Have I said I like a gadget before? Oh I have? I have been testing out a beast of gadget by Tefal called Cook4Me. This is an intelligent multi cooker that guides you to cook your meals quickly and easily. The Cook4Me has fifty pre-programmed recipes that can be cooked for between 2 and 6 people. Five settings allow you to brown, pressure cook, steam, simmer and re-heat meals. A digital screen guides you through each recipe from ingredients to cooking. Cooked recipes can then be kept warm until you are ready to eat.
I have been playing around with the Tefal Cook4Me for a few weeks now, it has a mighty impressive 6 litre cooking pot which is removed easily, looks great to serve food in at the table and is very easy to wash. It is dishwasher safe but because of it’s size I have only handwashed it. The cooking pot is more than big enough for my large family meals and in fact I have been able to get two meals made in it sometimes and freezing half. This makes it great for quick bulk cooking. Most meals are cooked within 15 minutes. You could literally spend a couple of hours using the Cook4Me and have enough meals for a month…if you have the freezer space of course!
All of the pre-programmed recipes are easy to make, a complete kitchen novice would have no problem using the machine, in fact, every new cook should have one if they can afford it. It does come with quite a hefty price tag though; usually £249.00 from Lakeland however you could virtually dispose of everything else in your kitchen if you had this.
The machine comes with a booklet of instructions, I must admit when I first looked at them my heart sank because it seemed ever so complicated, however when I followed along it was very easy to take the machine apart to clean it. 
The Tefal Cook4Me recipe book
The Cook4Me also comes with a recipe book divided into starters, main meals and desserts.
Starters include soups, and houmous, main meals include curries, spare ribs and risottos, and desserts vary from sponge puddings to creme brulée.
The recipe book contains ingredient amounts for each recipe and for number of portions, it doesn’t have instructions though, these can only be obtained once you are using the Cook4Me. I have found this a little inconvenient as it is useful sometimes to know what is coming up so I have had to go through the recipe first which means that the machine starts heating up and going into browning mode sometimes. If the booklet came with instructions for each recipe this wouldn’t be a problem.
I have cooked rice in the Cook4Me, it was very easy and the rice was perfectly cooked. Steaming vegetables is easy and extremely quick too.
Most of the recipes I have tried involve browning meat and vegetables first, the preheating can take a bit of time but once everything is in and the lid is shut the Tefal Cook4Me takes just minutes to finish off the cooking. Thirty of the pre-programmed recipes take less than 15 minutes so this is a great way to get a speedy meal cooked.
I never make steamed puddings because the steaming process fills me with dread, with the Tefal Cook4Me, no problem. I am thrilled we can now have homemade steamed jam, chocolate and syrup puddings! Roll on the Christmas pudding which I won’t have to microwave this year. Again this was one recipe I wasn’t prepared for as I didn’t have instructions…halfway through I realised I needed string, luckily I managed to find some eventually, and also I could only fit three pudding basins in at a time so this must be factored in to the cooking time as they take 30 minutes to steam.
Would I recommend the Tefal Cook4Me? Yes, I love it! I am now so much into bulk cooking and last minute cooking knowing that we can have a chilli in minutes…and oh the steam puddings…
Just remember that this is a beast, it does take up a lot of room so make sure you have enough worktop or cupboard space to accommodate it. Also hopefully Tefal will take note and add instructions and cooking times to the recipe booklet, then it would get a 10/10 from me.
I love the idea of this gadget, but is it worth buying to cook just for one person? Is there a smaller version?
Hi could you share how to cook a xmas pudding using my cook4me
many thanks
I tried the jam sponge tonight, whilst it tastes great – it hasn’t risen and looks a bit stodgy. Disappointed – as i love jam sponge
Oh no, that’s a shame I wonder why that is…I haven’t made them recently but they were light. Was that in the Tefal Cook4Me?
I am thinking of buying a c4m. I have been looking for adapted recipes. Not sure how bloggers works. Can any direct me in right direction. Thanks
I think it will be down to searches for recipes really, once you have the appliance it is very easy to work out how to cook your usual recipes. Good luck.
Thank you
i was wondering, when you are steaming your pudding, did you mean you stack the ramekins on top of each other.
I agree that the instructions are a bit thin on the ground.
Hi, no I didn’t although I can’t see why you couldn’t do that…I hadn’t thought of that. I can only fit three ramekins in the base of the basket at a time.
So………….i tried stacking the ramekins and it works just fine. i made the recipe for golden syrup dumplings i found the cake a tiny bit dry and the sauce was not enough………………….so adjusting we will go
Oh no, what a pain…I think I have been putting extra syrup/sauce in anyway because I like lots. It’s annoying that you can only fit three in at a time…doesn’t really save time if cooking them for more than three people.
The only problem with gadgets like this is I worry that take away the fun from cooking?!
Must admit I’ve been having fun cooking with this and at times life is so busy that cooking isn’t fun anyway it’s just a necessity. Not all the time. I do like the speed of cooking with this. My son who is about to start his second year at Uni going into a shared house is purposely avoiding using it though so he learns to cook ‘properly’. It definitely has it’s place here for those times when speed is needed. 🙂