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If you can’t stand the heat, go into the kitchen and try a new induction cooktop. A recent demonstration of induction cooking technology, which provides faster heat and cooler kitchens, was almost like a magic show.
“Watch this,” says Krew Hammond, an associate at Foremost Appliances, filling a small stainless steel pan with three cups of cold water and setting it on a Diva de Provence DDP-5 induction cooktop. Mini bubbles begin swirling instantly; the water starts to steam within 30 seconds; it hits a hard rolling boil 30 seconds later. “Feel this,” he adds, gesturing to the cooktop burner, which is amazingly cool to the touch. Induction cooking technology basically transfers electromagnetic energy from coils beneath a glass cooktop to cookware made of a ferrous material.
“The pan becomes the burner, so you’re not creating heat under glass. When you turn the burner on, the molecules in the ferrous pan are excited. They dance around, they rub up against each other, and they produce friction, which produces heat in the pan, which then heats the food,” explains Craig Kmiecik, district manager of Gaggenau.
“This is more efficient than gas or regular electric, because all the energy goes into the pan rather than out into the atmosphere or your kitchen. This is important, especially during the summer when you’re trying to keep the house cool,” Kmiecik says. Professional chefs have used this highly efficient culinary technology for decades. It’s the preferred method of cooking in many European households. And home chefs across America are discovering its many benefits.
Like Gas, but Cooler
“Induction was designed to mimic gas; whatever you can do with gas, you can do with induction,” says Amir Girgis, managing director of Diva de Provence. “Our units will actually outperform what the gas cooktops put out powerwise. If you want to go from a roaring boil to a delicate simmer – boom – no problem with induction.”
“Induction cooking gives you all the control of gas, but the cooktop stays cold, plus you get the energy efficiency and the safety factor,” Hammond says. “It’s 95 percent energy efficient. You can heat water for pasta in a stock pot in five minutes instead of 20. It’s the green way to cook,” he adds.
Several domestic manufacturers, Thermador, Electrolux, Kenmore, Wolf, and Viking among them, offer induction cooktops, which are good for wok cooking and grilling, too. Cleanup is simplified as wiping a glass induction cooktop with soap and water usually suffices. “Nothing like sugar burns into it, because it’s not hot,” Hammond says.
What’s Ahead?
Diva, which provides various induction cooktop configurations, plans to launch a 36” induction range this fall. Viking is also working on an induction range, to be released in early 2008.
“The only people who can’t cook on induction are people married to their copper cookware,” Girgis says. To reach those customers, Diva will introduce a cooktop that is half gas and half induction in 2009.
