This New Designer Kitchen Tool Is Just a Stick. So Why Are We Obsessed With It?

In addition to creating steel, brass and wood sculptures, Richard also created Minimalist design Over a decade for the Danish design studio Frama: a day bed, a lounge chair, candle holders, a shelving system, an “ultra minimal” lamp for the restaurant Noma.

Sophie Charara

The Frama tool passed on one, so Richard left it at home until he stumbled upon the kitchen studio VerkAlso in Copenhagen, which makes equipment inspired by professional kitchens. For co-founders Daniel Ronge and Christian Lorentzen, it was love at first stick.

We joke about the sheer simplicity of this thing, but Richard’s inspiration came partly from Asian pots. Cooking chopsticks, often made from bamboo, have long been used by professional stir-fry chefs for tasting and sampling in the kitchen.

“I had some chopsticks at home that I used to stir my oatmeal in the morning for years, and it was too small to do that,” he says. “Then I thought I could scale it up to a design that could also flip a pancake. In Japan they actually have some big chopsticks, but they still use pairs when they stir, and they’re quite fun to handle.”

And there are more realities. Wooden containers can last for decades vs. years for silicone alternatives (if properly cleaned and stored) and there is a A lot of discussion Lately, how many toxic chemicals can regular black plastic spatulas expose users to?

Sophie Charara

In terms of design, it’s clear that we’ve been heading in this direction for a while, wanting less and less and more. For some time we’ve been strangely drawn to minimalist Joseph Joseph kitchen tools and stacking bowls, while Jony Ive did for computers what his predecessors in art design did for iconic chairs and lamps.

Scandi baby toys of abstract wood in beiges, creams and cool grays, however, can be quite boring. They should be bright red and bright green and make a lot of noise. And blocky, featureless birth sets we cannot abide. funny They are only taking urine. But I think we can safely say that you can’t get more minimalist than a stick.

As WIRED senior editor Jeremy White exclaims, “How can something so ridiculous be so desirable?” A stirring stick is inherently more macho than a spoon, perhaps? Like something else bear’s Can Carmy Berzatto be thrown across a kitchen?

“It’s a humble tool. I was amazed at how simple a stick is to stir your food,” Richard says with a chuckle. “It took me back to something … I can’t explain it, but it was a wonderful feeling. I somehow felt like I was being taken back to the Neanderthals.”