Even though people are spending more time at home, cooking a healthy meal from scratch can be daunting. This is especially so when busy professionals working from home have to attend back-to-back Zoom meetings. It is much easier to just reach for the phone and order from delivery apps, or walk to the nearest coffee shop for a quick meal. But a nifty kitchen helper can help to change this.

As writer Mary Wu finds out, having the multi-purpose TOKIT Omni Cook kitchen machine at her disposal can enable her to whip up a multi-course meal to impress her chef-husband, while saving precious time on preparing ingredients and washing up. She shares her first-person experience.

An impressive homemade dinner spread

My husband had stopped in his tracks; he stood in the doorway, his face a mask of trepidation and surprise. You see, this happens each time he returns home to the smell of food. What on earth did his wife - who is usually such a klutz in the kitchen - cook today?

As a professional chef, he's ever-familiar with the ways restaurant trainees mangle mains and disfigure desserts… his wife, AKA me, included.

However today's dinner spread was almost flawless, save for a few splatters on the table: A sous-vide steak done to medium-rare perfection atop a velvety smooth pomme puree, served alongside tender asparagus topped with homemade Hollandaise sauce, creamy pea soup and fluffy dinner rolls. I even managed to squeeze in a boozy hazelnut cream hot chocolate for our nightcap.

This was one of the rare occasions my chef hubby was pleasantly surprised by dinner, but he had a bunch of questions: Had I been covertly honing my skills at home, or did I secretly order in and dispose of the evidence?

Confessions of a noob cook

For the longest time, cooking has been my nemesis. There's the whole ordeal of dealing with painful oil splatters, an oily kitchen, complicated cooking processes, multiple equipment needed in a limited kitchen space, tiring clean-up and so on. Add to that the refined taste buds of my husband, which makes the task seem insurmountable.

But I recently discovered an excellent home kitchen assistant in the TOKIT Omni Cook, a single machine that has 21 functions, from blending and low temperature cooking, to weighing and even kneading. This space-saving appliance (it measures just 35.5 x 24.4 x 36.4cm) also comes with eight accessories, comprehensive cloud recipes that are constantly updated, and can even cook three dishes at the same time.

I'm also thankful for its deep 2.2-litre pot complete with a lid that keeps hot sputters at bay, self-cleaning mode that makes washing up a breeze, and blade attachment that spares my sorely lacking knife skills when I need to mince something finely.

Here's how I used the TOKIT Omni Cook to whip up a multi-course gourmet meal in just three simple steps:

1. Food preparation made easy

In a restaurant, mise en place is key. When all of your ingredients and equipment are prepped and "in its place", the actual cooking and plating is quick and efficient.

Prior to this, I had also been agonising over the recipes to attempt. However, once I discovered the TOKIT Omni Cook's abundant cloud recipes - each with a handy list of ingredients and weight - that hurdle was easily cleared.

For example, in the pomme (potato) puree recipe, I'm directed to prepare 400 grams of chopped peeled potato, one teaspoon salt, 100 grams of milk, 50 grams of mozzarella cheese and 15 grams of butter.

In addition, the TOKIT Omni Cook has an in-built automatic weighing function with 1g sensitivity. I'm able to weigh the ingredients directly in the machine, without actually having to wash multiple bowls or find my non-digital weighing scale that's on its last legs.

As a bungling wannabe-chef, this boosted my confidence. Everything is so precise I feel the recipes are practically foolproof. My surreptitious grocery run was a breeze as I knew the exact quantity of each ingredient needed - a win for minimising food waste!

2. Precision cooking in comfort

Once I had prepared my ingredients, it was time to get down to the actual cooking.

To be honest, I was paranoid about things going wrong. My previous kitchen "accolades" included overcooking a pricey ribeye steak into a blackened paperweight, making a Hollandaise sauce full of egg yolk lumps, baking dinner rolls that could pass for stones, and over-whipping my cream till it separated into butterfat and whey.

Once again, my anxieties were allayed by the TOKIT Omni Cook's friendly step-by-step instructions that tell me what settings to use such as temperature and speed of revolutions (denoted by REV), and how long to preset the timer for. Once the instructions are followed, the machine will play a short jingle to assure you that you are set up for success.

For instance, after melting the butter directly in the pot at "4min/70°C/REV2" and setting it aside, I was told to install the whisk, put in the other ingredients including the egg yolks, "heat the materials at 2min/70°C/REV4", then "mix them at 5min/70°C/REV4" while drizzling in the melted butter. Just like magic, the sauce emulsified without incident.

The potato puree was similarly straightforward, with the plus point of being able to steam the potato directly in the machine at "25min/110℃/REV1" before combining the other ingredients for the final step at "1min/90℃/REV5" to yield a ridiculously creamy base for the steak.

I also faced no issues cooking the beef and asparagus, thanks to the appliance's ability to hold temperatures steady. Just like a professional sous-vide machine, it can precisely hold temperatures between 35 deg C to 180 deg C so that meat, vegetables, grains, and much more are cooked at their optimal temperatures, ensuring maximum nutrition for the family.

And when it came to kneading the dough for my dinner rolls, I merely tipped the ingredients in and let the TOKIT Omni Cook do most of the heavy lifting. While my shaping skills left much to be desired, the bouncy dough was extremely pliable and a joy to handle.

Cooking was done in record time, as the machine's built-in 500-watt high-power reluctance variable-speed motor drives its four-blade high-strength cutter head. This greatly speeds up the cooking process, enabling me to knead dough till "windowpane" consistency in 15 minutes flat, whip cream in a minute, and spend just three minutes emulsifying my sauce.

3. Washing up is less of a chore

When I cook, I dread washing up the most. Let's admit it. How many of us like to face piles of dirty dishes in the sink with encrusted bits of indiscernible food remains after a long day at work?

The TOKIT Omni Cook's pre-clean mode is a gamechanger. All I had to do was to put in some water and a few drops of concentrated lemon juice (or dishwashing liquid), press one button, and the pot was ready for the next step or dish.

As I was mainly using one appliance (apart from the oven to bake my rolls), there wasn't much else to wash. As for searing the steak, I used a kitchen blowtorch instead of a cast iron pan to minimise kitchen smoke and to avoid having an oily kitchen.

After under three hours of food prep, cooking and cleaning up, I was still feeling energetic and as fresh as a daisy. If need be, you can prepare certain components ahead of time, such as the dough for the dinner rolls, Hollandaise sauce and even the pea soup or potato puree.

A reliable kitchen assistant

All in all, with the TOKIT Omni Cook's help, I probably spent more time deciding on the actual menu and going grocery shopping than sourcing for recipes, preparation, the actual cooking and cleaning up.

The machine has also given me more confidence as a home cook, and helped me increase my repertoire of recipes. I can also see how it would help someone cook nutritious meals for their children in double-time, or how a person with dietary restrictions can prepare their own meals despite leading a busy lifestyle.

Could I one day surpass my chef-hubby? Unlikely so, but I can definitely see myself cooking alongside him soon, without feeling stressed by the need to keep pace.

The TOKIT Omni Cook retails at USD $899 (about S$1,212). Shipping starts on November 22, 2021, and takes about two weeks.

Visit the TOKIT Omni Cook website to find out more and to place your order.