Do You Need a $350 Rice Cooker — The Kitchen Gadget Test Show

Ladies and gentlemen , welcome back to kitchen gadgets .

If you notice something different , it's a friend .

I have them , Esther Choi right here .

What's up ?

What's up ?

Esther is also the chef owner of Mob Bar here in New York City .

And miss you .

What are we testing today ?

Esther ?

Here we go .

We're testing the rice cooker .

Of course , you do cook rice in your restaurant .

I do cook rice in my restaurant and of course , at home like every single day .

But it's , it's also like when you guys were like , hey , you're gonna test the rice cooker .

I'm like , of course .

I am .

Of course .

Yeah .

Well , I mean , it , it's better .

It's better .

I'll be that token Asian .

You know , you know , I'm done with that .

Speaking of token , we are testing two rice cookers .

This one is from my house .

It's the one I've had for 10 years .

You may recognize it from certain college dorm rooms .

That's ridiculous .

I , I used to have that in college .

It's the aroma rice cooker .

It's around 40 40 50 bucks and we are testing it against the Ferrari of rice cookers with a price point of around $350 .

Yes .

Looks like this one has white rice umami .

That's setting .

Yes , that's a setting quick which probably means like quick cook .

Yeah , brown rice , brown rice .

You can even pick the levels of like how you want your rice texture to be .

So I actually don't think there is going to be enough of a difference to justify the crazy price point .

Listen , this thing has a million functions .

This has one , there's one switch on it that says go Yeah .

So we're gonna test it at its most basic function .

So we have two cups , one part water versus one part rice .

I rinsed it three times each till it ran clear .

So give me a look .

Yeah , I gave you a look because three times is not enough cliff .

My mom told me the more you rinse it , the more you know , purified you will be eating .

Oh I was doing .

I have , I have the certain hand OK .

So you did the hand movement that really important straight up , right ?

Let's put this in .

The rice is going in the rice is in and two cups of water .

We're gonna hit start 123 .

And I love that .

This sings to you .

It does have a timer .

55 minutes going here .

This does not have a timer how you know it's done is in the other room , but here's something that goes quick .

My opinion is why this is so worth it .

If you mess up your ratio , it's ok .

It's very forgiving .

The second thing is that you have all these options , right ?

Third thing is to make it 10 days before you're actually gonna eat it .

And wait , wait , wait , wait , explain that .

Because it keeps warm right after it cooks , it'll change the uh setting to warm and then it will just keep in here for like days and days until the rice goes back .

This particular rice being Japanese short grain rice , um It should be like slightly sticky but still like beautifully like curly .

So , you know , consistency , consistency throughout the entire thing .

Top to bottom .

Here's a little aside .

Yeah .

Here from Ohio .

Your roommate .

How's that guy ?

How often does your roommate use his rice cooker ?

He probably used it once .

What's his name ?

His name is Brady .

Brady .

Brady .

Hashtag Brady .

Please use your rice cooker .

Sorry , what happened ?

I don't know what happened .

It , it sensed the moisture .

It sense that it needs a little bit more water in there .

So they're pressuring it now .

So this one it's just like steaming out .

So I don't know how that's gonna cook in that .

Oh , but as anyone knows who has one of these things that first click , it doesn't mean that it doesn't mean anything .

You gotta let it like hang out for another tip .

Yeah .

See if someone bought that , how would they know that the rice , like they just heard the click .

So they're like , ok , it's ready .

I have a feeling that no one just buys this one blind like they already know .

So cliff , um this started to steam .

I don't know what that means .

Um It means that they're letting out some of that .

But yeah , but it's still on pressure .

So it's still pressuring , but they're letting some of the moisture out .

The big thing with a lot of these products is like the clean up .

This one on a stick on the Yeah , it has a sticky layer on the bottom which is a freaking pain in the ass to like throw it in for a minute .

You have to like scrub it .

Whereas this one it's like the non stick literally when you , you don't even have to wash it because it's that clean and perfectly .

He sings to you .

That's lovely .

Rice is ready .

It gets you like excited .

It's like , oh my God , my rice is done for the grand reveal .

Let's open it up and see .

I mean , that's looking pretty good .

I mean it's sick .

Oh No .

Stick on the bottom .

Each grain is very individual .

None of the grains break you ready for this guy ?

I mean , hey , hey , hey , I mean it's not terrible .

0000 but it's mushy .

It's mushy .

That's very mushy .

And look , it's orch to hear because it's uneven .

So if we're talking about perfection right now , we are talking about perfection .

I see brown parts in there .

Like this part is obviously like a little bit harder than like this part .

Right .

This guy is a little wider .

It's more full .

We have some that are not as full here .

They all are really even let's taste this one first .

It's a little mushy .

It's uneven straight up .

If someone brought that to me , I would be like bad rice , bad rice .

God .

Even the texture coming out , it's already different .

I mean , that's , yeah , it's so different .

I know that you're some of you are sitting at home and being like what the that's rice .

But for someone who actually like does a lot of rice dishes and really cares about this thing and someone who eats rice on a regular basis , this is a it , yeah .

You know , it's , it's kind of like that low and slow thing .

Yes .

This , this took maybe almost double the time , but there's a reason for that and sometimes you have to be a little bit patient for perfection .

I thought this had a chance because I guess you learn to cope with the inconsistencies for so long .

This is , this is like that old pickup truck that , you know , you have to like kick three times and then you have to move the stick shift left and right .

We do understand that those usually she does make better rice than old blue , the aroma .

But does it make the $300 investment on top of this , I would say if you're cooking rice at least twice a week because then you span that out over the course of a few years and you're just getting .

So I guess basically if you've ever had a conversation to talk about the consistency of rice , that's your guy .

But maybe if you're Brady from Ohio , who's Ian's roommate who buys the expensive one but never makes rice .

Maybe brave .

You should got this one verdict .

Zoi Rushi is the winner .

Esther .

Thank you .

Thank you .

If you wanna see the food that uh Esther cooks click here .

It's weird .

I feel like it's my duty to my country and to my culture to sort of like be that person to take it to the next .