A kitchen with no dedicated cooktop / range range? Sounds like a useless room to me. It would be a space to spread out lots of take out food & so not very healthy set up for occupants.

Only a hood directly over a cooktop and large enough to encompass the rising and expanding cooking plumes (supported by a make-up air system of whatever complexity is needed for a given situation) will provide proper venting, unless an industrial commercial cooking full ceiling venting system is used. So with your portable hob concept, the hobs would have to be used in a predetermined area under a hood large enough for the worst case hob count.

When I considered a more localized version of this approach at the beginning of my reno over a decade ago, I found that the space required by a number of portable units, or even several Cooktek units built in to the counter, was significantly larger than using a dedicated 36-inch induction cooktop. And one must also account for stone support, if using stone counters, and this affects under cabinet design and structural support that may force individual built-in units apart. Portable units would not have that problem so long as the stone was adequately supported for any weight distribution.

Invisacook! I have no idea if it actually works well.

You'll still need a sink for clean up, an easy to clean floor, & some cabinets or cupboards to store equipment in. So it will end up looking like a kitchen with something missing, I'd think.

I think a large majority of prospective home buyers would pass on a room with a sink, fridge, and no range/stove that they would either have to have portable units or serious renovation to use as a kitchen. Even though induction units are nice, a setup like that smacks of poor dorms/studios/cabins with hotplates because they can't have real cooking appliances. It would make me wonder what was wrong with the wiring setup to have several dedicated circuits to the room with no real cooking appliance to show for it.

A central fan unit to try to help vent cooking from random anywhere in the countertop areas would put me off too- because cooktops need proper venting over the cooking area, so a central vent would have to be seriously industrial to try to exchange the air from the whole kitchen. The cleaning factor involved with cooktops being put to play anywhere is not great. I would guess the room was a glorified and poorly planned butlers pantry rather than a functional kitchen.

Would never get financing to be built. As a renovation? It would lose you any ability to be sold. An actual working kitchen is a baseline requirement to have a certificate of occupancy.

"only have portable induction cooktops that you can plug and play anywhere convenient."

I do not understand this statement, and think it is unrealistic. Are you saying that the kitchen counter on the left would be more convenient one day, but the next day the kitchen counter on the right would be more convenient? How does the convenience of a hob placement vary from time to time? Under what circumstances in the kitchen?

But most of all, when cooking several things at once, even with multiple cooks, it is more efficient to have the pots and pans together, rather than walking across an aisle or across the floor to stir or sauté each pot and pan. Can you imagine the traffic congestion with each of you crossing the floor to go from the separately-located hobs to the fridge, to the sink, to the oven?

A portable induction hob is 110v. So limited to 1800 watts power. 3700w is usual for a 220v installed unit. Black counter material would hide an induction cooktop. Then use a portable hob as a movable secondary cooking station. The oven -- A CSO would be built in but minimal. Other options take up counter space. A small convection toaster oven doesn't have very good insulation. So it gets hot and needs space. A micro is usually left out or in a pantry.

I tried a portable induction cooktop and kept using it instead of my radiant range because I liked it. However if I were building a minimalist kitchen, I'd install what a suite hotel I stayed in did: two-burner, built-in cooktop + combo microwave/convection oven (24" Zline example) + 18" dishwasher + refrigerator.

Revolutionary ideas are always shunned in the beginning. Lol.

So I love the non-kitchen kitchen look. Isn't that why designers "hide" fridges and dishwashers behind cabinetry? Imagine all the countertop space freed up. As for cooks running all over looking for stuff, that's a question of organization and set-up. I can easily picture the usefulness of such a kitchen.

Test your idea n your current kitchen, Cover your stove with a piece of plywood and buy an induction hob or better two off Amazon. Here's a double burner model for $150. Link. You could also try singles. Consider storage and ease of accessibility. This is a small investment to try your idea for a couple months to acclimate to it. Then come back with a review.

A flush induction cooktop would be very unobtrusive, some have no projection above the surface at all.

In the 1950s there were cooktop units that folded up against the backsplash.

Well, counter space wouldn't be freed up any time you're cooking because you'd have induction hobs all over the place. Most people that have well set-up kitchens actually prefer having their cooking surface in one/the same spot. Plus, as I mentioned below, you can't cook under cabinets so you would have to set it all up on an open counter, which would limit you. You'd either need to do all your cooking on the island, or you'd need to design the perimeter so it had open wall space.

Invisible induction isn't new. So if you want extra counter when you're not cooking, look into that. Then at least you still have a working kitchen with ventilation in the appropriate place.

https://www.infinitysurfaces.it/invisacook/

Imagine all the countertop space freed up....

But there wouldn't be any countertop space freed up. Those portable units have to live somewhere, just like a regular stove/range does. Either that would be on the countertops, or designated cabinet space to store them when they are not in active use. Most folks would rather just have a designated cooktop rather than giving up cabinet space to store cooktop components.

What about the oven? The oven hasn't really been mentioned yet. Those don't really get hidden in cabinets, would you get a small countertop unit for that as well to live on the counter or get moved to a cabinet to hide that kitchen equipment too? Or just get a regular oven that stays in one place built in?

Yes, dishwashers and fridges can be hidden behind cabinet doors. Your sink will be a bit harder to hide. Microwave and other appliances can be hidden behind doors or in garages.

So, sounds like the OP is describing a room that would be mostly a lot of lower cabinets with a lot of outlets with some seriously large venting on the ceiling to be big enough to vent the entire room properly, with few to no upper cabinets because you can't cook under upper cabinets. Agnes, have you run this idea past a designer/architect/contractor and/or the local building office to see if you can even do this sort of thing and be within code? Consulted with an electrician for how to handle this kind of wiring setup?

"What are your thoughts on a non-cooktop/range kitchen?"

From the OP's subsequent comments, it appears she did not actually want our thoughts. OK @Agnes - it will be great, you will be so happy with this!

Quite interesting. I know lots of people who rarely use their built in cooktop and oven; they mainly use toaster ovens, air fryers, crock pots, keurig coffee makers and do outdoor grilling.
I use my cooktop alot and my oven for baking. But, in the summer I use my air fryer and crock pot more. I like people who “think outside the box”!

There is actually a UL listed cabinet in which you can have doors over an oven. There is an interlock which prevents the doors from being closed while it is on plus a cool down period. The company is Yestertec.

I think this is a great question. It expands our horizons. Of course, there are challenges and questions. One of the things I like about Miele is the company’s advanced, creative thinking especially on kitchens. Their showroom here in Houston is so interesting with new concepts and ideas. Their European roots and International presence keeps them on their toes. They have designed cabinetry to disguise the room away from traditional kitchen to a new space look that seamlessly blends into the larger space. So I can envision a further emergence of using more and more technology to change our cooking in house and lifestyles. Millennials eat out a lot. Not withstanding the COVID stresses, watch what Millennials do. They are not investing in homes they tend to rent longer than previous generations. So, looking ahead is a good thing. Good for you.

Hidden or convertible kitchens show up in smaller RVs. Faucets that fold down into a sink are one example.

love this idea. When I showed my architect my inspiration pics for my kitchen/LR/DR renovation, she said, "I see you like a kitchen that doesn't look like a kitchen, right?" And off we went! Still have a range, but if I could have done without it...

A side bar, one of my neighbors in Memphis was the original Innkeeper of the very first Holiday Inn. They of course lived at the motel. Her daughter told me she always thought everyone's kitchen was a telephone cause that's how they got all their food. An even further sidebar, Elvis used to come swim at the motel cause that was the only pool in Memphis at which he could have some privacy. Apparently he was quite polite and very solicitous to my friends' elderly mother. Who needs a kitchen when you can have Elvis!

This induction top is flush with the counter

This is not quite what you have in mind, but a variation. The same thing could be achieved with more open counterspace.

There are a number of Italian companies who appear to manufacture fully retractable kitchen faucets that can be raised and lowered from the countertop surface. I know nothing about them and they seem like they may be more trouble than they are worth, but who knows? Any level of concealment is probably possible with a large enough budget. It could probably work on a conventional budget but would not be as successful.

https://www.archiproducts.com/en/products/kitchen-taps/hidden

Innovations start the ball rolling. Then competitors get going on better designs and lower pricing. It’s the way it goes.

I did a semi concealed kitchen in a condo unit and it functioned pretty well but was somewhat limited by its size. The footprint actually extended beyond the arch, with the refrigerator and small island in the LR

Loving the conversation and glad to see some open minds. 

@Dan 1888 and @kculbers, yes, already tried this idea (buy a single induction top) and that's what got me thinking about how much do we really use our cooktop and how messy it alway looks.


@tozmo1, exactly! Would love to see how your space turned out. 

Thank @Flo Mangan for the tips on Miele, yes they and a few European companies are cutting edge, nice to see that they are making their way over here.

I love browsing Archiproducts for new ideas. 

Glad to see technology evolving, for example, 15 years ago I dreamt of having a flush entry shower on a second level. Back then the technology wasn't available to do this. Since then, creative minds have been hard at work solving the issues around such a structure. And today, well, I have my dream shower and it is just so wonderful and practical. 

So now onto my next dream of this new kitchen, lr, dr...and to find a designer who thinks outside the box and loves new ideas. That is very challenging!

I've been thinking of doing that in the house which will probably be my next, and final, home, when I can no longer take care of my large yard. However, it won't be for a stealth kitchen, but because I rarely use more than one or two burners now, and I plan to cook less in the future. Using the portable burners would also give me the option to upgrade my wall oven and/or hood choices. Another reason is that I own an antique (non-functional) porcelain gas range that I want to take with me, so I've been thinking of having a wall oven, and using the antique range in place of a range or cooktop, with a portable induction burner. I'd store a second burner, in case I needed it, and for use as a back-up if the first burner malfunctions.

If I sold the house, or my children decided to keep it for a rental, the antique range could be switched out for a free-standing range, and the new owner or tenant would have bonus wall ovens. The house already has both natural gas and 240v outlet for a range, so either, or dual fuel, would be easy.

Thank you for posing the question; I'm not to the point where I need to make a decision, but it's nice to hear other opinions.