In addition to making sculptures in steel, brass and wood, Richardt has created minimalist designs for Danish design studio Frama for more than a decade: sofa beds, lounge chairs, candlesticks, shelving systems, "very Minimalist” lamp Norma.

Frama gave up on Tool One, though, so Richardt kept it at home until he stumbled upon Veark, a kitchenware studio also based in Copenhagen known for its Make tools for inspiration in the professional kitchen. For co-founders Daniel Ronge and Christian Lorentzen, it was love at first sight.

We laugh at the sheer simplicity of this thing, but Richart was certainly inspired in part by Asian utensils. Culinary chopsticks, usually made from bamboo, have long been used by professional stir-fry chefs for tasting and tasting in the kitchen.

"I've had some chopsticks at home for a few years that I use to stir oatmeal in the morning, but it was too small to do that," he said. "Then I thought I could make it bigger and design it to flip pancakes as well. In Japan, they actually have some pretty big chopsticks, but they're still used in pairs for stirring and are fun to hold."

And there are even more practicalities. Wooden cutlery can last for decades, while silicone alternatives can last for years (if cleaned and stored properly), and there's been a lot of discussion lately about how many toxic chemicals regular black plastic spatulas can expose users to.

In terms of design, it's clear that we've been heading in this direction for a while and are ready to aspire to more and more rather than less. We've been attracted to the minimalist Joseph Joseph kitchen tools and stacking bowls for some time now, and Jony Ive is doing for computers what his industrial design predecessors did for iconic chairs and lamps.

However, abstract wooden Scandinavian baby toys in beige, cream and cool gray can be quite annoying. They should be bright red and green and make a lot of noise. And the blocky, featureless nativity scene is something we can’t stand. ridiculous. They were just taking a piss. But I think we can safely say that there is nothing more minimalist than a stick.

As Wired senior editor Jeremy White lamented, "How could something so ridiculous be so desirable?" Maybe a stir stick is inherently more manly than a spoon? more like something bear Could Carmy Berzatto be thrown across the kitchen?

"It's a humble tool. I'm amazed at how simple it is to stir food with a stick," Richart said with a laugh. "It reminded me of something... I can't explain it, but it was a good feeling. I felt like I was being transported back to the Neanderthals."