This new designer kitchen tool is just a stick. So why do we obsess over it?

As well as making sculptures in steel, brass and wood, Richard also created works such as: minimalist design For more than 10 years, he has created daybeds, lounge chairs, candleholders, shelving systems, and “very simple” lamps for the Noma restaurant for Danish design studio Flama.
Sophie Charara
However, Flama inherited Tool 1, and Richard kept it at home until he discovered Kitchenware Workshop. Varkalso located in Copenhagen, produces tools inspired by professional kitchens. For co-founders Daniel Longuet and Christian Lorenzen, it was love at first sight.
We joke about the sheer simplicity of this thing, but Richard’s inspiration, of course, comes in part from Asian tableware. Chobashi are often made from bamboo and have long been used by professional stir-fry chefs in the kitchen for sampling and sampling.
“For several years I had chopsticks at home that I used to stir my oatmeal in the morning, but they were a little too small for that,” he says. “Then, I thought about making it bigger and designing it so that you can flip pancakes.In Japan, we have larger chopsticks, but even then, we use two chopsticks when stirring, so it’s very difficult to handle them.” It’s fun.”
And it’s more practical. Wooden utensils can outlast silicone alternatives for decades (if properly cleaned and stored). lots of discussion There’s been a lot of debate lately about how much a regular black plastic spatula can expose users to toxic chemicals.
Sophie Charara
From a design perspective, it’s clear that we’ve been heading in this direction for some time, and we’re ready to ask for more and more from less and less. While we’ve been strangely drawn to minimalist Joseph Joseph’s kitchen tools and stacking bowls for a while, Jony Ive has shown us that his industrial design forebears have, with their iconic chairs and lamps, for example. I did what I did on my computer.
However, abstract wooden Scandinavian baby toys in beiges, creams, and cool grays can be very upsetting. It’s bright red and bright green and should make a lot of noise. And blocky, featureless nativity sets are more than we can stand. That’s ridiculous. They’re just pissed off. However, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that you can’t achieve more minimalism than with a stick.
WIRED senior editor Jeremy White exclaims: Perhaps a stir stick is inherently more macho than a spoon? something more like the bears Carmy Belzat might throw it across the kitchen?
“It’s an unassuming tool. I was amazed at how simple it is to stir food with a stick,” Richard says with a little laugh. “It brought me back to something… I can’t explain it, but it was a great feeling. It felt like I was being taken back to being a Neanderthal somehow.”