Open Floor Plans and new technology have helped the kitchen become a more social space.

Open floor plans not only maximize available space and eliminate wasted space, they make rooms more flexible and inviting. Food preparation, eating, lounging, entertainment and children playing all occur within the same undivided space.

Now a new cooking concept allows social cooking to be accomplished with ease in the smallest of spaces. German Designer Moritz Putzier presented his graduate project, the Cooking Table; at IMM Cologne 2015 and won first prize in the Pure Talents Contest – a contest aimed at acknowledging the work of young students and recent graduates who have developed a product or system that addresses the area of interior innovation.

“My work is focused on the creation of the experience not on the food itself,” said Putzier. “Traditional and original values are picked up and transformed into the present time.”

Putzier incorporated a hidden cooktop into a long, wooden dining table that can be used for preparing and cooking meals, dining, working or studying at. The table pulls apart to reveal a track where the gas burner can be attached on the top with a gas tank below. The burners can slide along the top allowing the user to add as many as they need.

The Cooking Table comes with a couple of wooden stools and a set of ceramic bowls that can be used for storage or serve as heat shields for the hot burners. The lids conveniently double as cutting boards.

I really like the concept and the approach Putzier took in creating his graduate project. Perhaps we’ll this on a Kickstarter page in the future for the American market.

“My work is focused on the creation of the experience not on the food itself,” said Putzier. “Traditional and original values are picked up and transformed into the present time.”