You'll be waiting for an economic reason for the restaurants, not because gas is better. [1]
When Eric Ripert, the chef of Le Bernardin, renovated the kitchens of his Manhattan apartment and Hamptons beach house, he nixed the gas, instead choosing sleekly powerful induction cooktops by Miele and Gaggenau.
“After two days, I was in love,” Mr. Ripert said. “It’s so much more precise than watching a flame. You can really focus on your cooking and pay attention to what’s inside the pan, not what’s underneath it.”
He hasn’t yet converted his restaurant kitchens.
“It would be a big expense to replace stoves that still work well, but, if the gas stove broke, I’d consider it,” he said, adding that he thought his cooks would adapt quickly. “After a few days, they’d all love it.”
That is just what happened with the chef Justin Lee of Fat Choy in Manhattan, although he wasn’t expecting it.
When he opened the Chinatown restaurant in September 2020, there was no gas hookup. “Most restaurants wouldn’t open without gas, but we couldn’t wait,” he said, “so we had to find our way with electric.” It was a lot easier than he had anticipated, and he’s come to prefer induction for its consistency at high and low temperatures.
On the gentlest setting, he confits garlic and other ingredients for his XO sauce without having to watch it. “You can walk away, and it won’t ever burn,” he said.
“For us, it’s a workhorse,” he said. “It can boil water in minutes, which, for cooking noodles, is significantly faster than gas.”
Mr. Lee discovered other advantages over the summer: His kitchen did not get as ferociously hot as it would have with a gas stove, and the absence of open flames also led to a decrease in burns.
I tried such a single 'hot plate' out of curiosity when they were on offer at ALDI for €29,90 more than 10 years ago. And my mind was blown.
The only limitation I can think of is that your wall outlet should be able to deliver 2000 to 2500W, for a single coil.
So one such outlet, for one such coil. Or three phase alternating current for the range. But the same constraints apply to normal electrical stoves.
Mobile 'single coil' systems like that are still available cheaply.
