I’m pretty handy in the kitchen, but usually I need to stick to tried-and-true methods of sauteeing, roasting, and broiling to get dinner on the table. Not so with Katja Wulff, an enterprising Swedish woman whose cooking apparatus of choice has made her my new culinary hero. Wulff, you see, is what she calls a “coffee-maker chef” — that is, she makes everything in her coffee maker. That whole Keurig Campbell’s soup thing has nothing on Coffee Machine Cuisine!
Back in 2009, Wulff was living in a dorm — and as is wont to happen when you live in a dorm, she didn’t have access to a kitchen. She did, however, have a coffee maker. Since a coffee maker is essentially just a hot plate with a water tank attached, one day she decided to try to make noodles in it — and lo and behold, it worked! Since then, her coffee maker cooking experiments have yielded both a successful blog (she runs a Swedish-language one and an English one) and a well-received book.
Wulff recently sat down to chat with The Atlantic about her novel cooking methods; the whole interview is definitely worth a read, so head on over there to give it a whirl. Wulff noted that although her coffee maker creations usually look great, they’re not always the tastiest things around. But hey, if you’ve only got minimal tools and just need to fill your stomach, it’ll get the job done and then some — providing a healthy dose of comedy in the process. She calls the whole thing “a creative experiment rather than a traditional food blog,” good for those who “want to get inspired and have a great laugh.”
Right here, Gordon.
These days, coffee maker cooking is more of a hobby for Wulff: “Since I have a kitchen now,” she said, “I do it when I feel like it and when I get a new recipe I have to try.” She’s also expanded her repertoire to toasters, vacuum cleaners, hair curlers, irons, dishwashers, and hair crimpers — and her ultimate goal is to cook something using a washing machine. “[I] tried to cook with my parent’s washing machine but they saw it and interrupted what was about to happen,” she told The Atlantic. “An hour later I fried a burger with their iron. Now I’m not allowed to cook with anything other than the stove at their place.”
I’ve seen a lot of novelty cooking sites in my time. What the F*ck Should I Make for Dinner? is one of my favorites; as EcoSalon pointed out back in 2011, though, there are so many weird food blogs out there that no matter what your quirk is, you’re bound to find someone who’s written about it. Hipster food? There’s a blog for that. Cute food? There’s a blog for that, too. Cross-sectioned images of sandwiches? Yep. That too. Seriously, there’s no end to them.
I do have to say, though, that Coffee Maker Cuisine is by far the most interesting one out there. It’s a shame I’ve already got tonight’s dinner cooking away in my Crock Pot; otherwise I’d be tempted to give Wulff’s cauliflower soup with bacon recipe a try. Maybe I’ll put it on the menu for tomorrow night…
Here are some other enticing creations that Wulff made in her coffee maker. Yes, really!
