Induction Cooktops Trending As New Restaurant Cooking Appliances To Consider
Performance Service & Electrical is a Nashville electrician who provides kitchen equipment services but also enjoys helping customers with news and information about trending new restaurant cooking appliances. Recently, a new cooking appliance has been quickly growing in popularity in restaurants, other commercial kitchens, and for catering businesses.
Look inside the kitchen of any restaurant and you’ll see all the familiar cooking appliances like gas stoves, ovens, electric food warmers, and grills. However, today induction cooktops are a worthy contender to consider.
Technological advancements in restaurant appliances over the last few decades have led manufacturers to introduce induction cooktops to the market, and they’re definitely worth considering.
What Restaurants Need To Know About How Induction Cooktops Are Different
Induction cooktops don’t use a gas fueled flame or electric heating elements to heat food. Instead, they work through magnetic induction which process has oddly enough has been around since the early 1900s.
As a restaurant owner or manager, it’s always a good idea to know how your appliances work. Induction cooktops require the use of cookware that contains iron. This is because the iron will react with the magnetic field produced by the cooktop while traditional pots and pans won’t.
As the pan or pot is placed on the cooktop, the magnetic induction process starts to warm the cooking vessel. The pan warms when it comes in contact with the induction cooktop.
Why Caterers and Restaurants Alike Love Induction Cooktops
Caterers in particular love the portability of the induction cooktop, but this can also be a benefit for a busy restaurant with limited space to work. A few other benefits are:
Precise Heating – Easily and more evenly heats the cookware, more precisely than even gas stoves.
Fast Heating – They can boil water almost twice as fast as a gas range because they capture most of the heat generated.
Cleaner – The ceramic glass top is easy to keep clean. The surface stays relatively cool from start to finish, so spilled food won’t burn onto the surface.
Energy Efficient – Because the process uses magnetic induction rather than traditional methods, less energy is wasted to cook food.
Safer – Since there’s no flame involved, grease fires, combustion, gas leaks, and burning hot stove top elements are not a problem.
Possible Disadvantages To Be Aware Of
Higher Price, at Least for Now – Since the induction cooktop is a relatively new restaurant cooking appliance, they are currently the more expensive option. As demand increases, more competition will help to drive the price down.
Special Cookware Investment – Cast iron and many types of stainless steel cookware can be used for magnetic induction cooking. Not all stainless steel cookware is magnetic, so you’ll need one which is fully clad. This will mean purchasing brands such as Zwilling, Demeyer, Hammer Stahl, All-Clad, and others.
Scratching – The glass top can be fragile, just like on an electric stove, if the pan slides around or is set down too heavily.
Repairs – Repairs are more expensive because it’s a newer technology.
