ^Jecca