How Would A Gas Stove Ban Affect Wok Cooking And The Asian American Community?

When Charlene Lowe was looking for an apartment to buy in 2021, she had two indispensable requirements: firstly, enough space to invite friends over for dinner, and secondly, a gas stove and the ability to install a powerful hood.

Lou, a data scientist, cooks every day and occasionally hosts dinner at the club in his Brooklyn apartment. He prefers gas stoves because he cooks in a wok, a slanted pan best suited for cooking Szechuan dishes.

“So my pots are suitable for almost everything,” she says. “I use it to fry, fry, steam, boil and cook things.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission is looking into gas stoves and citing studies on the health risks and greenhouse effects of their emissions. “All options are being discussed,” said Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. in an interview with Bloomberg, “products whose safety cannot be protected may be banned.”

California has already passed a law banning gas stoves in new homes, and New York has a similar ban coming into effect in 2024.

For her part, Lou says she prefers a gas grill because the flames can reach the sides of the pan and stay in contact with the pan even as you move it. Pans can also have a flat bottom, but luo has a round bottom, which is more traditional and conducts heat more evenly. On an electric stove, he said, the wok would hardly stand by itself and not heat up enough.

Genevieve Yam, food writer for food site Serious Eats, prefers gas stoves. Yam cooks many Chinese dishes at home, relying on the flames of a gas stove to achieve the extremely high temperatures and precise control required for wok cooking. And she uses her wok for more than just Chinese recipes.

Wok hi means "breathing wok". Introduced to American audiences by food historian Grace Young, the term specifically describes the distinct taste of Cantonese dishes. But people look for that flavor in other dishes as well, including Chinese kung pao chicken, see Ew Pad Thai, and fried rice dishes made in many Asian cuisines.

“When you’re making char kwai teow, a Singapore-style noodle dish, you really need something like a wok,” says Yam. "There are just a few things you really can't replicate in a slow cooker, cast iron skillet, or non-stick skillet, simply because those pans conduct heat differently."

But after a consumer advocate announced a possible federal ban on gas stoves in early January, Yam began to wonder how she would cook at home if her landlord replaced the gas stove in her apartment with something else. Can you still achieve the warmth and control you need to cook in a wok?

Now home cooks like Yam and restaurants across the country are concerned about the fate of gas stoves, saying officials are not considering the financial costs of the ban and how it could affect consumers, livelihoods and people's cultural traditions.

Why do people prefer gas stoves to frying pans?

Ming-Jinn Tong, founder of Hot Wok Academy, a Minneapolis-based cooking school specializing in Asian ingredients, tools and methods, says wok cooking is all about extreme precision and extremely high heat.

“The really important thing about wok cooking is that you can control the temperature in two ways: one is very precise and the other is very fast,” says Tong. “If I want strong heat, I need strong heat immediately, and if I want coolness, I need strong heat immediately.”

According to J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, bestselling author of Wok: Recipes, a medium wok is about a third thicker than a standard wok, meaning it doesn't retain heat and therefore needs a larger heat source. and technology."

“Not only does the pan need to be very hot initially, but for most recipes it needs to be held high throughout the cooking time to replenish the energy being pumped into the food,” writes Lopez-Alt. The Serious Food article is an adaptation of his cookbook.

The two physical movements help the chef achieve wok-hey, the distinct smoky flavor that results from the interaction of Maillard, caramelization of sugar and protein, Tong says. One of them, he says, tosses food into the air to catch the evaporating oil after the temperature hits 425 degrees. The other is to introduce a flame into the pot itself.

"When oil vapor comes out of the wok, you can tilt the wok towards an open flame, and the open flame will ignite the oil vapor. The oil vapor coming out of the fire gives the food a different taste." taste from Wok Hei . The smoky aroma of fried rice comes from an open flame of gas or charcoal.

But is a gas stove the only viable way to get that flavor?

Are there alternative heat sources that work when cooking in a wok?

While gas stoves offer an easy and convenient way to emulate ancient methods of cooking using wood or charcoal, some Asian cooks have turned their attention to other sources of heat, including burners. heat generation.

Nate Yun, chef and owner of a Cambodian restaurant called Nyum Bai in Oakland, Calif., shows how to cook loklak, a black pepper and beef dish, using an induction cooker designed for a wok, in a video by East Bay Community Energy. a clean energy supplier he runs. In the video, Yoon said she was amazed at how the induction hob heats up a few seconds after setting the temperature.

In 2019, the Brooklyn Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD) invited guest chefs to cook kung pao chicken, wonton and chow mein on an induction cooker for the Chow: Making an American Chinese Restaurant exhibit.

The induction cooktop "became very hot," the MarketWatch museum said in an email, adding that it "surprised many of the guest chefs who cooked there."

John Kong, a professional chef from Detroit, Michigan, has used meta essays in videos he posts on social media. He says he likes the efficiency and ease of cleaning and finds it more fun to use.

“Heat dissipation was lower, so my employees felt more comfortable. I got better,” she says.

Home cooks make some sacrifices when using induction heating, Kong says, because a home gas stove can't match the performance of a restaurant stove anyway. Additionally, he tweeted that the history of wok cooking predates the history of gas stoves, meaning that adaptability is part of the wok's history. Induction cooking times and methods require some adjustment, she says, but it won't take long to get used to.

Because of the convenience of the induction cooker, Kong thinks it might appeal to older Asians who focus primarily on convenience: feeding the family while cooking in a wok.

“My grandmother is no longer with me, but I heard [who] in my head [says] 'Li Tai! [Cantonese means Look Here.]

Kung confesses that he doesn't know how to start an open fire in a wok like an induction cooker. But, she adds, that probably doesn't matter, because while Chinese food is known for being a bit flashy and addictive, home cooks don't use the technique very often.

“We have a gift when it comes to elegance, so we don't want to be robbed of any of those original romantic elements,” she says. “But people still didn’t come home.”

What problems do restaurants face?

Wok hei is a flavor most commonly found in restaurant dishes. Commercial gas is in the range up to 200,000 British thermal units (Btu), while domestic gas is in the range of 500 to 18,000 Btu. There are other ways to replicate this flavor at home, such as: B. using a flashlight or cooking small portions of food in the wok all at once, but this never changes.

While not all dishes require a wok -hei and an open fire in a wok, Chen says fire isn't just for show. “Nobody wants to burn their nose for show business,” he says.

Instead, he creates fragrances, and that's what draws people to his restaurants.

“When you cook kung pao chicken, you take raw protein, vegetables and peppers and fry them over high heat. To be able to bring that xiang [Mandarin word for smell], umami, to flavor the pan, you have to be able to master the technique,” says -il.chen. "It's not [just] romantic."

Chen tests different brands of induction wok stations. But he says there are problems with the underlying cost. Replacing existing gas stations with commercial wok stoves could triple the cost of opening a restaurant.

The induction cooker that Kung uses in his videos costs about $200 and comes with a frying pan, but the MOFAD-branded products used in his shows cost nearly $2,000. The costs are too high, Kong says, especially for most smaller restaurants, not just Asians.

There are also technical difficulties. While the necessary adjustments and schedule changes may not be as important to home cooks, they affect the methods Chen uses to achieve the flavor profiles he seeks for his restaurants. And if he has to change his heat source and methods, he says, it could mean rethinking the entire menu.

Take, for example, throwing. As soon as the pot is removed from the stove, whether electric or induction, the heat is gone. “There is no electric fryer,” Chen explains. "It doesn't make any sense. There is no flame underneath it. As soon as we take it off the induction, the heat transfer stops."

He feels a deep obligation to make such a change. “I am not against electrification in general. But I think that legalizing all this is doing a lot of damage to the culture,” Chen says. “It's insulting. It's blasphemous."

Who can be affected by the ban?

Yam, editor of Sirius Eats, agrees that a ban on gas stoves could lead to a lifestyle change for people. It's a touchy subject that contributes to the history of neglect that the Asian American community hears, especially when there are major sources of harmful emissions in the home.

“Perhaps you should start converting [stove] to electric instead of gas before you start what seems to many to be a normal lifestyle,” she says. “It's one of those things where you can't have one. It's like cooking food from your culture on a gas stove, and you can't eat it."

Currently, the Inflation Control Act allows homeowners to take advantage of up to $14,000 in tax credits and credits for energy efficiency improvements, including in some cases replacing gas with electrical appliances. How much an owner can bring in depends on how much he earns, where he lives, and what promotions he has.

But as a tenant, Yam wonders if the landlord is willing to bear the costs.

“Most people are just trying to get the homeowner to fix the heater or fix the broken window,” she says. "The last thing on their mind is probably whether their owner will be induction or gas."

Wok Hai is not everyday cooking.

Although Lou preferred gas stoves when looking for a place to live, she has already learned how to cook on an electric stove. His parents still use it in combination with a powerful range hood in their Minnesota home.

Lou says that even when he cooks on a gas stove, he doesn't gravitate towards the wok .

“I don’t have Wuk Hai at home. I have completely come to terms with it,” Luo said.

He says that using gas burners for wok cooking was a personal preference. “It's better if the pan looks good because it doesn't splatter. It's like a high wall. I can fry easily,” she says. It's comforting to me, as usual: to see the flame, to be able to move the pan."

But gas stoves aren't the only option, says Tane Chan, owner of the Wok Shop in San Francisco's Chinatown, which has been a mecca for Asian chefs for 57 years. “I raised my kids to cook on an electric stove,” Chan says.

In her opinion, the essence of cooking in a pan is accessibility and versatility. He says people are adapting and chefs are adapting. There are also different woks designed for different ovens.

“Frying pans are suitable for all walks of life,” Chan says. “Don't blame the wok. Don't blame anyone else. Blame the chef. If he is a good cook, he will cook a very tasty dish even in a frying pan.

This article originally appeared on MarketWatch.

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