Remember the Russian “matrushka” stacking dolls, where you opened one, and there was another inside…and another…and another?  Well, the GSI Pinnacle Dualist is something like that. Hidden inside a protective bag is a 1.8 L pot which holds everything 2 people need for cooking and eating on a backpacking trip…including your stove and fuel!  To top it all off, everything actually works, not always the case with intricate miniature systems.  At  $59.95, it’s a heck of a bargain.

First,  the kit fits neatly into a protective carry bag that just happens to be waterproof and seam sealed, so can be used as a washbasin, or to carry water back from a nearby stream. Very handy, and reduces the equipment redundancy that adds an ounce here, an ounce there. Smart thinking.

Next, the aluminum pot itself has a folding handle that stays attached; no looking all over your campsite when you need it.  It wobbles a bit, but we’ve had zero problems with it. GSI makes a number of claims about the pot’s Teflon with Radiance nonstick coating. We have no reason to doubt them based on our experience with it; it’s been effective and damage-proof in our tests. We’ve boiled water, cooked soups, made couscous, sauteed sausages, scrambled eggs, used temperatures low and high, and even with our sometimes ham-handed techniques, haven’t been able to burn food on yet, which fits with the way Radiance is supposed to spread heat. The cover even has a built-in strainer, making it easy to drain pasta, etc., and a useful flip-down handle that makes it pack small. Thoughtful touches all around.

A pair of bowls made of Infinity plastic, BPA-free, nestles inside the pot. Tucked inside those bowls are mugs with neoprene “cozies”, and covers with sippy holes. The bowls are large enough for a decent meal, and the mugs not only are large and comfortable to hold, but virtually impossible to tip. The second trip out with this set, my sweetheart Susan knocked my cup about a foot away while doing some packing. With my regular mug, my oh-so-valuable coffee would have been splashing around on the tent floor, along with my tears.

Details on The GSI Pinnacle Dualist Integrated Cooking Eating System

Here’s where GSI’s attention to detail really kicks in.  Put one mug cover in the bottom of the pot, then put the bowl/mug combination in on top. Then, drop in your fuel canister, your mini stove, and the little bag with the Foons in it, put the other bowl/mug and cover on top, put the pot lid on, snap the folding handle over the top…voila, one neat little package!

Oh, wait, the Foons!  I hate sporks…soup drips through the tines, and the tines never actually pick anything up. A “foon” is a folding fork & spoon; a spork by another name.  I knew I was going to hate them, but product testing is product testing. And…I was wrong. These silly things actually work. We ate sardines with them, using the fork end to pick out whole ones and the spoon to get the little pieces.  The tines are strong enough to pick up steak, and sharp enough to stab romaine lettuce. Don’t put too much pressure on, though; they will collapse. That’s a small price to pay, though, for something that works this well, weighs this little, and takes up virtually no room. We even used them at home for a sort-of-elegant date night dinner, just to see how they’d do…they were fine.  They’re available separately for  $2.95 each; I’m going to buy one to keep in my glove compartment, plus a couple to keep in my picnic basket…they’re that useful.

I do miss a frying pan; there are some camp meals where a fry pan makes sense.  But, the GSI Pinnacle Dualist saves weight and bulk; I carry a fry pan only when I need it. All in all, it’s hard to fault the concept or execution of the GSI Pinnacle Dualist; after a half dozen trips with it, we’re only loving it more.