For generations of chefs, gas has been almost inseparable from the professional kitchen
It is familiar, responsive and capable of taking punishment through a long service. A chef can see the flame, move a pan across it and know instinctively what is happening.
But if you were designing a professional kitchen from scratch today, would you still automatically choose gas?
That question is becoming increasingly relevant. From 1 January 2027, new hospitality buildings in Victoria will generally be required to be all-electric, including commercial kitchens, although LPG and bottled-gas cooking appliances are exempt.
At the same time, commercial induction equipment has moved well beyond the portable units many chefs first encountered years ago.
So can it genuinely replace gas in a busy professional kitchen?
Why gas has been so hard to replace
There are good reasons gas became the default.
Heat can be changed quickly, almost any pan will work on it and chefs can lift, tilt and toss cookware without maintaining contact with a cooking surface. For some techniques, the flame itself is part of the cooking process.
Wok cooking is the obvious example, but direct flame is also used for charring, blistering and finishing ingredients in ways a conventional induction surface cannot replicate.
Then there is familiarity. A brigade can walk into a kitchen with a conventional gas range and understand how to use it immediately. Generations of chefs have built their cooking instincts around flame.
Any alternative therefore has to do more than look efficient on paper. It has to perform when every section is under pressure.
Induction has changed
Induction still suffers from being grouped together with older forms of electric cooking.
Commercial induction is very different from the slow ceramic or coil cooktops many chefs associate with electric kitchens. It generates heat directly in compatible cookware, allowing power changes to translate quickly at the pan.
Commercial equipment is now available as countertop units, full ranges and specialist wok systems, with significantly more power than standard domestic appliances.
For many pan-based jobs, the argument that only gas can provide fast and responsive heat control is becoming harder to sustain.
Induction can be particularly effective for sauces, stocks, braises, reductions and other preparations where controlled, repeatable heat is useful.
That consistency can also matter across a brigade. Power settings can be repeated between sections and shifts, reducing some of the variation that comes with controlling a flame entirely by eye.
It does not replace judgement, but it can make some processes easier to standardise.
The difference chefs can feel
One of induction’s biggest advantages may have less to do with the food than the environment chefs are working in.
Gas burners release substantial heat around the cookware and into the kitchen. Induction directs more energy into the pan itself, reducing the amount of excess heat entering the surrounding space.
For anyone who has worked a hot section through an Australian summer, that difference matters.
A cooler kitchen can also influence air conditioning and ventilation requirements, although induction does not remove the need for extraction. Cooking still creates heat, grease, steam, smoke and other contaminants that need to be managed properly.
Cleaning is another practical advantage.
Without burners, trivets and cavities underneath a traditional range, a flat induction surface can reduce the work required at the end of service.
Across hundreds of services a year, that labour becomes part of the commercial equation.
It is already happening in Australian kitchens
This is not simply a discussion about what future kitchens might look like.
At Icebergs Dining Room & Bar in Sydney, induction already forms a significant part of the kitchen. In a 2025 Waverley Council case study, the restaurant reported operating 12 induction burners for up to 12 hours a day, with around 90 per cent of the kitchen running electrically.
Interestingly, the biggest challenge identified was not whether induction could perform. It was upgrading the electrical supply to the building.
That distinction is important.
The technology may be capable of doing the work, but the site still needs the infrastructure to support it.
Where induction still has limitations
None of this means a chef can simply remove every gas burner and replace it with induction.
Cuisine and technique matter.
Induction requires compatible cookware containing suitable magnetic material, and pans generally need to maintain contact with the cooking zone to receive energy. That can change the way some chefs work, particularly those who constantly lift and toss pans.
Direct flame remains the clearest limitation.
If a dish or cooking style depends on exposing food to flame, induction cannot replicate that simply by getting hotter.
Specialist induction wok systems do exist, including units designed around curved cookware, but they are not identical to traditional high-powered gas wok burners.
A restaurant focused on sauces, pan work and controlled cooking therefore has very different equipment requirements from a kitchen built around wok cooking or live-fire techniques.
The useful question is not whether induction can cook food. It is whether it can execute the specific processes the restaurant depends on.
Electric does not mean induction-only
An all-electric kitchen is not an induction-only kitchen.
A modern professional kitchen can combine induction ranges with electric planchas, fryers, combi ovens, steamers and other specialist equipment.
That creates an opportunity to rethink the traditional kitchen line altogether.
Instead of starting with a six-burner gas range and designing around it, chefs can begin with the menu.
How many pans genuinely need to be on a range at the same time? Which jobs can move into a combi? Does the restaurant actually require direct flame? Is a plancha doing more work than the burners beside it?
For a new restaurant, those questions may lead to a very different equipment mix.
The infrastructure question
There is a significant difference between adding a few induction units to an existing kitchen and designing an entirely electric operation.
Commercial cooking equipment can create substantial electrical demand. Add refrigeration, warewashing, ventilation, hot water and air conditioning, and the total load can become significant.
Available power supply, switchboards, three-phase capacity and potential infrastructure upgrades therefore need to be considered before equipment is specified.
For an existing restaurant with gas already installed, moving entirely to electricity may require considerable capital investment.
A new development is different because those requirements can be designed into the building from the beginning.
That distinction will become increasingly relevant in Victoria from 2027. New hospitality buildings will generally need to be all-electric, while existing hospitality buildings using gas can continue replacing existing gas appliances like-for-like.
LPG and bottled-gas cooking appliances are also exempt from the new requirement.
What should chefs actually be comparing?
Purchase price alone does not tell the whole story.
Chefs specifying equipment should be asking how quickly induction responds when a cold pan loaded with product hits the surface, whether every zone can maintain performance simultaneously and how the equipment behaves through an entire service.
Reliability and support matter just as much.
What happens when a unit fails? Is there local technical support? How quickly can parts arrive? Can one cooking zone be repaired without taking an entire line out of service?
Then there are the wider costs.
Cookware may need replacing and electrical infrastructure may need upgrading. On the other side of the equation, kitchen heat, cooling requirements and cleaning time may be reduced.
The useful calculation is total kitchen performance rather than the purchase price of the appliance alone.
So, can induction replace gas?
For many pan-based jobs in a professional kitchen, modern induction is already a credible alternative to gas.
It can provide high heat, fast response and precise control while putting less excess heat into the kitchen.
But that does not make gas obsolete.
Some cooking techniques still rely on flame. Some existing kitchens would face significant infrastructure costs to convert, and specialist cuisines can have requirements that conventional induction does not satisfy.
For chefs designing a new kitchen, however, gas no longer needs to be the automatic starting point.
The better approach is to look at every job the traditional range performs and ask whether it is still the best equipment for that task.
For some kitchens, the answer will still be yes.
For plenty of others, it may no longer be.
