The TOKIT Omni Cook is a powerful cooking machine that can replace a bunch of kitchen gadgets, including a food scale, mixer, blender, rice cooker, yogurt maker, and many more. While it’s great for lazy chefs and inexperienced cooks, it’s unlikely to replace your stove or oven. You also need at least some basic cooking skills to manage cooking modes and adjust preset recipes.
- Blending
- Grinding
- Mincing
- Shredding
- Mixing
- Kneading
- Steaming
- Cooking
- Brand: TOKIT
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n 2.4 GHz
- Integrations: Blade, whisk, simmering basket, steaming set (optional)
- Color: White and black
- Material: Stainless steel, silicone, plastic
- Weight: 14.8lb (6.7kg) main engine frame, 19.4lb (8.8kg) with accessories
- Capacity: 0.58 liquid gallons (2.2L)
- Dimensions: 14 x 9.6 x 14.3 inches (35.5 x 24.4 x 36.4cm)
- Display: Integrated
- Power: 1,500W totalidade rated power (500W motor, 1,000W heating)
- Price: 899
- Sensors: Weight and temperature
- Unites many kitchen gadgets in one compact machine
- Wi-Fi connection to sync updates and recipes
- Recipes come with preset cooking programs
- Recipes include photos and videos
- Easy to use and disassemble
- Great build quality
- Accessories are dishwasher safe
- Slow to boot and reconnect to Wi-Fi
- Recipes not available offline
- Omni Cook doesn’t sync favorite recipes with TOKIT’s web account
- Impossible to add/program own recipes or adjust existing ones
- Weak Wi-Fi connection
If you need to break the takeout habit but have nowhere decent to whip up a meal, the TOKIT Omni Cook could hit the spot. From chopping to steaming, this cooking machine covers all the basics. And it saves a ton of space compared to buying individual kitchen appliances.
But should you put all your eggs in one multifunction basket? Let’s check it out.
What Is the Omni Cook, and Who Is It For?
TOKIT’s Omni Cook is a cooking machine for passionate home chefs who don’t have enough space for “all the things.” The Omni Cook can replace your kitchen scale, spice and coffee grinder, blender, mixer, food processor, yogurt maker, rice cooker, and sous vide machine. Of course, it also functions as a cooking pot, meaning you can heat, boil, fry, and steam food with it.
The Omni Cook takes up only a little more space than a Kitchen Aid mixer, which makes it rather compact considering everything it does.
Originally a Kickstarter, the Omni Cook is now available to order directly in the US and elsewhere.
What’s in the Box?
We received the Omni Cook main engine frame with the following parts:
- Mixing bowl with mixing blade
- Lid with measuring cup
- Simmering basket
- Whisk
- Scraper
- Teaspoon set
The package also included an operation manual.
You can separately order a steamer that snaps on top of the mixing bowl, as well as additional accessories and replacement parts.
Cooking With the TOKIT Omni Cook
Setting up the Omni Cook is a breeze. You just plug it in, which also turns it on (alternatively, use the on/off button on the right side), and follow the instructions on the built-in touchscreen. When you first run it, it will guide you through connecting to your Wi-Fi network, as well as downloading updates from the cloud. Once the machine is ready, you can navigate the included recipes, (cooking) modes, and settings.
Settings
Within the settings, you can set up the Wi-Fi network, control the volume, brightness, and sleep timer, set the measurement system (metric or imperial), region and language, review favorites (recipes) and cooking records (used recipes), clear the cache, reset the machine, find out more about the device, and access support.
Cooking Modes
Before we took the Omni Cook for a spin on a proper dish, we tested some of its basic functions.
- Weighing: This feature is great if you don’t already have a do dedo food scale. You don’t even have to use TOKIT’s mixing bowl, you can just rest any bowl or small plate on the spot where the mixing bowl snaps in (or on top of the inserted mixing bowl), tare the scale by pressing the control knob, and weigh away. We tested a few different measurements, and they all agreed with our third-party do dedo food scale.
- Chopping and Grinding: We chopped onions and ground down spices. It works, but you might have to scrape down the partially chopped or ground ingredients and run the cycle a second or third time for a good result. When you’re processing small amounts, you lose more material than it’s worth, and removing them from the bowl is a chore, too.
- Kneading: We gave the Omni Cook our standard bread dough to knead, which even our Kitchen Aid mixer finds challenging. The Omni Cook made a lot more noise, but, thanks to the lid, we didn’t have to worry about the dough escaping. During kneading, the knife rotates in the opposite direction from chopping, so it actually kneads the dough, rather than cutting or tearing it apart. Though it took a couple of rounds, the dough eventually passed the windowpane test, which means the dough’s been sufficiently kneaded for bread baking.
- Steaming: We prepared the steamed rice that we found in the Omni Cook’s recipe collection and were quite happy with the result. Unlike other steaming recipes, this one is cooked with just the simmering basket. Putting the recipe together was super easy, and the rice came out perfectly steamed.
- Juicing: We used a combination of fresh and frozen fruit to make a smoothie. Since we didn’t work off of a recipe and eyeballed the amount of ingredients, we had to run the program a couple of times until everything came out perfectly ground up. While we were impressed with the sheer power the Omni Cook applied to pulverize our frozen fruit, we have to say that “juicing” is a misnomer; this is the blending feature.
- Sous Vide: Sous vide is French for “under vacuum.” It means that you’re cooking food packaged in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag, while submerged in temperature-controlled water. If you do want to use this function, be sure to order the optional blade cover accessory. The Omni Cook’s default Sous Vide setting is 60 minutes at 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 degrees Celsius). The meat-eater in our household tried a piece of marinated chicken. However, the meat was still raw after an hour; he had to add two more hours. Clearly, you have to adjust the default settings according to what you’re cooking, i.e. the type of food and its thickness. This is true for all the default modes.
Here’s a complete list of all the (cooking) modes the Omni Cook supports: weighing, kneading, soy milk, steaming, stewing, juicing, ice shaving, mincing, chopping, mixing, grinding, sous vide, yogurt, as well as pre-clean (more below) and turbo.
Note that the operation manual has recommended ingredients for each mode. This also serves as guidelines for the maximum amount of ingredients to use in each mode. For example, 450g (15.87oz) flour and 300ml (10.14floz) water is the maximum for the kneading mode.
Recipe Collection
Finding a suitable recipe is possibly the most difficult part of using the Omni Cook. You can browse the Cloud Recipe collection on the device, but it lacks options. You can either search all recipes or browse recipes by category. Unfortunately, you can’t apply filters, but you can sort by region, popularity, or latest update. While the recipe database is also available on the web, where searching and saving recipes is a lot easier, you can’t sync your web cookbook account with the Omni Cook, because the device lacks an account login option.
The recipes themselves are hit-and-miss. For beginner chefs, most are too fancy and complex. We found a few recipes with typos, some confusing. Also, watch out for missing steps, such as cleaning the mixing bowl or removing ingredients from the previous step. To be fair, though, most recipes, while possibly exotic to Westerners, look well-composed.
What’s great is the presentation. All recipes come with clearly laid out ingredients and preparation steps, as well as a preset program, so you don’t have to manually input cooking modes and settings. Moreover, step-by-step videos for many recipes help you visualize the process.
Recipe Testing
The true success of the Omni Cook depends on whether the included recipes actually work.
After confirming that all the basic modes worked to our satisfaction (see above), we proceeded to a couple of easy recipes. Most cooking machines can prepare a soup, so we wanted to try something a little more delicate. We went with the following recipes:
- Steamed fish: Since we didn’t have the optional steamer, we slightly changed the recipe and used the simmering basket to steam our fish. We also used halibut instead of salmon. Despite making some liberal changes, this recipe totally worked. The fish came out well, albeit a little dry, but we’ll blame that on the smaller size of the fish and the totalidade steaming time. Our rating: 4.5/5 stars
- Fried mushroom with asparagus and carrots: We went with this simple recipe to test the Omni Cook’s stir-fry abilities. The asparagus and mushroom came out perfect. The carrot still had a bite but wasn’t raw. If you like your veggies softer, cut them more thinly or increase the incubation time, which is possible even when using a preset recipe. The recipe asked for quite a bit of garlic and salt. We didn’t mind the garlic but thought it was too salty. While the veggies came out fine, a stir-fry in a pan will create more flavor. Our rating: 4/5 stars
- Cheese risotto: Typically, risotto is a simple, but highly involved dish, since you have to stir continuously for 15 to 20 minutes while constantly adding more liquid. The Omni Cook takes care of the stirring, which gives you a 13-minute break during the final incubation time. Unfortunately, our risotto came out in a soupy texture, so we added four more minutes of boiling and stirring, which resulted in a passable dish. What it lacked in texture initially, it well made up in taste. Our rating, considering the time and effort involved: 4/5 stars
All-in-all, these three dishes took about an hour and a half to prepare. If you have a stove and more than one pot or pan, you could get them done much more quickly.
Cleaning the Omni Cook
The Omni Cook comes with a pre-clean mode that makes the cleanup so much easier. Just add water and a bit of detergent to the mixing bowl, run the program, and return to an almost clean bowl. For better results, you can run this program two or three times. All accessories are also dishwasher safe, though the mixing bowl and blade set should not be soaked in water.
After cooking our risotto, despite following the instructions to stir the rice at the bottom with the scraper between steps, we had a layer of lightly burned gluten at the bottom of the mixing bowl. Two pre-clean cycles didn’t make much of a dent, so we disassembled the bowl and put it in the dishwasher. When it came out, we still had a bit more residue to scrape off, which wasn’t too bad.
Note that the main engine frame has a drainage hole at the base of the mixing bowl dock. Should you spill anything during cooking, the liquid will drain onto your countertop. Obviously, you can’t submerge the main engine frame in water. Instead, wipe it down with a moist kitchen cloth or sponge.
Should You Buy the TOKIT Omni Cook?
The TOKIT Omni Cook is an impressive little machine. It delivered on all the tasks we threw at it and helped us produce one of the most delicious meals we’d cooked in weeks. Unless you’re really pressed for space, however, the Omni Cook is unlikely to replace your stove.
Before you invest in the Omni Cook, you have to keep a few things in mind:
- Cooking a whole meal with multiple sides just takes too long. You’ll still want to use a stove and possibly an oven.
- Some tasks are more easily done with a smaller device, for example, chopping or grinding small amounts of ingredients, simply because removing them from the giant mixing bowl is a chore. What’s more, the size of the mixing bowl means that you’ll lose more material, which you’ll have to account for.
- The Omni Cook creates a lot of steam, so you’ll want to use it near a window or under an exhaust, just like a regular stove.
- If you do want to use the Omni Cook for all the things, you’ll end up buying accessories, such as the blade cover, the steamer set, or slow-cook plug, which lets you use the pot without the knife. Make sure that’s still a good deal for you, either financially or because it saves space.
- While the Omni Cook is probably best for people who don’t love to cook, you’ll still have to understand how recipes work, since you’ll occasionally have to adjust incubation times and temperatures based on what you’re cooking.
- You can’t add programs for your own recipes, nor can you change the programs for existing recipes. When TOKIT adds new recipes to their database, however, they’ll sync to your machine.
- To use the recipe database, the Omni Cook has to have Wi-Fi access; it doesn’t work offline. Thankfully, the cooking modes do work without internet access.
As a “sous-chef” gadget, the Omni Cook could be amazing. It’s perfect for steaming veggies, cooking rice, or making a smoothie. You can also cook sous vide, knead dough, or make yogurt with it. If you have neither the budget nor the space for all the fancy kitchen gadgets, this could be the one.
FAQ
Q: Is the Omni Cook Dishwasher Safe?
Yes and no. The main unit isn’t watertight and can’t be submerged in water at all, nor put into the dishwasher. The mixing bowl and blade set should not be submerged in water for extended periods of time. However, you can put all accessories, including the mixing bowl and blade set, into the dishwasher.
Q: Is the Omni Cook Suitable for Novice Chefs?
Mostly yes. The interface is intuitive, the included recipes are easy to follow for the most part, and using the Omni Cook with third-party recipes isn’t too hard. The challenge is to find a simple recipe that doesn’t require too many exotic ingredients or too many confusing steps. For simple things like steaming rice, stir-frying vegetables, or making soup, the Omni Cook is great.
Q: Can I Use the Omni Cook Without a Kitchen?
Technically yes, since the Omni Cook unites multiple appliances into one. Note, however, that many included recipes depend on appliances other than the Omni Cook, such as an oven or a vacuum sealer (for sous vide cooking). Also, the machine can produce a lot of steam, so you’ll want a way to vent that, either by placing it near a window or installing a range hood.
Q: How Stable Is the Omni Cook?
The Omni Cook has a powerful motor. When you give it tough things to chop, grind, or knead, it can wobble around quite a bit. However, the main frame sits on four powerful suction feet. Just make sure you put the Omni Cook on a flat surface that engages its suction feet. This will make it harder to move it, both for yourself and any force it generates on its own.
Q: How Strong Is the Wi-Fi Connection?
The Wi-Fi connection is pretty weak, so the Omni Cook’s internet connection can be spotty. Be sure to set it up close to your router or set up a Wi-Fi repeater in your kitchen.
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