You know Zojirushi rice cookers. That’s the brand you keep seeing in Japanese restaurants, at sushi counters and in chefs’ kitchens. The best Zojirushi units boast features like LED displays, induction heating elements, variable pressure settings and fuzzy logic computer chips that work in concert to produce perfect rice every time, even if a 5-year-old occasionally measures the ingredients (we know).

We’re especially fond of Zojirushi’s top-of-the-line NW-JEC10, a five-cup cooker that can also pressure cook, steam vegetables, make oatmeal, bake a cake and keep cooked rice warm for hours.

Though rice is one of the world’s most versatile foods, it can be tricky to cook properly on a stovetop or in an inexpensive rice cooker. That’s especially true for grains with complex starches like short-grain sushi rice and brown rice. But with the NW-JEC10, all you need to do is rinse the rice, add salt and water, then let the cooker do its thing.

The Zojirushi’s computer chips can sense variables like moisture, pressure and temperature then adjust its cooking algorithms to account for whatever you did wrong, like adding too much or too little water or using a blend of rice, for example. The controls are easy to program. A delayed-start function and a countdown timer let you know what’s going on, and the keep-warm setting holds rice for hours as promised. The removable lid and nonstick pot are easy to clean.

Like an elderly grandmother, though, the Zojirushi is relatively slow: Unless you use the quick-cook setting, it takes about 45 minutes to make a batch of white rice and up to twice that long to make brown rice. But the rice you get from the Zojirushi is phenomenal — tender, distinctive grains that hold together perfectly. You can choose between five presets of rice firmness — a nice touch — so that sushi rice, short- or medium-grain white rice and brown rice turn out just right. So do lentils, oatmeal, veggies and even rice porridge.

The Zojirushi also turns out to be a surprisingly capable cake baker. We followed the instructions from Zojirushi’s website to bake a cake in the rice cooker using a boxed cake mix. The cake wasn’t quite as good as those you make in the oven, but it was tender and moist, and no one turned down seconds.

Market research company NPD reported in 2023 that 28% of American households own a rice cooker. The Zojirushi Pressure Induction Heating Rice Cooker & Warmer NW-JEC10 isn’t intended for all the others who are still without a rice cooker. But if rice is your thing, this best-in-class appliance is the one for you.