If you visit a restaurant’s kitchen, you’ll see professional chefs busy using gas flames for preparing their cuisines. And why they shouldn’t be? After all, gas burners respond quickly, deliver precise heat, and produce a visible flame on the turn of a dial.
Even the professional chefs who teach cooking make use of gas flames over alternatives. It’s because gas range burners are easy to learn, less expensive to maintain, and are simple to clean. So, when it comes to choosing cooking equipment, chefs go for gas equipment over electric ones.
If you want deeper insights regarding what an induction cooking system is and why chefs still prefer gas flames, please read further.
What is Induction?
Induction is one of the latest cooking technologies still struggling to gain a reputable place in the cooking space. The induction units use electricity instead of natural gas. Also, these units promise better efficiency, safety, and cooler kitchens.
However, for all those chefs who’ve tried induction cooktop, the cooking process has changed. For example, heating tortillas or flatbread is impossible with induction, which was quite comfortable with gas burners. No matter how efficient induction cooktop claim to be, most professional chefs still believe in the good old gas flames.
Why are professional chefs naturally inclined to a gas flame for cooking?
According to recent surveys, in the last few years, the gas flame has been the first choice for professional chefs. The common reasons every professional chef gave were:
- Visible flames with range top burners
- Better Control on temperature
- Quick-cooking
- Less expensive maintenance
If you have ever seen an online cooking show or competition, you would have seen chefs proudly using gas flames. And this has popularized the idea of gas flames among people.
Why not induction?
It’s not that professional chefs have not tried alternatives like induction. Many chefs in the USA have tried induction cooktops, but the experience has not been pleasant in most cases. Here are some common problems chefs face while using induction cooktops:
- Separate Cookware
For induction, you need a different type of cookware, which seems to add extra expense. Stainless steel cookware appears to work fine, but not all. It depends on the manufacture and how the cookware has been designed. So, it’s quite challenging to determine which stainless-steel cookware will work with an induction cooktop.
- More Energy Expenditure
Not all induction cooktops are energy efficient, mainly when you’re operating a commercial kitchen. Sometimes, you have to use an induction cooktop with high amperage, which requires more electricity. This practice can significantly increase your energy bills, adding more to your expenses.
- Cooking Problems
Not all drawbacks are monetary; some complications disturb the cooking process too. For example, a chef claimed to love heavy grates with gas stoves to hold cookware firmly. The pots or pans seem to slip over the slippery glass surface, which comes with induction cooktops.
Some professional chefs also seem to miss the heating of the sauté pan from the sides. It’s because there are no residual flames when using induction cooktops; in fact, there’s no flame at all.
Should you make the switch?
If you’re a person with a knack for cooking and have used induction, you would have faced common problems like:
- Watching a pot of water heat and boil as several minutes pass by.
- Discovering unevenly cooked food because of uneven heating in an induction cooktop
- Burning or sticking food to your skillet
It may be easier for someone who’s never used a flame to adopt induction cooktops, which can be added to suit your existing kitchen units design. But, for someone who has spent the majority of their life using gas flames, it’s going to be pretty challenging even when the odds are in favor.
The lack of flame can prove to be a good thing for chefs when cooking something delicate such as seafood. Order seafood online for home delivery for your next family dinner. Cod, Halibut, and Tilapia are excellent choices to be cooked delicately, but with some color on the outside.
Wrapping Up!
In a nutshell, electric cooking equipment like induction cooktops is energy-efficient compared to gas stoves. But such cooking systems might be harder to maintain. Also, even after practice, it’s quite challenging to achieve the consistent results gas flames offer.
You won’t ever experience those visible gas flames, easy to maintain stove with an induction cooktop. If you love the heat, residual flames, and the gas stoves’ quick response, you should most certainly stay with your “first love”.
