Leaping flames, searing heat, copious sweat and scorchingly inventive swearing – restaurant kitchens are never a place for the faint-hearted, but this summer they have been sweltering in successive heatwaves to a dangerous degree.
Some restaurants, cafes and bakeries in the UK grew so hot that they were forced to close, or reduce their hours, for the safety of their staff. There is still no maximum working temperature, despite calls from the TUC, and tens of thousands of kitchen staff are thought to have carried on working in “furnace-like†conditions.
Now a number of chefs are calling for one route to cooling kitchens that may be deeply unpopular with some of their colleagues. Swapping gas hobs for electric induction cooking can reduce temperatures by as much as 10C, as induction cookers only heat the food in the pans. They are more efficient, can reduce costs, are safer as they avoid the harmful pollutants emitted by gas cookers, and make it easier for air conditioning to work in crowded kitchen environments. But up to now many chefs have been reluctant to make the change.
“There is that sense of theatre with fire and flames,†says Jeremy Pang, a third-generation Chinese chef in London and founder of the School of Wok. “It feels quite traditional and exciting. But we have found that we can get just as high temperatures, and just as good cooking, with electric.â€
The secret to traditional Chinese cookery lies in the “wok hei†– literally, the breath of the wok, meaning the smoke and heat that the chef must master, to give all ingredients the right degree of scorching and flavour. Pang was worried that this would be harder to achieve with electric, but soon found that he could reach temperatures of 350-400C, and in an easily controllable fashion.
“We use carbon steel with oil, and you can still get that actual smoke and flavour that you would with gas,†he said. “Gas cookers are incredibly good equipment, but you get so much heat off them, it's a huge problem.â€
A report from the Global Cooksafe Coalition found that restaurants could save thousands of pounds on their energy bills alone from making the switch. One gastropub was able to cut its energy use by almost two-thirds, saving £9,000 on bills. The cost of the retrofit would be repaid within three years, and the pub was likely to save £65,000 over 10 years, the report found.
Ellen Chew, founder of the Rasa Sayang restaurant in London's Chinatown, found an unexpected benefit: chefs no longer had to shout. Turbo gas burners raise a racket, but induction hobs are silent. “The whole atmosphere and environment is different now, it's super quiet,†she told the Guardian. “Some chefs are difficult to convince to move away from gas, but when you show them the difference, it's a gamechanger.â€
Switching can also benefit the climate: the pub's carbon emissions also fell by about two-thirds.
For Chantelle Nicholson, who stipulated electric hobs in place of gas when opening her Apricity restaurant in Mayfair in 2022, cleaning and safety are also key. Induction hobs are quicker and easier to clean, which is popular with staff. “I used to have burn marks all up my arms from scrubbing gas hobs,†Nicholson told the Guardian. “And when anything goes wrong with the gas, it's a total nightmare to get it fixed. Induction is controllable and really reliable.â€
She was also concerned about studies showing that gas cookers emit harmful pollutants and have been linked to asthma. “To me, electric is clearly the way forward,†she said.
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Diners at the chef's table in her restaurant have also noticed. “They compliment us on how calm the kitchen is,†she said. Apricity won a coveted Michelin Green Star for its efforts.
Lowering the temperature of the kitchen also means fridges have to work less hard, and there is less need for air conditioning and ventilation. Chet Sharma, chef-patron at London's Bibi restaurant, said: “A hot kitchen doesn't really exist with induction, since there is no heat loss. Induction is super-efficient. It keeps our bills down and keeps the staff happier, not sweating away at the stoves all day.â€
Luke Burgess, owner of Scholé in Australia, quoted in the GCC report, found that cleaning time was reduced from 24 minutes for a gas cooktop to 21 seconds for an induction cooktop, which he calculated saved over AU$30,000 (£15,700) over a year in wages alone.
Camilla Born, the chief executive of Electrify Britain, a body funded by energy companies that campaigns for a switch to electrification throughout the UK economy, called for Andy Burnham to make electricity cheaper, to encourage businesses to switch and help consumers move off gas. “The prime minister has made some welcome moves on business rates, but his government can go further,†she said. “He should look to make electricity cheaper – by removing levies and policy costs from existing bills – and quicken the rollout of the heating and cooking systems that run on it.â€
