AirHood Is the Secret to Ventilating Your Kitchen Without a Range Hood

Years ago, the Central County Fire Department appeared on my family’s doorstep in Burlingame, California, after we accidentally smoked out our small galley kitchen. My dad coyly told the fireman: “Sorry, we were just making garlic chicken.” While our 2007 garlic chicken incident always gets a laugh, the lack of proper kitchen ventilation has followed me into adulthood, into small apartments with no cross ventilation and moments of frantically waving a dish towel over a blaring smoke alarm. Luckily, the French designer Maxime Augay ran into similar problems in college, which eventually led to his creation of a sleek, portable countertop hood. 

The AirHood slogan, “like a range hood, but better,” captures precisely what Augay intended when he built his prototype. That design caught the attention of entrepreneur Markus Buck, now director at AirHood, who recognized the product solved a common problem. “We are a clear solution,” says Buck, “to the problem of ventilation in small cooking environments, where the buildup of grease, and especially the creation of toxic fumes from burning fat, is an issue.” 

Simply calling the AirHood a fan undersells the technology. The device stands just over 13 inches high, with a circular head for filtration and an internal fan. Turn it on, and one side sucks in smoke and odors while the other releases clean, filtered air. Everything starts with the first multilayer steel-mesh filter. (According to Buck, 95% of grease particles are captured in this filter.) A separate charcoal filter behind the steel mesh captures smoke particles. Depending on what you’re cooking, the power of the fan can toggle between a minimum of 3,100 revolutions per minute to a maximum of 5,000 rpm — handy for those given to searing steaks in small apartments.

AirHood’s mission is not just to control odors and smoke, but also to create a healthier environment for all cooks. Indoor air quality is probably the last thing anyone thinks about while preparing dinner, but just as with other emissions, the compounds released into the air during cooking can cause a variety of problems, from respiratory issues to headaches and nausea. Although science informs the design of the AirHood, Augay and Buck also knew there needed to be another selling point: style and convenience. Another bulky kitchen accessory that home cooks felt the need to hide after using it wasn’t the goal. With its sleek design and array of bold colors like cadmium orange and minimalistic ivory white, the AirHood seamlessly blends with a variety of lifestyles and decor.

Another gift Buck hopes an AirHood will impart is cooking confidence. “I think there’s a level of hesitation from people about cooking with oil and the smells it generates in your kitchen. They say, ‘I don’t want to have this in my living space, and I don’t have a solution.’ An AirHood provides them with exactly that. I hope people cook more. I want this to be an everyday appliance.”