I originally published a blog post, “An Ode to My Omnia,” on our travel blog during the first year of our live-aboard, cruising life. The Omnia Stovetop Oven was one of the first things I purchased for boat cooking, and it’s one of the only items that has stood the test of time. It is infinitely useful, practically indestructible, and worth every penny.
Here’s an updated version of that blog post, including all of the reasons I still love my Omnia a decade later.
An Ode to My Omnia Stovetop Oven
Do you know what an omnimonopea is? I thought it was something I learned in English class decades ago. A tidbit that I had filed away to use on a brighter day. I asked my friend Google, and he said it doesn’t exist; it’s not a thing from English class or any class at all. He told me about onomatopoeias, but I think that’s just the buzzing and clicking and gallunking of his faulty brain circuits. I’m sure that omnimonopea is a word.
Anyway, my Omnia stovetop oven’s name is Omnimonopea. So there.
I purchased the Omnia back in 2015 as part of outfitting our Lagoon 380 catamaran. The Lagoon had a nice propane oven, but it was fickle to get the temperature right and took forever to heat up.
As a side note, after several years of owning it, I discovered that the oven’s internal valve was set to butane rather than propane, so it wasn’t heating quite right. I fixed that, and it worked better.
The other problem you may be familiar with in boat galleys is how hot the oven can make it. The catamaran was good because the galley was up on the bridge deck, and there was lots of ventilation to help keep it cool. I still didn’t like using it when it was hot. And, on our new-to-us monohull, using the oven on a hot afternoon is a non-starter.
Sometimes, I just want to bake something quickly, like one of those little 4-packs of Pillsbury crescent roll dough. Back on land, I used my electric toaster oven a lot, but it drains the boat batteries and takes up more space than I have.
Here’s a quick and tasty way to have freshly baked pastries on board for a fancy (feeling) weekend breakfast or brunch. Make the crescent rolls as the directions indicate, but roll in chocolate chips in the center. Viola! Chocolate Croissants (Pain au Chocolat for you purists). Ok, maybe referring to Pillsbury dough as “Pain au Chocolat” is going too far, but they’re yummy, quick, cheap, and freshly baked.
So where does the Omnia come in, you ask? Well, don’t you see? I just made those crescent rolls in the Omnia without preheating the oven and sweating my rear end off in a hot boat.
The Omnia base heats up over my medium-sized burner in about two minutes, the main dish perfectly holds the four rolls, and the whole thing is cooked and done in about eight minutes. I couldn’t have even preheated the big oven in ten minutes!
There have been times when I have used the Omnia daily if not two or three times a day.
Brownies? No problem! If you are making brownies from a box, just pour it into the pan and follow the directions. The Omnia is about the size of an 8 x 8 pan for recipe planning.
How about bread? No problem! (it’s just shaped like a giant doughnut….mmmm, doughnuts!!)
While we’re at it, how about a doughnut-shaped Ring of Cookie?
I think I’ve made it clear that baked goods win my heart. But if you are, shall we say, a “healthy person,” one who perhaps likes “vegetables” (aka vile weeds), then the Omnia is for you, too.
Roasted root vegetables? No problem! Toss in EVOO, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and then roast away.
Basically, anything that you cook in a regular oven or toaster oven will work in the Omnia as long as it fits in the odd, doughnut-shaped pan.
In closing, I want to thank the Swedish people for giving us Abba, Ikea, Volvos, and now the Omnia stovetop oven. Seriously, thanks!
Updated Thoughts After a Decade of Omnia Cooking
I’ve been using it less recently, mostly because I’ve been trying to cut back on baked goods and sweets. However, I still use it several times weekly, and I would never ponder getting rid of it. Even though it now looks like it’s been through a war—it has dents, has gone slightly out-of-round, and has that disgusting brown stain that aluminum bakeware gets after a decade of heavy use and irregular boat cleanings—I would never ponder getting rid of it.
The Omnia is still part of my repertoire. I recently purchased a special-sized silicone muffin ring, one of my favorite accessories.
Since I purchased mine, Omnias has improved its accessory offerings: It now comes in two sizes, there are a variety of useful silicone liners and trays, and it even comes with a thermometer!
It isn’t without its disappointments, though. The Omnia does not work with my induction hotplate, which is now my go-to appliance when we’re plugged in at the dock. It’s partly because aluminum isn’t compatible but primarily because of how the Omnia works — it requires convection heat to circulate in the pan. An induction burner makes none of that (that’s why induction is otherwise so efficient). So, using the Omnia means I must fire up the gas stove, but that’s still better than lighting the big oven.
The Omnia has also been less used since I upgraded our over to a new Force 10 in 2019. This oven heats up quickly and maintains a reliable temperature, so I don’t mind using it quite as much when I want to cook something bigger than the Omnia’s pan or, you know, square!
However, the Omnia is still faster, more efficient, and uses less propane. If you hate using your boat oven and wish you had a way to roast or bake small items quickly, the Omnia is the ticket. It’s far more reliable than baking in a Dutch oven and more versatile than other stovetop oven designs.
Tips and Tricks for Using the Omnia Stovetop Oven on a Boat
After a few years of use, here are my top tips for getting the most out of an Omnia.
Buy a silicone liner or season the pan.
The silicone liners are a lifesaver for the Omnia. Like all aluminum bakeware, things stick to it. The silicone helps and makes it easier to clean. But you may want to also season it.
Seasoning involves baking some oil onto the pan’s surface. Then, wipe it down with water (no soap!). Over time, the layer of oil will keep building, beating any non-stick wonder product made in a chemist’s lab. Eventually, you can use soap to keep it clean, but you’ll want to renew the seasoning occasionally to maintain its non-stick-iness.
Preheat the base as described in the Omnia directions.
Use high heat for this. Add the pan with its lid and leave it on high heat for 1-2 minutes. Then, reduce heat to medium-low for the remainder of the cooking time.
Actual cooking is done at low or medium-low, no higher! Don’t forget to turn it down after the pre-heating, like I always do. It’s a good test of your smoke alarm, if nothing else!
Using the Omnia requires practicing ‘cooking mindfulness.’
Changes in heat make big temperature swings in the tiny pan, so there’s no way to time your food and walk away. The only way to know when things are done is to watch them. So, unlike what we might be used to with smart toasters and Bluetooth ovens, the Omnia requires you to be present and mindfully cook your meals.
It could be considered a perk, actually. Put the phone down already!
I usually use the simple toothpick test for baked goods — if it comes out clean, it’s done.
For meats, I always use an instant-read meat thermometer.
Everything else I cook until it’s GBD (golden brown and delicious).
Keep food items away from the center cone as much as possible.
The center cone is the hottest part of the Omnia, where things burn first. You can rotate things around to keep them from burning or just accept little burned crescents on the edges of things.
The Omnia comes with a little rack to keep food off the bottom.
Don’t put that in a locker under a bunch of other pans and forget about it for 6 months. It’s pretty useful.
A List of Random Things I’ve Cooked in my Omnia Stovetop Oven
- Biscuits and scones
- Dinner rolls and garlic knots
- Dutch baby
- Muffins
- Cookies
- Popovers/Yorkshire pudding (The Omnia excels here because you can get it scorching hot!)
- Monkey bread
- Baked tortilla chips (corn or flour)
- Roasted root vegetables
- Broccoli
- Potato wedges
- Frozen french fries
- Frozen taquitos
- Puff pastry treats, including sausage rolls
- Refrigerated cinnamon rolls and crescent rolls
- Brownies, cakes, bars, and crumbles
- Heat and toast bakery treats like pan au chocolates
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