Do I need a cooker hood?

If you’re going to cook you need some form of extraction and ventilation.

The reason being that particles of hot fat, steam and even fragments of food fill the air when you cook. This can lead to wonderful cooking smells but it can also lead to big problems. Over time a thin layer of grease and water can build up on your walls, ceiling and even furnishings.

Best case scenario is that you will have to spend an afternoon every six months scrubbing the corners of your ceiling to get the grease off. Worst case scenario is permanent staining of surfaces you didn’t think could be stained. If you’ve ever spent two hours scrubbing and steam cleaning a tiled wall because of inadequate ventilation you will know what I mean.

So the short answer is yes, you do need a cooker hood.