You know those cooking reality shows where contestants are often required to go outside their comfort zones and craft a masterful dish in an unconventional location? This has ranged anywhere from a sandy beach, a snowy mountain, a forest, even inside a gondola lift up a ski slope as seen on the recent Top Chef: Texas. If only these chefs could use Critter: a modular kitchen that’s designed to be movable, portable, and can provide full functionalities comparable to a full-sized facility.
Envisioned by Italian designer Elia Mangia, Critter is unlike most portable cooking systems that only feature electric stoves or one water heating pot. The kitchen can be fully assembled to provide a dual-burner gas stovetop, hot water faucet with a sink, elongated food preparation space, garbage disposal area, and hooks underneath to hold utensils, pots, and pans. The entire system is free standing and can be put together in just eight screws, allowing users to take it apart and piece it back together again in quick and easy steps. This means simple preparation for those who want to shift from cooking inside their tiny apartments to a patio or backyard, or even taking the Critter system along on a driving trip for roadside cookouts and camping overnights. It also helps that Critter looks like an actual kitchen, adding a sense of home to wherever it may be that requires a portable cooking system.
Of course, a slight downside to Critter is how many pieces the full kitchen actually has. Assuming you need both a sink, burner, and trays to keep all your separate ingredients apart, you’re looking at bringing at least 12 pieces of hardware to assemble once you’re onsite. Still, Critter looks good, is relatively space-efficient, and seems more practical than cooking over open fire. Who knows, maybe the juxtaposition of fancy modular kitchen and the rugged wilderness can actually make a trip more memorable, especially when you can whip up something a bit more complex than s’mores and ramen noodles.
Critter will be available on the Italian contemporary design shop Skitsch but no pricing information has been announced just yet.
