Quote:
Originally Posted by 10023
Which, as an avid home cook, really pisses me off.
Unfortunately the cooking lobby doesn’t seem to be as strong here as others. As you might have heard the British aren’t really known for their cooking.
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I'm mixed on the issue myself. Technically speaking, electric and induction stoves can do everything as well or better than gas stoves can. Electric can also hold lower-temp simmers better than gas stoves (which output way too much heat even at the lowest setting). And induction, of course, heats up water and food super quickly.
On the other hand, you can't get that wok hei as you alluded to with any electric stoves. Although technically speaking, no home stove can achieve restaurant-style wok hei because home burners have much less energy (anywhere from 1/8-1/4 less energy). You'd need to get a high BTU/KwH outdoor wok setup to get that true wok hei taste in your food.
As a building efficiency advocate, we are actively looking to get rid of most fossil fuel appliances in buildings (though mainly boilers, furnaces, and hot water heaters). Gas stoves are collateral damage in this pursuit, but they also aren't faultless due to the negative indoor air quality effects they have, especially in a very airtight home.
With that said, I feel like building efficiency standards (like Passivhaus) were made by people who never cooked proper food. They moved to eliminate direct kitchen hood vents, and instead advocated for recirculating hoods supplemented by a "boost" setting in the building's ventilation exhaust system. If you've ever cooked a burger or a steak and dealt with the smoke, you know how useless recirculating hoods are. I recall a pandemic virtual meeting where many building professionals, who were all advocates for high efficiency standards, slogged this design because it couldn't get rid of smoke and cooking smells quickly enough.