Qooq tablet review

It’s always nice to see a product step out of the mainstream and do something different; and it’s something the Qooq tablet does right from the word go. This is a tablet designed solely for one task – to provide a kitchen-proof, digital recipe book for budding Masterchef contestants.

At first blush, you might think that’s daft, but actually it isn’t such a silly premise. Whenever we want to cook something special at home these days, rather than trawl through recipe books, our first instinct is to pick up a tablet and hit the internet for recipes and expert advice. Admittedly, this isn’t always a brilliant idea since the kitchen is a messy and hazardous place for the average tablet – but the Qooq is designed to take such dangers in its stride.

For starters, the Qooq is both splashproof and heat-resistant. At each corner, there are curved metal feet, tipped with rubber, so it can be laid flat on a smooth surface and stay put, keeping the body of the tablet raised above the surface so you don’t have to worry about spills seeping into open ports.

And, rather than having to hunt around on the internet for recipes, the Qooq comes preloaded with 1,000 recipes from more than 100 “top French chefs” (none of these are household names, however). Recipes can be filtered by a number of different parameters: ingredient, dish type, seasonality, difficulty and preparation time. Accompanying each recipe is a list of the equipment you’ll need, and by increasing the number of servings required, the ingredient quantities will be adjusted automatically.

More importantly, many of the recipes are accompanied by video instructions on how to carry out tricky techniques. It’s like having a recipe book and TV cooking show combined in one. For keen amateurs, this is a boon and can save a lot of guesswork and hunting around. The first recipe we tried it out on was a Thai prawn curry, which calls for the preparation of raw tiger prawns: a quick trip to the techniques section found a video demonstrating the correct method for removing the head and shell, and de-veining the spiky crustacean ready for cooking. It’s crammed with similar tutorials, from deboning a chicken thigh to preparing a Béchamel sauce.