As the gas industry tries to defend its turf, chefs are touting the benefits of induction cooking.
America’s stoves are increasingly the battleground in the battle for the fate of 70 million natural gas-powered buildings.
On one side of the stove wars is the natural gas utility industry, which is trying to block cities considering phasing out gas in their buildings.One of its PR tactics has been to hire influencers to spread the word about why they love cooking with gas, in order to generate public backlash against the city’s efforts.
On the other side are climate and public health advocates, who point to a growing body of scientific evidence over the years about the health effects of burning methane in kitchens.Even the relatively small amount of gas a stove burns can have a huge impact on indoor health, as it releases nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide, two pollutants that increase the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular disease.Dozens of California cities have passed stricter building codes that encourage new buildings to use electricity instead of natural gas pipelines.New York City and Eugene, Oregon, could be the next cities to adopt these ordinances.
As more cities turn to electricity, what will replace gas stoves?Many chefs prefer a newer technology to the induction cooktop that Americans have learned to hate: induction.
One of the foodie influencers involved is TikTok rising star Jon Kung, a Detroit chef who adopted induction a few years ago because it keeps his kitchen cooler and his air cleaner.Growing up in Toronto and Hong Kong, Kung learned to love on-the-job training while training in China, where on-the-job training is more common than in the US.He sees the climate benefits of furnaces powered by an increasingly cleaner grid as an added bonus.
Gong’s kitchen has a gas stove.But he almost always uses a portable induction cooktop — he hosts private dinners and pop-ups around Detroit, and most recently, he does short, fun cooking tutorials on TikTok, where he has amassed 1.5 million followers.
Climate advocates try to elevate Kung and other chefs through their own onboarding campaign.In March, the Mothers Out Front organization hired Kung for a paid promotion on why he preferred induction to gas.
I called Kung to learn more about why kitchen health and working conditions are not as safe as most people realize, and the role chefs can play in advocating for the environment and worker health.Interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Essentially, an induction stove uses a magnetic field to heat the pot itself from the inside.[Only certain types of pans can use induction.] When using gas, the flame is heated underneath to heat the pan.You’ll hear the fan turn off to keep the induction burner cool, but you’re actually pressing the button and turning it on.
Gas stoves produce a lot of indoor air pollution, with a lot of exhaust gas and soot.Over time, your gas stove will burn less and less cleanly.
With induction, pollution is limited to the electricity you generate.On a grid that uses hydro, solar or wind power, you are actually using a cleaner energy source for cooking.It just depends on what your mesh looks like.So, for example, I’m building an all-inductive house and will have solar on the roof of that house.Most of the energy I use for home cooking will be generated through clean energy.
I’ve had the pleasure of working in large kitchens that use gas and large kitchens that use induction.[The latter] Seven years ago, I worked at this 24-hour restaurant in Macau, China.All the facilities I use are 100% inductive.There is water in a pot my size to cook pasta and noodles.
In my own home kitchen, I sense as much as I can, just for my own comfort and issues like indoor air pollution.It’s just a more efficient way to cook because any heat you need to get the job done is focused on what you’re cooking, not just transferred to the room and your body.
Insufficient ventilation is the biggest problem as I live in a super old building in Detroit and even with a gas range there is no useful ventilation.It predates any kind of safety and health regulations.So I started using the induction range.
I also do popups in places like museums where it’s very important that I don’t have a lot of exhaust.So induction seems like the natural way to go because it gives me the power, portability and cleanliness I need and no smoke that requires me to have a fan.
Whenever I try to cook at home [with gas], like in that restaurant, I go off the fire alarm because there isn’t enough ventilation.The fan is just not powerful enough to pick up all the smoke and gas.
You have also worked in a professional kitchen in a restaurant.What is it like to be in a restaurant kitchen that relies on gas?
Uncomfortably hot.It’s almost as disregard for worker comfort as the way kitchen life is accepted here.You deserve to suffer for your art and your craft, and cooking over an open flame is just one part of that.
If we had a break, I’d run downstairs to change a t-shirt, because one of the t-shirts was so soaked you could literally screw it through.We sweat, depending on how much the restaurant cares about proper ventilation.We’d go to walk-in coolers and freezers, and we’d pop out of our skin because we were too hot.
Due to workplace regulations, professional kitchens must be ventilated much more strongly than people at home.It all depends on the [restaurant] owner; how much the owner is willing to spend can determine what kind of air quality you have.If you do all the induction, that factor is completely eliminated – all you need is ventilation to get steam and some heat out of it.But you don’t need to force the smoke in a specific direction to prevent it from entering your lungs.
Gas burners, if they ever burn clean in a professional setting, will probably only do so for the first month.Overall, these things are dirty and become so clogged and inefficient over time.Few kitchens run at 100% efficiency and 100% cleanliness simply because there is no manpower to maintain a restaurant in this way.
There is no way to make any one around you good for you.Especially if it’s your job and you’re there 12 to 14 hours a day.Over time, it creates a very unsafe environment for the long-term health and well-being of our workers.
I’m also not sure if home cooks always consider ventilation.Most gas cooktops, like your apartment kitchen, aren’t even equipped with a ventilation hood to the outside air.At best, they have a fan that recirculates polluted air.How is the ventilation in the dining room, kitchen and home?
Work ventilation is part of the health code to ensure your restaurant is allowed to operate.And it’s usually so powerful that you have these fans and it’s hard to hear the people next to you because they’re so loud.These ventilation systems are not available in everyone’s home.While gas burners may not be that powerful, I don’t see how these small microwave over-range things can be enough to mitigate the pollution these burners cause.
Obviously, even if you use induction, you need ventilation to counteract the steam when you boil water or fry food.But ventilation is mainly to absorb fumes from gas burners.If you only use electric burners, you don’t really need strong ventilation, but since most people use gas, they need a more powerful gas.
There are no financial incentives for people to adopt this new technology.Especially in the restaurant business where profit margins are so low, people are afraid to try anything new because it may not work.
Of course, high-end restaurants have the budget to do just that.[Dan Barber uses both stoves at the Blue Mountains restaurant in New York.] It seems that when you have a lot of money, you can budget for the quality of life of your employees because restaurants have a high interest in retaining workers in that capacity.So every bit helps, including keeping these workers comfortable, healthy and safe.But when you try to talk about people at the grassroots level, those who are losing money in their restaurants and restaurant groups, then it becomes less important.
What advice do you have for readers who are considering remodeling their kitchen or looking at plug-in induction cooktops?
One can use simple plug-in recorders that cost $200.[There are other models for less than $100.] Quality will vary depending on how much you are willing to spend.At the same time, it’s relatively inexpensive to adopt it just to try it out, and people might appreciate the fact that they can actually use this burner anywhere in the kitchen and maximize counter space or whatnot .
As with any tactile skill and everything different or new, it takes a little getting used to.Honestly, if people just give it a try, they’ll realize it’s more of a gas stove than people think it is.
The trade-off with induction is learning a new cooking time.Also: make sure your pans are compatible.If the magnet will stick to your pan it should work.If you have a skillet or dutch oven, cast iron works well with it too.
There are many myths surrounding gas cooking and its place in the food and restaurant industry.What do you think is the biggest myth?
Any argument or reluctance to adopt induction seems to come from a refusal to change, and probably from the old toxic masculine view of “Oh, I want to cook with fire, and fire is part of our job.”
Aside from the initial investment and cost, I’ve never heard any gas arguments that really make sense from a professional standpoint.But beyond that, no culinary romance of any kind comes from a place of logic.It comes from a nostalgic place, and that’s not really how business is done.
If we standardized the induction in restaurants, it would become ideal for people at home who want to be able to do everything the professionals do.It’s interesting because the best people have already adopted the technology.For whatever reason, I just don’t think anyone really has an opinion on this yet.But chefs do this for one of several reasons.One may be for the environment, and one may be for the safety and comfort of workers.Either way, both of these things apply to your home.
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Post time: Jul-18-2022