OTOTO Red The Crab Utensil Rest

The utensil rest is one of those sensible kitchen objects that tends to arrive only after somebody has wiped a streak of curry from the worktop with a tea towel that was already questionable. OTOTO Red The Crab addresses that minor domestic tragedy in bright red silicone, with claws and the sort of determined expression usually reserved for a parking warden.

Its central job is straightforward: provide a non-slip perch for spoons, tongs, ladles and other implements between stirs. Yet Red also has a rotating body designed for different pot sizes and orientations, and OTOTO says it can sit on a lid to release steam. A crab doing lid management is absurd; a lid rattling about while dinner boils over is, regrettably, more absurd.

We think this is the entertaining curveball for a kitchen that has already accepted the practical basics but still has room for one object that earns its nonsense. It is made from 100% food-grade, BPA-free silicone and is dishwasher safe, so the joke does not demand a cleaning ritual afterwards.

The limitation is equally clear: Red The Crab is a small, specialised answer to a small, specialised nuisance. Nobody needs a character-led utensil rest to make supper. But the person who keeps laying a spoon on the nearest plate, board or increasingly tragic patch of counter may find that this particular crab has been hired for a reason.