The fact that the center does not lock in place means the creator has either never owned a cat, or has only owned extremely well-behaved cats. My kitty would spend all day making as much noise as physically possible with that center plug.
They should have just put an inset box in the middle with the access hatch in the bottom. Best case you keep the cat contained and worst case you can have an in-table hibachi grill spot.
There is a Japanese youtuber, called Jun, who has actually trained his cats very well, and he let's them watch him cook fresh meals. I assume they also don't try to snatch food from peoples' plates, since they never interrupt his cooking.
The young one is like this. She does not care about human food. But the big ones haven't been trained by me, so they do misbehave. I have to keep an extra eye because most of the food we eat is not fit for cats. Secondly: the vet gave me a precise diet and they better keep it, else they can't hide they snatched food as they usually do not digest it fine. Than there a stray cat who is absolutely educated and only easts his food.
My cat would love this. He loves sitting on my stool watching me cook. He loves hanging out with me while I eat but never tries to eat my food, can even leave him alone with the food. But when I eat he loves to get up in my business lmao so a table like this would be his jam.
