This “Invisible” Trend Is the Future of Kitchen Innovation, Say Designers

When I watched a chef boil water directly on a countertop at a massive Italian tile show in Bologna in 2021, it felt like I was seeing things — or seeing the future. A whole crowd of us were there to see the most beautiful tile in the world gathered around this demonstration where the exuberant Italian chef showed us that this was not science fiction; this was a countertop that cooks. I couldn’t get past the language barrier to figure out how this worked, but then I saw it again stateside at the Coverings 2025 tile show this spring. And I set out to learn everything I could.

It actually works with the same principle as regular induction cooking, by “harnessing electromagnetic energy to directly heat suitable cookware.” But in this case, the heating elements are hidden beneath specially designed stone or porcelain counters instead of sitting on top of it. The surface itself stays cool to the touch (well, mostly — more on that later).

With an invisible cooktop, you end up with one clean, smooth line for your kitchen surface and zero wasted space for a stove. It still feels a little impossible, but it’s starting to show up in high-end kitchens, and the hype is definitely building. But is it the future? Or is it all hype?

There’s certainly a lot of excitement about it. Time magazine called Invisacook — the big retailer in the U.S. — one of the best inventions of 2023. On the topic of Invisacook, HGTV’s Jonathan Scott went on record saying: “I think the kitchen of the future is going to have the cooktop hidden underneath the surface.” Gina D’Amore Bauerle of Denver-based D’Amore Interiors told the National Kitchen and Bath Association that Invisicook was one of her go-to brands to add luxury and functionality to small spaces, “leaving the counter surface free to serve other purposes.” 

I admit, I was pretty excited about it — I flip kitchens, and pairing a sleek, cutting-edge cooktop with my vintage pink wall oven just felt like the perfect combo. And the more I dug into it, the more it felt like, yes, it might be the future. But based on real-world use, it sounds like invisible cooktops may not be ready for prime time just yet.

To start, it’s pretty pricey. A four-burner cooktop system from Invisacook is $2,800. That doesn’t count the cost of the countertops, which have some specific requirements about the material (like certain porcelains or granites) and thickness (thinner than you might be used to in order to allow for heat transfer) — so you might have to replace those, too.

And this is definitely not a plug-and-play situation; it’ll take professional installation and the right electrical setup, just like with your standard switch to induction cooking. Plan to spend another few thousand dollars on install, making it a total of $5,000 to $8,000 all-in, according to Invisacook. Oh, and if your cookware isn’t induction-friendly, that’s another purchase. You’ll also either need protective mats, or to buy the cookware specially designed from Invisacook with a patented cool-to-touch coating (at least another $550). So yeah, it adds up fast.

Does it perform? Reports vary. Jonathan Scott says you can boil a pot of water almost twice as fast, and an Instagram post from Invisacook California shows water boiling in 4 minutes. Mileage varies in real kitchens. It’s unclear if that’s user error — there’s definitely a learning curve when it’s, you know, invisible — or actual performance issues, but some users on Reddit report that water doesn’t boil quite as fast as the company claims. Other people mentioned electrical issues and countertops cracking. Meanwhile, plenty of others loved it.

Know this, though. Despite claims that the counter doesn’t get hot since electromagnetic induction heats the cooking vessel and not the counter, that’s not the whole story. It does gradually warm up, according to the manufacturer specs, and after 10 minutes of use, it actually gets hot. I might argue that defeats the purpose of not giving up surface space to a stove if you can’t actually use it. But I do think the sleek, invisible look does make the kitchen look so much less cluttered.

There’s no denying the invisible cooktop is beautiful, if minimalist aesthetic is your jam. And with kitchen trends leaning way in on all things concealed, invisible cooking seems poised to be the future. The question is, how long will it take before it doesn’t mean you’ll practically need a second mortgage to install it, and before it’s as intuitive as turning on a burner you can actually see? For now, at least according to one Reddit user, it’s “good for real estate agents and Instagram people to impress others, but not for people who actually cook.” I guess I’ll just have to wait until I can test one out myself.

What do you think about invisible cooktops, would you try one? Let us know in the comments below!