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LPG supply uncertain, so a Noida restaurant experiments with induction
The chefs are veterans of the kitchen – for years, they have stood in front of the large, roaring flame that is key to producing great Chinese dishes, their hands moving in fluid, natural motions.
Electric Kitchen in Noida Sector 18, (Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav)
On Wednesday evening in a Chinese restaurant in Noida’s Sector 18, two chefs bent over the kitchen counter, working unusually hard to prepare a relatively simple order of vegetable hakka noodles.
The chefs are veterans of the kitchen – for years, they have stood in front of the large, roaring flame that is key to producing great Chinese dishes, their hands moving in fluid, natural motions.
What they are not used to is working with a heated plate, pressing buttons on the panel of an induction cooktop. This rhythm is new, the experience is unusual, and the chefs move uncertainly.
“It is tricky to cook a dish of noodles when you cannot toss the vegetables around in the wok, lifting and moving it over a superhot flame. As a result, the vegetables sometimes get soft and overcooked,” said Rajak Karikar, who has been a chef for the past 10 years.
Standing next to Karikar, another chef advises him urgently to “increase the temperature” of the cooktop.
This is the kitchen of Baby Dragon, a popular multicuisine restaurant and bar that describes itself as a “local favourite since 2005”. On Tuesday, the restaurant’s kitchen switched from LPG to cooking with electric devices, its owner having decided that he could no longer expect a steady supply of fuel as the ripple effects of the war in the Middle East continue to get stronger.
On Tuesday, Baby Dragon acquired five new induction cooktops and special cookware for a total Rs 1 lakh for its kitchen.
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“We need around 1.5-2 cylinders daily, but the supplier sent word yesterday morning that gas was out of stock and he would not be able to supply us with cylinders. So I ordered two induction cooktops from Amazon and three from a shop in Karol Bagh, along with utensils that are suitable for cooking on induction devices,” said Vicky Saluja, the 57-year-old owner of Baby Dragon. “I had no option but to bite the bullet.”
The introduction of electric devices in the kitchen has required Saluja to be extra careful. “Whatever you cook, keep in mind that water does not come in contact with the induction device,” Saluja instructed the team working in the kitchen on Wednesday.
Some Chinese dishes have been taken off the menu, and the four chefs are uneasy about the “rationalisation”. “Chinese is our specialty, we have to find some way,” said a chef.
But the show – and meals – must go on. “We are learning and adapting,” said chef Satish Rautela (40), who has been working at the restaurant for the past five years.
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“It will take 3-4 days to learn, as cooking on an induction device is different from cooking on a stove. There is a difference when we cook pasta. Orders that took perhaps 15 minutes to prepare are now taking longer,” he said.
Karikar said the real test would come during the weekend, when the kitchen has to serve more customers. “The capacity of the [induction] vessel is 22 litres, so we cannot prepare large quantities in one go. If 20 kg of potatoes have to be boiled for a gravy, we will have to do it in three batches,” he said.
Saluja said he hopes that normalcy is restored soon, so that he has the option of running the kitchen with both LPG and induction devices. “I have been calculating the expenses since yesterday, let’s see how it pans out.”
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