I love my slow cooker (REALLY love) so I met the Tefal Cook4Me with rather a lot of scepticism. It claimed to make delicious curries, chilli's and casseroles in 10 minutes and steam vegetables to perfection in ultra quick time. I honestly thought I'd be disappointed with the results - just another gadget to be consigned to the back of the cupboard. How wrong was I!

The Tefal Cook4Me comes with 50 pre programmed recipes all ready in less than 15 minutes and guides you step by step to cook meals for up to 6 people (you have the option of 3 portion sizes). It has 5 cook settings - pressure cook (I've always been scared of pressure cookers and I still have the one my late grandmother bought me in its packaging), steam, brown, simmer and reheat.




I thought I'd start with something pretty easy - a Chicken Tikka Masala. The recipe book that accompanies the Cook4Me lists the ingredients needed (or you can just refer to the digital screen), with amounts dependant on how many you want to serve. The digital screen guided me through the cooking process with ease. In a nutshell the oil preheats for a few minutes, you then add the ingredients you want to brown, in this case the chicken and onion -and it even tells you how long to brown them for. After that it's just a case of chucking everything else in - for this recipe it was tikka paste, tomato puree, water and double cream. It tells you to lock the lid and that's it. Three minutes later (yes really) and the curry was ready. I promise you it was that quick. I couldn't believe how meltingly tender the chicken was with a silky smooth, perfect consistency tikka masala sauce. I was amazed - so was my husband. In fact I'm hopeful it might encourage him into the kitchen.

I've since steamed vegetables for Heidi's baby mashes and it was far quicker than boiling or roasting them in the oven. The only disappointment was that the instructions advised against cooking Bramley Apples due to their tendency to go frothy -  a shame considering we love our apple crumbles. Maybe I'll find a way around that one?


The Tefal Cook4Me is currently on sale at £199, which some might say is a bit on the pricey side. For parents who are time poor though, this gadget really could revolutionise meal times. I'm almost certain I'll be using this as much as my slow cooker and I'm already thinking of ways I could utilise it at Christmas...sprouts maybe?

I was given a Tefal Cook4Me to review. All thoughts are my own.