Review – The multi-function cooker is an electrical appliance with many cooking functions of other appliances, which means it can perform multiple functions such as boiling, frying, stewing, baking and steaming. This should allow people with limited kitchen space to replace several single-function appliances such as slow cookers, steamers, Air fryer, A rice cooker, And a pressure cooker, an electrical appliance. Multi-function cookers can also save time. Busy chefs can choose recipes, prepare ingredients, put them in the multi-cooker, choose the correct settings, and then come back when dinner is ready. “Multi-purpose in one pot For those busy, fast-paced lifestyles, and even busy families, this is a modern and convenient solution. They cherish daily home-cooked meals, but prefer a relaxed cooking process. “Perhaps the most famous multifunctional cooker is Instant Pot, But ChefWave recently added a new type of multi-function cooker to the mix, boss.
What is it?
ChefWave Chefe is a multi-function cooker that uses pressurized steam to heat to cook ingredients. It has 13 predefined programs, a four-quart pot and a water tank. As a multifunctional cooker, it can be slow-cooked, steamed and reheated. Its reputation is that it can cook meals with the temperature accuracy of sous-vide cooking, but without the hassle of a bag. ChefWave’s goals It is for their customers to “enjoy the fun of cooking at home without sacrificing time spent better with family and friends.”
What’s in the box?
- ChefWave Chefe with pot and water tank
- Steam bar and steam rack
- Rice paddle
- Measuring cup
- User manual
- Recipe book with 12 recipes
Hardware specifications
- Power: 1000 watts
- Pot capacity: 4 quarts.
- Weight: 2 pounds.
- Dimensions: 11 inches wide x 17 deep x 11 ¼ high
Design and features
There is a transparent plastic water tank on the back of ChefWave Chefe. The main body is parallel to the reservoir and has an arm extending and covering the cylindrical tank. Everything is colored in soft gray and black, and there are many soft curves. The controls are located on the top of the arm and because they are touch sensitive, they are flush with the surface. In general, it gives the impression of a restrained and high-quality electrical appliance.About the same size as ours KitchenAid Blender. Perhaps the most prominent feature is the size of the pot. It is almost the same size as KitchenAid’s mixing bowl, but much smaller than our Instant Pot.
Installation and setup
Chefe comes in a double box and is well protected. I took out everything and cleaned the inside of the pot, the water tank and various accessories.
I fill the water tank to the maximum fill line, close the lid, and place it on the back of the Chef.
I put the steam wand in the lid and rotate it to lock it in place. I put the lid on the pot and put it in its original position. Then I pushed my arm down to lock it in place.
Unless the Chefe is inserted and the release button is pressed, the arm cannot be raised, and the pot cannot be removed and opened. Once I added some ingredients, ChefWave Chefe was ready!
The manual is well written, but it’s really scarce.I think I can add more explanations because I have a few questions, such as “What is the difference between using or not using a steam wand?” The manual is PDF available online document.
Performance
The control panel is located on the top of the Chefe. It has three general cooking settings (slow cooking, steam and reheating) and ten food-specific settings (rice, pork, cake, etc.). There is an LED to display the time and a pair of plus and minus buttons for changing the time. Everything starts with the “Start” button. Chefe is easy to use: add ingredients, add water, close the lid, and choose a setting.
The challenge of using Chefe is the recipe, or rather the extreme lack of recipes. There are more than a dozen of the accompanying small recipe books, and I found two more on the ChefWave website. Fourteen recipes are not enough. If you plan to buy ChefWave Chefe, you will need to figure out how to adjust existing recipes or learn to create your own recipes. My wife is a versatile chef—I am not—so I handed over Chefe and the recipe to her to see what she could do.
The first test is a simple start: steam a cup of jasmine rice. My wife learned to do this in Thailand, and she can cook a perfect cup of rice in a pot on the stove in about 25 minutes each time. Looking through the recipe book, she found the instructions for brown rice, which was the closest thing she could find; she felt that this recipe required much less water, which was a bit strange. She followed this pattern, but found that it was not cooked rice, as shown in the picture above. She experimented by adding more water and increasing time until she was able to make it work. After five attempts, she was able to make a perfect bowl of rice, although it took 70 minutes at Chefe. Our conclusion is that Chefe can steam a cup of jasmine rice well, although it takes more than an hour.
The second test is slow-cooked beef stew. My wife made some small changes following a recipe in the book, such as using stew instead of sirloin. An interesting detail we learned is that, unlike the Instant Pot, Chefe cannot be used to brown the meat first; she has to do this on the stove. After making the recipe, let it steam for nearly an hour, but unfortunately, it was not stewed; it was soup. The recipe required 1.5 cups of water, and it turned out that there was too much water. She tried to thicken with flour, which usually works on the stove or in the Instant Pot, but not in Chefe. The soup I got was very light (the recipe’s fault, not ChefWave Chefe), so she seasoned it with fresh rosemary and other spices. Even though I had soup for dinner in the evening, the meat and vegetables were very tender and served with the rice she had cooked before. Our conclusion is that the beef stew recipe is not very good, but Chefe can slow-cook meat and vegetables as a soup (or stew).
The third test is to bake a marble cake according to the recipe in the book. My wife followed this recipe precisely, but the end result was a total disaster. “Cake” tastes like rubber and looks ugly. Our conclusion is that although ChefWave says that Chefe can bake with its cake settings, it really can’t, or at least it can’t bake cakes. In fact, if you look at the picture of the marble cake in the recipe, you will find that it is baked in a pan, not in a Chefe. ChefWave’s cheating in this area is not welcome at all; it makes me think they exaggerate the functionality of this gadget.
The fourth test is to make beef salad. My wife used the recipe from Penny Pincher (Slow Cook #1 series), modified it a bit, and used a slow cook setting for two hours on the Chefe. After finishing, there is a lot of extra water, just like the water in beef stew; she speculates that because Chefe uses steam, there may be too much water in many recipes. She removed a lot of this liquid, added sour cream, and cooked it for another 20 minutes. The result looks good, although it still has too much liquid. She used flour and stirred some steam to thicken it. The resulting salad dressing is very delicious. Our conclusion is that ChefWave Chefe is best for recipes that contain a lot of liquid.
The fifth test is to make risotto. My wife has never cooked this dish before or used Arborio rice. She uses the risotto recipe in the recipe, and then adjusts it according to the Arborio rice package she bought. She used risotto on Chefe and it was perfect the first time. After finishing, she added some salt, pepper and freshly squeezed lemon. She paired it with steak and fried mushrooms, it was amazing.
The sixth and final test is to cook pork tenderloin, which is another recipe in the book, using the slow cooking function. When we took out the pork from the Chefe, it was tender and delicious. We left the excess in the bowl and reheated it later, but despite all the juice, it dried out the pork. This is quite disappointing, because this is an important feature of this multi-function cooker.
If you are interested in any of the recipes my wife uses—not cakes, it’s too unpalatable—you can Find them on GitHub.
My wife and I like several aspects of Chefe. First, it is easy to clean and much easier than our Instant Pot because of the non-stick surface inside the pot and the mechanism used to seal the lid to the pot. 2. A smaller pot is suitable for a family of two like my wife and me. (If the child is still at home, it is probably too small.) Third, the pot can be used as both a plate and a storage room of the refrigerator. We still don’t like the effect of Chefe reheating, but maybe it will be better for dishes other than boiled pork.
Who is Chefe best for? Because there are few recipes available for Chef, it is suitable for skilled chefs who can and are willing to modify and create new recipes at any time. It is also suitable for people who value sous-vide precision cooking, which we have not tried.
Extra features
ChefWave Chefe has several additional features worth mentioning. It has a delayed start option, allowing it to wait a while before starting. It also has a self-cleaning function. Finally, it has a voice alert function for talking to me. It will say “Hello” when I open it, and if I start it without water, it will say “The water level is low”. The quality of the speakers is poor, so this feature is not very useful.
what do I like
- Good design
- Good at cooking with steam
- Easy to clean
What will i change
- A lower price that can compete with other kitchen appliances
- More recipes, especially those actually made for Chefe
Final thoughts
Should you buy ChefWave Chefe? When I consider Chefe alone, it is a nice little tool. It is well designed, looks good, and works very well (except for baking), so my first reaction was “Yes!” Unfortunately, Chef is not alone. It competes with other multi-function cookers and kitchen appliances. Instant Pot is its biggest challenge because it provides twice the functionality at about half the cost; in addition, there are thousands of recipes, Whole recipe Actually.A good Tank It can have nearly twice the capacity, but the cost is about 1/6 of the price.Most people will want to get one or two of them before getting Chefe; the good news is that ChefWave has made their own version of Instant Pot, called Exchange tankIf cabinets and shelf space are not an issue in your kitchen, and you have the ability to adjust recipes at any time, then you can definitely try Chefe.
price: $174.95
Where to buy: Chef wave and Amazon
source: The sample of this review is made by Chef wave.
