Commercial Induction Cooking

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Looks very, very sweet. 

 

Induction cooking gives you all the benefits of gas, like the instantaneous control without the fumes and ridiculous amount of heat that comes with it. 

 

It also happens to be the most efficient way of cooking - so its great news for businesses looking to cut down their energy costs/environmental footprint. 

 

I would like to think these units are manufactured with durability and repair in mind. 

 

We have had our Westinghouse 4-hob unit for 4 years and have been quite impressed with it. 
 
Well Jon, there are lots of brands available on your side of the pond nowadays too. I love the Bosch ones with a 4500 Watts burner.

Although I love induction cooking, I hate it when the apparatus begins to bleep when I lift the fryingpan from the cooktop to shake things around a bit. I wonder how this will work out in a commercial kitchen. You can also see in the background how a pan is being moved over the cooktop, not too good for the ceramic top I think.
 
Electric

Has anyone tried any of these? I have always been told that in order for induction to work well it needs to be 240V plus more amps, making it a very expensive experiment.
 
For me, I think it would take a lot of getting use to.  I'm pretty "manly" when under the pressure of the 6:30 to 8:30 rush during dinner time.  Not that I'm rough with equipment, but I'm certainly not gentle with Sauté Pans on the range.

 

My fear is that when I grab 3-5 Sauté pans and scale them across the burners, I might crack one of those Induction Glass Surfaces. I can't imagine having one of these imaginary video Chef jobs where they calmly go about their chores. Seems like they make the industry look like: No pressure, no drama, everything is right with the world, I work normal hours, I'm Ok your OK, it's just Horse Puckey if you've ever been on a a la carte line.  Yes, I'm sure in a Commissary or Institutional setting it is a totally different pace.  But when you get these people that are designing commercial kitchens and have never worked one, well... this is why some layouts simply look good on paper but just won't work.

 

But none the less, they are beautiful units.

 

And since when have we started calling stations "Suites" ?  God I'm getting old.
 
I saw a blog recently where they had several induction single burner stock pot ranges in a line. I think the name was CookTek. Never knew such a thing existed.
 
Personally

I don't think induction will ever catch on in restaurant or commercial applications, no one has time to fool with it, a visible flame is easy to see and judge, and with a commercial venting system still the best choice in my opinion, ive never talked to a professional cook or chef yet that didn't cuss and swear at the mere mention of an electric range, I don't want one because I have a lot of vintage aluminum cookware that im not going to give up.
 
Like I said elsewhere, I have not met anyone that hates induction and most who tried it will never go back to gas or radiant electric after getting used to induction.

It's certainly *different*, particularly compared to a normal workflow in a restaurant, but there are many professional chefs (not just celebrity chefs) who not only own induction at home, but have installed it in their restaurants.

There's a lot to like about it in a restaurant too -- it's cleaner, it's cooler, and once you get used to the response time, you don't have to move the pots/pans to other burners to change temperature, just change the power. Also, it's way more repeatable, not that nonsense of having to look at the flame to judge the temperature -- it is exactly what the power level says it is, and you get used to that much faster than you can believe. Some ranges have the regular 1-10 power levels, but some actually let you choose either a power level or a temperature that gets maintained by a reasonably good thermostat that you can use to fry things, make candy or keep a pressure cooker at the right temp.

I say give it a try *first* then bitch. And to be honest, I have not met anyone who bitched at induction yet.

Cheers,
-- Paulo.
 
I suppose it is quite the investment.

 

Those All Clad Pans (or whatever is compatible) certainly are not 5 for $100 bucks.

 

Dr. Frigidaire has an induction cook top in his kitchen. I used it to heat some soup, but really didn't get a chance to "Put it through the paces".

 

I would imagine a Kitchen with a Current well designed Vent Hood with Conditioned Return Air would probably be 15-20 degrees cooler.

 

I would love to have a Range for a week at home.  It would be nice to rent one for a month to see if you like it before you purchase.

 

Hey Paulo.
 
Mark Harman

Has one as well, he is totally sold on it....But he uses all All Clad cookware.He is a classically trained chef, and the only chef I ever met who hates gas....
 
I thought you could buy induction "hotplates" that are portable and run from 120V like any other hotplate.With this you could try induction cooking and not break the bank.If you like it-then you buy the induction range.The commercial one shown looks nice-bet the burners and generators would be easy to replace as opposed to a household model-and their electronics sized for heavy,continous use.I would guess that the induction commercial cooker would have to be introduced and allow chefs to try it.It is unusual to see electric cooking in commercial places---COST!!!!!
 
Rex: yes, one can in fact buy one of the 120V induction hotplates, they start at fifty or so bucks. Better units cost closer to a hundred. The thing is that they do highlight response time (and some have the thermostat), but they usually are only 1200W (the top one seems to be 1800W), but due to the way they are built, they usually only heat a 6-7 inch zone in the pan. That is usually enough for a small/medium pan, but not for larger ones.

Better burners (in ranges) can use much higher power (due to 220V, power boost and/or power sharing), but a lot of ranges have burners of different sizes to match the pots/pans and provide a much more uniform heating of the entire pan bottoms.
 
Eddie

is right I have had a 1985 Induction cooktop for the last 15 years. It was an afterthought as I had purchased a DCS gas cooktop with a flattop - we had all DCS stoves in the restaurants I worked in. They were/are work horses, I heard recently DCS was sold so I no longer know where they stand commercially since I have been out of the restaurant business awhile.

I LOVE THE flattop I gotta say! I do a lot of Wok and wanted the 17,000 BTU's of the DCS which works perfect for my large cast iron woks.

However John told me I needed an induction cooktop as well; which he graciously gave me and I installed it.

I have to say now after 15 years 95% of all my cooking is done on the induction! Once you get used to the 1-10 settings and know what they mean its dirt easy to use. And in August all my indoor cooking is done on induction, I never turn on the gas. 

Also you can use cast iron pans which don't cost the earth.

I have been careful with the top, I don't drag across it . Yet things have fallen down on it from the ceiling and it has never bothered the glass. On my unit the glass is from Raytheon, it was the deep red glass developed for the ICBM's nose cones so they would be radar transparent. When the US stopped building that style of ICBM the market dropped and Raytheon looked around for another and found cooktops as a customer. Now I think all the glass comes out of Germany and is Ceran labelled. I have not used that glass. 

I  was the one who pointed Mark to the CookTek line, he loves his!  I did see an installation of the CookTek unit placed directly under a granite counter top!! Granite is transparent to EM waves so it works fine there . Eddie all you need is granite tops in the a la carte line !!

 
 
I bought one of the 120V induction hot plates

It does a very good job.  I use it alot for when I deep fry because I can set a temp and it stays there.  Catfish in a iron skillet, can't be beat.

 

It still heats very quickly, and temp response is almost immediate, but you can't turn it on high for too long or it blows the breaker. 

 

It's also great for cooking stuff like pasta, because you can set the timer and it automatically shuts off, and beeps.

 

Mine will boil a quart of water in about 3 min.

 

 

 
 
Induction cooking is made easier to comprehend if you ever paid attention to the percentages of heat that were outlined in range manuals, and the old Frigidaire Range drip trays, for the 5 heat electric surface units.
High is 100%
Medium Hi is 50%
Medium is around 30%
Low is between 20 & 15%
Simmer is around 10% or less.

Most people who go from gas to induction say that it is too hot and burns everything, but they are dealing with incredible speed, using settings that are too high and are not familiar with the percentages of heat except as flame height. With induction, the heat is happening right in the base of the pan. You are not transferring heat from another source to the pan. Several years ago the food section of the NYT did an article about having chefs try an induction unit at home and those were the problems they encountered. You don't pan fry at 80% power. A medium flame would be a 3 or 4 on a 10 power level display and people cannot at first realize that so much cooking can be done below 40% of high heat, but a lot of that is possible because of the extreme efficiency of induction cooking. You are not losing heat to burner grates or coils that are not perfectly flat under the pan because all of the heat is being created in the pan. Another nice feature that I like on one of mine is that after you have set the cooking power for the operation, you can set a timer for how long it is to cook before shutting off; nice if you have something else to do while brown rice simmers. Deep frying is amazing because the oil is hot in a couple of minutes.

Fagor is a large producer of commercial induction cooking equipment and a few years ago reported that sales were very good in commercial kitchens. The virtual elimination of waste heat made management happy because less heat filtered into the building from the kitchen. The kitchen staff was happy with the cooler kitchens and the cooks were happy with the speed and responsiveness of induction.
 
Here in the UK

Every supplier of commercial cooking equipment now has induction units included in the line up both in in cooking suites as shown at the top of the thread and as independent units - both ranges and cooktops (or boiling tops as we in the trade know them) - both built in and portable. They are becoming more and more popular and there are few kitchens which my company supplies that do not have induction units of some kind. About three years ago we supplied the equipment for a cookery school and each and every range supplied (126) had an induction top with fan assisted electric ovens - indeed there were only two gas units (chargrills) supplied in the whole £1.5M project. We are shortly going to supply another, larger school, and again all the units supplied will be induction.

Apart from the ease of installing electric over gas we in the UK have very strict ventilation requirements where any form of gas unit is supplied. Not only do they have to be placed under a mechanically ventilated extraction canopy but there also has to be a mechanically assisted fresh air supply into the kitchen too. These are interlocked too the gas supply so that if either of these fails the whole gas supply is shut down. Its the law!

From a personal point of view I have used an induction top at home since 2006. When I moved house at the end of last year I replaced the gas top with an induction almost immediately. The surprising thing to me was that it was possible to get a 4 zone unit which plugs into a single 13amp outlet - this is the standard domestic outlet here which, for the moment until I get the house re-wired suits my purpose very well. It regulates the load so you cannot have all zones on high together which so far has not been a problem for me, nor do I see it being so in the future. Indeed, had I chose to renew the counter tops (I will probably replace the kitchen in the next couple of years) I probably would just have bought a couple of portable counter top units to bring out when needed - what with microwaves, portable skillets, steamers (I have a built in steam oven), pressure cookers, deep fat fryers, crock pots/slow cookers, rice cookers there hardly seems to be a need for a built in unit any more - I only bought the built in induction top as there was a large hole to fill where the gas top used to be.

Finally, although it might be a tad early for it, on the link is a bit of Christmas fun from Induced Energy - and induction top supplier in the UK

Al

http://https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbVJYrordsE
 
I have an induction cooktop that's about 5/6 years old. Cooking with gas is so wasteful IMO. Boils water pretty quickly. All I can say is it's so Jetsons. Samsung induction ranges have blue LED lights that look like a flame..a better visual cue for former gas users...so cool.
 
Not that I'm in the restaurant business anymore, but

I love my Volrath 69500 model (1800 watts/7" max pan footprint), that I found at the thrift for a few bucks. It's an older model, but works great. And as someone mentioned, I'd be surprised if restaurants adopted the induction system in my lifetime, for the main cooking. I know they use these small units, in buffets and other situations. But I like the induction so much, I would love to use it in a kitchen with a mix of older appliances, too.

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When they make it

Work with aluminum cookware....then I will consider it, I use Vita Craft , West Bend Flavo Seal and Guardian Service more than any stainless.
 
Volrath

I have a similar Volrath to that one Phil and it is an amazing little piece of hardware. Performance belies the 1800 watt rating since the heat is really being concentrated into the pan. Instant and consistent control raise the bar further.

I understand that for many gas is like comfortable old shoes. But with issues like lack of temperature control, the inefficient thermal coupling into the pan, thermals caused by the waste heat carrying atomized grease about the kitchen etc., I would never accept it into my home.

A commercial kitchen is indeed a different animal. Its a situation where lots of heat is needed constantly and there is a huge hood sucking out hundreds (thousands?) of CFM of air every minute. Gas makes more sense here, it is cheaper per BTU even with all the waste. It will likely be a long time before induction rules the commercial kitchens.

It reminds me a bit of the kids that used to come into the motorcycle shop I worked at. They all wanted to buy the slightly used slick tires off our race bike. The street is a different world, those tires need to get to 200 degrees to work. Even though they said they ride "hard" (nope) slick tires aren't the right choice for the street!
 
Induction Cook-Tops THE FINAL WORD ON SURFACE COOKING

Yes I believe after cooking on an induction CK nearly every day since 1988 induction cooking will finally spell the end of nasty gas cooking in homes and eventually in commercial kitchens. In commercial kitchens [ and home kitchens as well ] one of the main advantages is that it is impossible to start a grease fire on an induction CK due to the safety heat sensors that are under the CT surface.

 

This safety advantage is HUGE in homes as one of the biggest causes of home fires is still things left on a stove top on high heat, and in commercial kitchens once this safety advantage is proven it might reduce the need and cost of fire suppression systems that are required in restaurant kitchens.

 

It is just very hard to start a fire without an open flame or a red hot element that has no heat limitation devices.
 
I just got

a Duxtop 1800W model 9100MC and I love it so far and it was only $75.  Got a Farberware one from Walmart...it worked ok but didn't have as much precision, so I returned it and ordered the Duxtop from Amazon.  I have it sitting on the covers of my Frigidaire gas range and use it unless I'm cooking multiple items.  I'll probably never give up gas completely, but if I ever get to build our dream house, I'll have both in the kitchen.
 
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