Why do Asian restaurants prefer Chinese commercial wok cookers to flat cookers?

When you enter the kitchen of an Asian restaurant, you will find that a commercial wok cooker is popular cooking equipment. It has taken over almost all Asian restaurants, and the trend has spread to some European restaurants.

Commercial wok cookers first appeared in Chinese kitchens, and are still essential cooking equipment in Chinese restaurants and homes. In addition, as professional cooking equipment for Wok Hei and Stir-Fry, it is preferred by Cantonese restaurants and Asian chefs.

Asians love food has full of heat, and food stir-fried in a wok can bring an appetite-stimulating flavor. Food flavor float in the air, attracting diners to walk into restaurants unconsciously, expecting to taste delicious food. It is why food trucks, food stands, and al fresco restaurants are more popular with diners.

When you walk on the street, you will find that many Asian restaurants have kitchens set up outdoors. Food flavor is the best marketing in a restaurant. You would be missing out if you don’t realize it. The portability of a commercial wok cooker is a factor in its popularity in various Asian restaurants, and it can be carried outdoors, indoors, or even to campsites.

Commercial stir-fried noodles, Orange Chicken, General Tso’s Chicken, and Kung Pao Chicken are popular items at Panda Express, an American Chinese restaurant chain. It is not entirely due to the popularity of Chinese food, or it is not only the Chinese who eat at Panda Express.

According to statistics, in the United States, Panda sells 80 million pounds of Orange Chicken in 2017. It is equivalent to 4 pieces per American per year, almost equal to the amount of fried chicken sold by KFC in the United States (5.5 pieces per American). American TV series Friends & The Big Bang Theory, Panda Express is the Chinese restaurant where the characters often order food.

Lestov is the preferred cooking equipment supplier of Panda Express in China and has cooperated with them for more than ten years. It mainly purchases cooking equipment suitable for frying Orange Chicken – commercial induction small wok cooker. It is a versatile appliance for stir-frying or frying chicken. Americans love deep-fried chicken with a sweet and sour flavor, and Orange Chicken delivers on both.

In essence, commercial wok cookers and commercial flat-top stoves are both cooking equipment, and there is no special function. Chefs don’t need complicated equipment to cook, and the role of cooking equipment is to cook food. But why do Asian restaurants prefer Chinese commercial wok cookers to flat cookers?

Unlike traditional commercial flat-top stoves, commercial wok cookers have a different concave design than flat-top stoves, which is to gather more flames to heat more pot area. It is configured with the same circular heating range as the concave wok, which means that more flames will be applied to the food to heat up, helping the chef to fry a dish in a shorter time.

Commercial Chinese-style wok cookers can reach high temperatures quickly, and high temperatures are a condition for quickly stir-frying food. Especially in Cantonese restaurants, the requirements for stir-frying temperature have reached the extreme, and they can stir-fry a dish within 30 seconds. It is an advantage that traditional commercial flat-top stoves cannot match.

How to describe the heat-gathering ability of the concave wok? You can think of it as a fire entering a cave, heating every corner of the cave sufficiently.

Although a commercial wok cooker is favored by many Asian cooks, its drawbacks can’t be ignored. Chef Toby believes that summer is the worst season for chefs, and no one wants to stay in the kitchen at 40°C. Commercial gas wok cookers are professional in high flames & concentrated firepower, but they are unbearable in producing high temperatures, oily smoke, and wasting energy.

Chef Toby said: I can’t maintain absolute rationality to stir-fry dishes at a high temperature of 40°C. Sweat and oily smoke have already made me feel irritable.” For a restaurateur, the energy wasted by a commercial gas wok is more annoying than the chef’s slack. Before buying a commercial gas wok, he had already paid a lot for gas pipes, ventilation equipment, and safety certificates.

In the Lestov restaurant cooking equipment series, a commercial wok that saves energy, and costs and keeps the kitchen cooler is on sale. It is no different from commercial gas wok cookers in appearance and function. Some innovative points: It uses an induction heating method without an open flame, which saves 50% of energy costs and improves safety by 35% compared to commercial gas wok cookers.

Restaurateurs don’t have to pay for gas lines, ventilation, and safety certificates before purchasing a commercial induction wok cooker. According to monitoring, the room temperature of a kitchen using a commercial induction wok cooker is 10°C lower than that of a kitchen using a commercial gas wok cooker. The heat range of a commercial induction wok is limited to the pot, which means it won’t heat the cooktop and kitchen.

Although many American restaurateurs have turned to Lestov for commercial induction wok cookers, Lestov is concerned about it. If you choose to purchase a commercial induction wok due to its advantages in concentrated heat / Energy saving / Safety, we agree with it. Before you buy a Lestov commercial induction wok, don’t ignore our tips.

Lestov has commercial induction wok cookers with 220V / 1 phase and 380V / 3 phase powers. The voltage range of ±40% means that you can use Lestov commercial induction wok cooker between 180V to 240V or 340V to 464V. This voltage is suitable for Southeast Asian countries, India and Europe, but not for the US, Canada, and Japan.

Many American restaurateurs inquire about 208V/3 phase commercial induction woks, which are doable but require customization. With its R&D / Design / Production / Sales team, Lestov supports customization in terms of product voltage, function, and type.

Les Fabricants de Lestov expect more restaurateurs to benefit from the commercial induction wok cooker, especially those with stir-fries, and deep-fried chicken on the menu. It is a cooking equipment that has been tested in the Chinese market for 20 years, combined with more than 1,000 years of stir-frying technology, and is professionally used in commercial kitchens.