Biden administration gas stove ban would hurt NYC restaurants

Publish date: 2024-08-01

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During a Friday night dinner rush, executive chef Peter Petti will have stainless steel pots of pasta water boiling while searing salmon and steaks, all 12 burners ignited on the gas stoves at Sojourn, a New American restaurant on the Upper East Side. Nearly everything on his menu  – from a 30-day, dry-aged NY strip to a chocolate flambeed dessert – is cooked on the range.

“Some dishes require two or three pans on the burners,” said Petti, 45, who’s been cooking with gas since the beginning of his culinary career in the early 2000s, when he started as a line cook at Eleven Madison Park.

The Feds, however, can’t stand the heat.

On Monday, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission said it was considering a nationwide ban on gas stoves, which are currently used in 37% of US households and 76% of US restaurants, according to Consumer Reports and the National Restaurant Association. The safety commission cited recent reports that gas stoves emit unsafe levels of pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and ca​rbon monoxide and have been linked to cancers, respiratory illnesses and cardiovascular problems. But the city’s chefs and restaurateurs are fuming at the possibility of a ban and the devastating effect it could have on the health of their businesses.

Sojourn chef Peter Petti says cooking with a gas stove allows him to be efficient behind the line when cooking during the dinner rush. Brian Zak/NY Post

“The majority of New York City restaurants use gas. It’s the most common stove in a high-volume kitchen,” Petti told The Post. “Gas lets us do our job efficiently.”

Gas stoves are powered by sending natural gas or sometimes propane to a cooktop burner to fuel a flame. Alternatives to gas include old-fashioned electric coil stovetops – typically only found in residences and known for being slow to heat and adjust to temperature changes – and induction, which relies on electromagnets to heat cookware. Induction can be quite fast, bringing a pot of water to a boil in two minutes or less, as opposed to five to eight minutes on gas and electric coil stove tops. But, induction also takes some getting used to and can’t be used with some cookware.

“There are some kitchens that do operate using inductions, but it’s definitely a learning curve,” said Patti. “You’d have to close to reset up your kitchen, refile with the fire department – there’s a lot that goes into it.” 

An induction stove top is the environmentally preferred method for some cooks like chef Eric Ripert, who converted his home kitchens from gas to induction stove tops, he told The Times last year. Getty Images

Some in the industry, however, note that once chefs get accustomed to induction, which is already popular in Europe, they love it.

“It’s instantaneous control cooking,” California-based chef Rachelle Boucher, who runs Kitchens to Life, a West Coast-based consultancy that teaches cooks how to turn their kitchens from gas to electric, told The Post.

“[You can] crank up the heat and get this amazing sear faster than you ever have before – and the fact that you can reach over and touch anything without catching fire is a bonus,” she said.

Darryl Harmon, executive chef at New York City restaurants Slate and Clinton Hall, has used both induction and gas stoves at restaurants. Courtesy of Harmon

Chef Eric Ripert of Midtown three-Michelin-star French restaurant Le Bernardin installed induction ranges in his two homes recently and loves them.

“It’s so much more precise than watching a flame. You can really focus on your cooking and pay attention to what’s inside the pan, not what’s underneath it,” Ripert told the Times. His restaurant kitchens are still powered by gas, and Ripert said he wouldn’t make the switch until repairs necessitated it.

“It would be a big expense to replace stoves that still work well, but, if the gas stove broke, I’d consider it,” he told The Times.

Electric coil stove tops are the least ideal of the non-gas alternatives, chefs say, because they take long to heat up and unevenly cook food. Getty Images/iStockphoto

Andrew Rigie, executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, noted that the money required to make the switch just isn’t feasible for many eateries.

“The cost to convert equipment over to induction and ensuring a commercial kitchen has an adequate electrical load can be complex and cost prohibitive for many restaurants,” he told The Post in an email.

Chef Darryl Harmon of the local chain Clinton Hall said that gas doesn’t just fuel stovetops in many commercial kitchens, but also fuels ovens, fryers and griddles – the latter two of which are key to cooking his restaurants’ beloved burgers and fries.

Sojourn owner Sammy Musovic outside of his Upper East Side restaurant. Musovic says having to switch over his appliances from gas to electric would be a costly renovation years after the pandemic wreaked financial havoc on restaurants. Brian Zak/NY Post

“Trying to sear [a burger] on an electric griddle, that’s tough. [Or] you’re trying to bring the heat back up on a fryer and you just don’t have enough fryer power,” Harmon told The Post. “You’d have to reinvest $200,000 or more to get new ovens.” 

After years weathering the pandemic, many restaurants say they are unlikely to survive the switch from gas to induction.

“We just now are getting back on our feet and now the Biden administration wants to throw this at us? It’s not acceptable,” said Sojourn Social’s owner, Sammy Musovic. “It would be devastating for small businesses if we got that thrown at us without any support or any kind of program to get that done.”

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