Fine Food Melbourne just celebrated its 40th year and small team from the Global Cooksafe Coalition went along to the exhibition to speak to induction cooktop makers, film some amazing new induction woks and (let’s be honest) sample a mind boggling array of food and drink.
Touted as the ‘leading trade event for the food industry, Fine Food is really the place where you can see the direction the food and hospitality industry is headed and this year, the growth in the number of exhibitors focussed on induction cooking was widely recognised.
This perspective was underpinned by the range of large scale electric induction woks on show. Commercial induction woks are pretty mainstream in places like Hong Kong but they are a fairly recent addition to the hospitality industry in Australia. The GCC is excited by this evolution and wanted to take the opportunity to film some chefs cooking on these impressive pieces of equipment.
Luke Burgess, GCC chef ambassador was on hand to sample the induction woks on the stands of three of the suppliers at the show – B&S Commercial Kitchens, Phoeniks and Universal EMW. The B&S 12kw wok has only recently gone on sale in Australia after an extensive development phase by the Melbourne-based company including a first prototype that needed adjustments because it got too hot, too fast.
B&S plan to run a series of workshops to introduce the induction woks to members of the Asian Chef Club over the next few months and they are confident they’ll make a positive impression. After stir fying bok choy in seconds – and whipping up a delicious fried snapper – Luke was also won over.
“In the fast paced, high pressure environment of a commercial kitchen you can’t compromise on speed and heat – and you’d never need to with these woks,” said Luke.
Newcomer to the Australian market, Universal Electrical Machine Works Co., Ltd. (UEMW), has been making woks for Chinese and Hong Kong based chefs for decades. Their stand, featuring well known Chinese chef Dai Lung, was very popular. The sheer volume of fried rice being produced on the mammoth 15 kilowatt wok was hugely impressive.
Phoeniks, another Melbourne based induction-only supplier, used Fine Food to highlight their 8kw benchtop induction wok. Suitable for smaller outlets, or ones that use woks for selected dishes on their menu, the benchtop wok was tested by Luke and surprise chef ambassador visitor, Victor Liong. Luke and Victor spent some time enjoying the features of the smaller wok and admiring its versatility.
But it’s not just the wok manufacturers that are embracing change. Control Induction, a UK company that opened up in Wollongong two years ago, were buoyed by the interest in their high end equipment and industry heavyweight Moffat showed off their new induction line for the first time. Managing Director of Moffat Greg O’Connell told us this is a natural progression for their business. Like most people at the show, he is quietly confident that commercial cooking will, over time, completely transition to electric equipment.
The GCC team left Fine Food with a sense of accomplishment – not only did the footage collected make a strong case for induction woks, the show reinforced that the work all of our partners, members and stakeholders are doing to move us towards a future with fossil fuel free kitchens is really making a difference. See you there next year!
