Our experts are always looking out for kitchen appliances to make your life easier, and apparently, so is Whoopi Goldberg. To celebrate her 68th birthday, the actress shared her favorite gifts of the season on The View. The list included several home-related gifts including a Paint and Puzzle Kit and a Seedsheet. However, the most interesting item on the list to us was the Thermomix TM6.
This multi-purpose kitchen robot has 28 functions including weighing, chopping, grinding, sauteing, steaming, and whisking. It claims to replace 5 kitchen appliances in one and reduce cleaning time.
The only catch? The Thermomix TM6 is priced at almost $1,500. Luckily, our team has been monitoring the multi-cooker market to find a worthy budget alternative. Priced at only $100, the Ninja Foodi multi-cooker accomplishes many of the same functions at under 7% of the cost. Let's compare.
This ultimate multi-cooker has a 2.2 liter mixing bowl with 28 functions, making it easy to cook healthy homemade meals. Handy features like the Guided Cooking tool make the Thermomix easy to use for busy families or beginner chefs. The drawbacks include an expensive price tag, large size, and high noise levels.
This 6.5-quart multi-cooker has 14 functions including pressure cooking, air frying, and steaming. The cooker also includes a recipe book that caters to a wide variety of dietary requirements, and the machine has an incredibly quick preheating time. Similar features to the Thermonix machine minus stirring functions.
There are many similarities between the machines. Our review of the Ninja Foodi gave this multi-cooker 4.5 stars, the same rating as the Thermomix TM6 at a fraction of the cost. Like the Thermomix, one major drawback is the size, as the machine takes up a large amount of counter space. However, the Ninja Foodi made #4 on our list of the best multi-cookers of 2023, while the Thermomix did not rank.
Though the Ninja Foodi has a reported 14 settings compared to the Thermomix's 28, in terms of everyday functionality the Ninja Foodi covers all of the cooking methods you are most likely to use. If you are interested in more advanced features like Wifi connectivity, a touch screen, and built-in stirring, the Thermomix is the best option. But it comes at a price.
For the standard home chef looking for an affordable multi-cooker, the Ninja Foodi is a great option. If you don't need all 14 settings, a highly-ranked airfrier is a wonderful way to cook quickly with a short preheat time. We think Whoopi would approve.
