Everything old is new again... Restaurants are getting rid of stoves --

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mattl

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Uh, yeah sure....

 

<blockquote>
<h1 class="post__title">Why top restaurants are getting rid of stoves (and why you might, too)</h1>
 

I once had the chance to peek my head into the kitchen at Alinea, the avant-garde Chicago restaurant that’s also one of the top-ranked in the world. It looked nothing like I expected. The standard elements of commercial kitchens, with their industrial griddles, stoves, and salamander broilers, were almost completely absent. Instead, it was just a long room filled with unadorned stainless steel tables. If a chef needed to sauté something, they simply grabbed an induction burner–a magnetic-based hotplate that generates no ambient heat–and brought it to their spot.

 

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Article goes on to claim  a "hang on the wall" induction cooktop may replace a stove top in the future.  Vaguely reminiscent of the old Frigidaire fold down burners from the 50's.

 


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Just dealing with the incompetence of the local gas company can be enough to make a person go all electric.

When I was taking care of an estate the gas was turned off (in January!) because of pipe work in the street. When it was done service to the house "couldn't" be turned on for reasons that never did get explained. I was told that the deceased would have to come into one of their offices IN PERSON and make a $250 deposit. I eventually got service turned on but the fact remains that none of the CSR's or their supervisors saw any problem with:
- requiring a dead man to make an in-person appearance
- letting pipes freeze in a house
- being unable to explain why restoring service in this house was different from restoring service in the others.
- being unable to explain why a deposit was "necessary".

So I can totally see a person deciding to go without gas completely in order to avoid dealing with the gas company.

I've seen the convenience and versatility of portable induction burners. For my own kitchen I would require 2 gas burners and an oven that work without electricity. I wouldn't mind induction for the rest.
 
There was a series on PBS where someone went visiting new restaurants. These two guys opened a small place in a building which had not been a restaurant so it had none of the utilities or construction for one. They served two different hot soups and salads, breads, etc. There entire cooking was performed on two heavy duty induction cookers, siblings of my 240 volt CookTek Magna Wave units, one 3kw and one 3.5 kw. There was no kitchen, just a divided counter with dining on one side and cooking on the other. Because of the induction units, they needed no fancy ventilation, fire suppression systems or anything extra to pass the fire department safety inspection. Restaurants find that induction cooking means way less heat in the building, less need for ventilation and subsequently less air conditioning. Restaurants in Europe are going with induction in a big way. Fagor is one of the big names in European induction cooking. It has all of the response of gas and all of the benefits of electric cooking and speed surpassing both.
 
About a year ago I worked an internship in a large kitchen that served upwards of 500 meals daily for clients, staff, & their guests.

The kitchen was what you'd expect save for the fact that there was no stove. The chef and her cooks made do with 2 120v portable induction burners. They were the largest portable units I'd seen with a diameter of 14-16". I was surprised to see them plugged into regular outlets. The chef said it worked because she was able to plan menus ahead of time and coordinate meal prep so there was never a need fo more than 2 burners at any given time.

I should mention that this kitchen was in an agency that's just a tad known for its HIV/AIDS related services. Therefore "cafeteria quality" meals are completely unacceptable.
 
Hans:

You are more than welcome to do whatever you want, including keeping the aluminum cookware. It's all good.

For the record, induction cooking equipment for the home use (and, by some extension, restaurant use) *currently* is available for "magnetic" pots and pans only not because induction is not capable of heating up an aluminum pot, but because lawyers don't want their company sued. There were companies in Japan/Korea trying to release equipment to use aluminum pots and pans too, but it's *much* easier to "sense" that there is a pot/pan on the burner with magnetic materials, which is why they "limited" the material to "magnetic".

Now, for the magnetic field. Not such a big deal, really, the field induced can be much stronger on a standard electric coil, which doesn't require a pot to be on it than the stray radiation from an induction burner that requires a pot to cover it to work.

The reason cell phones might be harmful (it is still inconclusive) is because we are _broadcasting_ the frequency, instead of having it limited to the small surroundings of a stove/range.
 
One restaurant here did similar, opening in an old building that wasn't a restaurant. They were able to get by with just a convection oven, no venting or fire sprinklers needed, everything behind the counter.

A lot of the new healthy/organic restaurants offer just soup, bread or salad. So no stove is needed. Ovens can be ventless and just a soup warmer capable of rethermalizing (bringing from refrigerated to serving temp) is all that's needed.

Plus some warmers are even moving toward induction, eliminating the need for water bath steam tables and warmers.
 
Induction...

and heart pacemakers are not compatible.

But I'm sure I mentioned this before, the last time this type of conversation cropped up.
 
If you think your pacemaker or defibrillation device is not compatible with either microwaves or induction, please talk to your doctor.

That may have been true of very old equipment (both the implants and the household appliances) but it should not be true anymore -- modern appliances are way better shielded, and to be fair, it's not exactly true that the technologies are inherently dangerous, it's much more like the implants have a receiver to allow the doctors to acquire data and/or modify parameters in the implants and as long as the frequencies the implant uses for communication are not in the same range your appliances use, you should be just fine.

I will also add that the vast majority of people never have any problems with the stuff, and the few people who did notice abnormalities are usually in the vicinity of inexpensive portable equipment, like induction hotplates, the freestanding ranges and builtin stovetops are not supposed to cause any trouble.

Either way, the implants do not last forever, so talk to your doctor and when it comes time to replace batteries or the implant itself, they may be able to select something that will work better for you.

Have fun!
 

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