Carbon steel wok is only viable on a powerful gas stove. Right now where I live there is a campaign to get rid of gas stoves. And the existing ones are far, far from being powerful enough to use wok properly.
The one we got is 15,000 BTU, which is frankly too much. You can find 10,000 or 12,000 BTU options for cheaper, and will probably get some more fine grained control out of it.
The butane lasts for quite a while in it for wok use as well, since you’re generally only cooking for a few minutes at a time.
I’m also very inspired by this video [1] which shows what appears to be a jet engine under a wok used by a master chef.
I have a carbon steel wok on a typical (here) gas burner (~7k BTU). I can make single portion on it. It requires moving the food around the wok surface constantly to parts that had some time to get hot. Forget about throwing more than one portion into it, it will just start to boil. So the only time I get to use it is when my family is away or when I want to make something for myself at an odd hour but pretty much useless for a meal for my family.
The restaurant looks REALLY nice. Singapore is starting to look really nice -- maybe I should visit?
Sure, the chef is amazing. I'm surprised his wok does not have a long handle. So, he uses a towel as a pot holder when he holds the small handle on his wok.
No joke he has a lot of heat. At one point he even has some of the oil in his wok flaming a little!
He seems to have his wok heat source going 100% all the time. So, to pay for the fuel he cooks really fast, lots of dishes per hour, and has a cheap fuel source? Also, he needs to have some good exhaust air flow for his kitchen or soon will also cook everyone in the kitchen and restaurant!
For his heat source, looks like he has repurposed an old GE J79 jet engine, e.g., as used in
Mostly so that my house doesn’t stink. I can go hot hot hot just out the back door and not worry about the smoke.
A standard gas bottle (refill ~AU$40) lasts about 8 months.
[0]: https://www.bunnings.com.au/jumbuck-2-burner-hooded-bbq_p317...
(1) Off the kitchen, have a back porch, i.e., no roof, call it a deck.
(2) Get an inexpensive, propane powered deep fat fryer turkey cooker.
(3) Use the propane burner to heat a wok.
Get plenty of heat!
Did that! Cooked quarts of Moo Shi Pork (basically sauteed pork matchsticks with steamed, shredded cabbage and various flavorings) at a time. Worked great. Lost the setup in a move!
The point of the wok is that the liquid gathers in the centre of the wok leaving the sides with very little liquid on them which helps a lot with browning. You can also throw small amounts of relatively delicate ingredients (like garlic) that will get sauted in deep pool of oil in the centre and then you can add more ingredients and build your dish.
With any flat bottom you give away some properties of the wok, depending on how large the flat part is.
Another nice property of wok is that because of its dome shape it will not deform even at high temperature differentials. Any flat piece of steel subjected to high temperature differentials will deform over time.
You're right about pans getting warped, I have this issue from time to time with my carbon steel pans, luckily it is an easily fixable issue (using a sturdy rubber mallet on a pre-heated pan is my favourite method).
I'd be very interested to hear from the serious home cooks on this issue, as well as the perspective of professional chefs. While I consider myself an advanced home cook, I've come to the conclusion that I'm not limited by going electric only - it's the heat, not the flame that matters for most of what I do.
For those cases where I really do need flame (roasting peppers or something maybe?), I can always go outside to my grill.
Again, would be very interested in other perspectives on this.
That's a privilege a lot of people in cities don't have. I would love to have a gas cook top, but my building is electric only.
Edit: I'm also in the "advanced home cook" category, not a pro.
I have not cooked on induction though, which might be a big improvement over the electric ranges I've used.
Another thing about gas ranges that is purely mechanical, is that I can slide pans around to get them off the burner when I need things to cool down fast and I don't want to turn the flame completely off. I have come to really rely on this. The electric ranges I've used have a glass top and it will get scratched up if you slide the pan around.
Some might consider it inefficient and a waste of energy, but it makes seasoning pans much easier.
- Gas is overrated. The excess heat it generates indoors is not worth whatever benefits it has. The heat on the sides of pans can sometimes be helpful, but perhaps more often is a hindrance - have to make sure to scrape the sides of pots thoroughly and regularly when making a cream sauce, for example. I don't find gas to boil water faster than an electric cooktop. I usually use an electric kettle for 2/3 of the water with coil and gas stoves, but I don't have to bother with induction. Small portable gas burners (as made by eg Iwatani) are quite handy to have around for those times you really want the advantages of Gas (a bbq or grill would serve same purpose).
- Induction is great, except for wok cooking. Specialized induction wok burners do exist, but are still pretty specialized pieces of equipment. 120v induction hotplates are not so good (but not as bad as coil ones). One thing I don't like about induction is they tend to have some electronic whine when operating - presumably as they switch on and off to regulate heat output. I dislike how complicated the electronics are - when something goes wrong, they're so expensive to repair that it's barely worthwhile.
- Coil stoves are decent, as long as they have a 220V supply - 120v coils, eg hot plates, are awful. I appreciate their ruggedness and simplicity - it's basically a wire from the wall, through a potentiometer, to a big resistor.
- Solid disc resistance stoves are awful
- Cooking on a wood stove is not practical usually, but it can give a nice home-y feel, especially if you're simmering some Apple Cider or Mulled Wine.