Anyone Change To An Induction Cooktop?

If your chef uses his cooktop heavily with the same frequency as you anchor in 2.000 m, either you have weird anchorage habits, or his/her recipes leave something to be desired...

Gas over electric, old wife's tale. The pros were at one time significant as the gas would get hotter. Today with modern equipment and with induction, not the case, and chef's are finding the evenness and consistency of induction to be very attractive.

Gas, induction, electric oh my! Let's just say my wife is great at it all. If push comes to shove, she will favor induction electric over all.

@DOCKMASTER do you recon you need to change circuit breaker from the original old electric to induction cooktop or is your circuit correct and you just plug it in?

Shouldn't the expression be "old WIVES' tale"?
Regardless, you've obviously never been in the kitchen (not at the table!) of any starred restaurant.
Sure, most have ALSO induction these days.
But name me a single one that does NOT have a flame cooktop, if you can.

Besides, if you would have ever spoken with a pro chef rather than googling for gas vs. induction, you would know that temperature has nothing to see with the preference for flame.
The main thing is that in all preparations requiring some stir while lifting and moving the pan, induction quite simply does not work.
Now, if you either don't like this whole category of recipes, or you don't mind being unable to prepare them onboard, that's your choice, and who am I to argue?
But neither young nor old wives have anything to see with it...

Fair enough.
In this case, I'd have an induction rather than a radiant cooktop any day of the week, and twice on Sunday.

Is that induction? Or resistance?

-Chris

Gas had its place in professional cooking because of the precision and speed with which you could change temperature. On a high speed line switching from dish to dish this was important. Vital sometimes. Electricity could maintain temperature just as well and could get just as hot with high quality plates or coils but was slower to respond to changes. In the home or on the boat most cooks could do just as well with electricity and most 'professional' gas installations in homes were more pretention than practical. Many American Chefs never took the bait. James Beard loathed gas. Julia Child came to use electric cookers almost exclusively. Along comes induction. This is just as responsive as gas and even quicker. Instantaneous. The new induction tops don't even have plates. The whole surface is one big plate which recognizes your pan or griddle. The top only gets the transferred heat from the pot. Restaurants are switching to it all over. Gas will still have its place if you have a high volume food operation like a hotel or banquet facility. Or use huge woks. Or undependable electrical supply. For the home or boat? Induction! Who wants an open flame at sea? In a GRP environment? Not me.

American Chefs? With all due respect...
...Nah, never mind, forget that.

Good point. It sure looks like the latter, rather than the former.

Grew up with gas, never liked electric, but love induction. Excellent power and control. Induction also seems to heat the kitchen less, lowering air conditioning load. Gas combustion also releases undesirable byproducts.

Next boat will get induction asap, and we’ll use portables until new cookers are in.

Well, once again you insult and claim what I've obviously not done. Your style. Now for the facts.

We do have a commercial kitchen and a professional chef in our home. We also employ several other chefs. All the chefs in question have been trained and worked in restaurants. I have been into restaurant kitchens.

Now, our home and the others do have gas ranges. A lot of reasons different than a boat. First, history, they were built that way. Chefs at the time they were built wouldn't have considered electric and induction wasn't where it is today. However, all the younger chefs I've talked to love induction. Doesn't mean they don't use gas too as the gas is there and has the prime kitchen space. However, they're actually cooking as much on the induction as they are on the gas. A second major reason for restaurants is cost of operating, and that may be changing. But a commercial kitchen also uses gas for other things such as gas boosters for dishwashers. A lot changing, just look at the "grilling" of steaks. Some still using wood, some gas, and now many of the gas are infrared broilers.

I can't name a single restaurant without a gas flame cooktop nor can I name one without induction cook surfaces.

However, on a boat, the ability to fuel gas surfaces adequately and any advantage gas has is quickly lost and the disadvantages are heightened. We choose not to have gas and have no complaints. At home the fuel source is good and the space of the kitchen allows anything.

As to your lifting and moving, I'm sure it is an adjustment, but it can be done just fine using induction.

Installed a Bosch touch-panel model. No buttons or knobs. Just excellent both shore and generator. Easy to clean and care for. I place a damp piece of paper towel under a pan edge at sea and don't have an issue with sliding. 240 volts. This was an excellent choice.

Wanna talk of style? Let's.
What about trying to dismiss what I said with as much of a factual statement as "old wives' tale"?
And right after that, recognize that there's no such thing as a commercial kitchen with no gas cooktops?
Taking also the opportunity, in the process, for a bit of chest thumping about having a pro chef at home?
Not to mention calling stirred preparations "an adjustment"?!?
I'll tell you what, I'll stick to my style and facts, you'll stick to yours.

So lets get back to the matter at hand. Induction cooking.
It is true that most commercial kitchens were powered by gas , preferred for its speed and precision. Induction matches or exceeds gas in both these areas and commercial kitchens are adding it or switching to it the world over. But that is only part of the attraction. In gas (and electric hot plate or coil) cooking most of the heat energy dissipates into the kitchen as unwanted ambient heat rather than cooking the food and requires additional energy to air condition and ventilate. Induction produces hot pots and hot food, not hot kitchens. Yes, some of this heat returns to the cooking surface or dissipates into the air directly or as steam but not much. So you also substantially reduce the costs of air conditioning and ventilation both in restaurants, at home - and on boats. Gas will always have a place where electrical supplies are very expensive or undependable. Otherwise, as a retired owner/manager from the hospitality industry, I predict that gas is largely on the way out.

Excellent points. In our kitchen, we have huge AC vents over the range area, blowing directly on any cook. But with induction, the normal room air is plenty. Of course, in a commercial kitchen design, you can plan on additional AC, but a boat galley doesn't typically have that luxury.

Tossing one more thing out regarding cost. In 2021, converted to gas equivalencies, electric power averaged $5.17 per 1000 cubic feet of gas, industrial gas was $5.50, commercial gas was $8.78 (restaurants would fit here) and residential gas was $12.24. Of course, a boat would be far higher on both the electric and gas side.