At a Glance
Pros
- Step-by-step recipes
- Multifunctional
- Quick
- Clean
- Easy to use
Cons
- Doesn’t perform some cooking tasks as well as single-use appliances
- Will take up a chunk of your countertop
Our Verdict
This impressive smart kitchen assistant costs a third less than its rival, performs dozens of cooking tasks and provides step-by-step instructions for making any one of a thousand recipes.
The Omni Cook is a rival to the popular Thermomix. It was developed by Chunmi Technology, a brand within the Xiaomi ecosystem.
You can see what we thought of the Thermomix by checking out our review, but the Omni Cook – while still pricey – is a bit more budget-friendly. Not only will your initial outlay be lower (the Thermomix costs £1,149/ $1,499) but while you’ll need to subscribe to access Thermomix’s library of recipes, those from Omni Cook are entirely free – although there are fewer of them and there’s no way to download and access them offline.
The Omni Cook’s design and build
- 6.8 inch colour touchscreen
- Stainless steel jug
- Heavy, bulky appliance
The Omni Cook is a plug-in smart appliance, with a white surround, black moulded plastic surface and stainless steel trim. It’s chunky, about the size of a bread maker (35 x 22 x 20cm /14 x 9 x 8in without its jug), so you’ll need plenty of space to use it.
It’s also pretty heavy at 19.4lb/ 8.8kg, so it’s not ideal to keep in a high cupboard. Really, to make the most of it, you should find a permanent spot for it on your countertop, so it’s handy for any jobs you have around the kitchen.
Inset into its base is a full-colour, 6.8 inch touchscreen. Unlike the Thermomix, the Omni Cook’s screen is portrait style.
Next to it is a large (2.2 litre), high quality stainless steel jug with blender blades. You’ll be using this for everything from steaming to weighing. The jug clicks into place on theOmni Cook and there’s a release button to free it, so it’s secure during use.
There’s a cable tidy at the back, which is a nice touch, and the appliance sits on four suction cups so that it won’t skate when it’s blending.
As well as the jug, the Omni Cook comes with a number of sturdy accessories: a steam basket, a silicone scraper, a set of measuring spoons and a whisk. There’s also a removable measuring cup that sits in the centre of the jug lid.
The blades at the base of the jug can be removed – but the jug can only be used without them if you buy the slow cook plug ( £35 from Tokit), which allows you to fill the resulting aperture.
There are more accessories available from Tokit, including a full steamer set, as well as replacements for the bits that come with the appliance.
What does the Tokit Omni Cook do?
- Multifunctional: weighing, steaming, blending & more
- Access to 1,000 recipes
- Step-by-step instructions
The Omni Cook has a lot of functionality. It can weigh ingredients, knead, mince, chop, grind and juice, steam, stew, sous-vide and make yoghurt. Where appropriate, you can then specify length of time, temperature and blender speed.
There’s even a setting to clean the jug after use, much in the same way you would a blender jug.
You can use the Omni Cook in one of two ways. Either you can use its functions individually – as a scale, a steamer or a blender – as you need them, or you can opt to follow one of the 1,000 recipes optimised for the appliance.
If you decide on a recipe, the Omni Cook will guide you through it step-by-step.
Setup
It’s straightforward to set up out of the box. Once you’ve washed the accessories and clicked the jug into place in the Omni Cook’s base, you just need to switch it on and follow the on-screen instructions so it can join your home Wi-Fi.
It connected straight away in our test but you should note that you’ll need a decent Wi-Fi connection in your kitchen to make it work – it’s not something you can move nearer your hub.
Recipes
You need the connected functionality in order access the database of recipes. You can browse by courses (main course, appetiser, dessert) or other cooking options (beverage, baking, sauce or sous-vide).
Opt for main courses and there’s a sub menu of recipes – meat, fish, vegan, pizza and more. There’s a great selection of each, although we did note a few suspiciously cheesy “vegan” recipes.
As you might imagine, given the Omni Cook’s country of origin, there are lots of traditionally Chinese dishes such as congee, but plenty more international options.
To get a flavour of what’s on offer, you can see a selection of recipes in the recipe section of the Tokit site.
The Omni Cook’s performance
- Great baking assistant
- Cuts down on washing-up
- Less good at sautéing
I started off by choosing a banana cake recipe. All the tools and ingredients you’ll need are listed. From then on, it’s a case of following the step-by-step onscreen prompts. You swipe forward on the touchscreen to get to the next instruction but if you think you’ve missed something, you can swipe back to double check.
What’s revolutionary is that you can do everything – except actually baking the cake – on the Omni Cook itself, in one jug, without having to wash anything up as you go. It weighs the ingredients as you add them, melts the butter and mixes the batter when it’s complete.
I followed the instructions to the letter, the cake came out perfectly and instead of winding up with a flour-bombed nightmare kitchen, I only had the Omni Cook jug and a cake tin to clean. And I used the automatic setting to clean the jug.
It made baking so much quicker and cleaner – and it would be easy to adapt the recipe to make your favourite cake or cookies and still use the step-by-step instructions.
The steaming basket is similarly easy to use (add water, set a timer) and I followed a recipe for devilled eggs that was equally successful, steaming the eggs instead of boiling them.
However, the Omni Cook does have a few limitations. It can sauté, but it’s not a patch on doing it in a pan. The safety settings mean that you have to keep the lid on whenever you’re using it, although you can remove the inset measuring cup. So you can’t stir the frying food yourself, although it will gently turn the ingredients using the blender blades.
The blades also mean that ingredients can get caught underneath and are a pain to remove – unless you also shell out for the plug and remove the blades.
Finally, if you want to blend ingredients after cooking, you’ll probably have to let the appliance cool for several minutes between stages. I tried cooking a stew and had to stop mid-way through for a cool-down period before I could use another function.
Price and availability
The Omni Cook is available globally from the Tokit website. If you’re in the US, it costs $899. UK buyers can get it for £768.
This makes it a much more budget-friendly buy than the Thermomix, which has roughly the same functionality but costs £1,149 in the UK and $1,499 in the US. There’s also no need for a paid recipe subscription if you go for the Omni Cook.
Verdict
The Omni Cook makes multi-step recipe preparation extremely simple and it’s very satisfying to cook something complicated and wind up with only a single jug to wash up.
It’s a pricey appliance but if you bake often, it could be worth it as it’ll cut down your prep and clean-up time significantly. It’s also a serious alternative to buying a single function appliance such as a sous-vide or steamer – the Omni Cook can do that and much more.
There are a few things that it can’t do as well, such as frying, but if you also have an air fryer, you’ll be able to make most recipes without even looking at your oven or hob, which could be good news for energy bills.
And for people who want to learn to cook, the Omni Cook would make an excellent tutor: you can do everything from boiling an egg to baking a cake to making a shepherd’s pie or sous-vide steak, with minimal hassle.
Specs
Tokit Omni Cook: Specs
- Dimensions: 355 x 244 x 364mm
- Jug capacity: 2.2l
- Weight (including jug): 8.4kg
- Total rated power: 1500-1700W
