Chef Rachelle Boucher featured in Total Garbage by Ed Humes
Introduction to Induction Stoves in Total Garbage
In the book Total Garbage by Ed Humes, the chapter on induction stoves explores one of the most fascinating advancements in modern cooking technology. Chef Galarza, intrigued by the promise of this seemingly magical innovation, delved into its history, discovering that the science behind induction is not new. In fact, it traces back to Michael Faraday’s groundbreaking 1831 discovery of electromagnetic induction—a principle that revolutionized our ability to generate and use electricity.
The History of Induction Cooking
Faraday’s insight has since powered countless technologies, from electric generators to wireless phone chargers, and now plays a pivotal role in the kitchen with induction stoves. Unlike gas or conventional electric stoves, induction cooking uses electromagnetic fields to directly heat pots and pans, making it more energy-efficient, faster, and safer. This section of the book dives deep into the science, history, and impact of induction cooking, revealing how it transforms our relationship with heat, energy, and efficiency in ways that were once hard to imagine.
Chef Rachelle Boucher’s Feature in Total Garbage
If all that induction information wasn’t enough, we’re also excited because it highlights our very own Chef Rachelle Boucher, who is a leading advocate for induction cooking and electric kitchens and co-founder of BDC’s groundbreaking Chefluencer program. See what Chef Rachelle had to say about being featured in the book in her Linkedin post, and better yet, get your copy here!
What is induction and How does it work? (pages 68-70 in Total Garbage)
“Fascinated, Chef Galarza read up on the science of induction. Was there a limitation he wasn’t seeing? A hidden drawback to this seeming miracle of new technology? Instead, he learned that there was nothing new about electromagnetic induction. It was discovered and tamed in 1831by the English scientist Michael Faraday, who discovered a fundamental property of electrical current: it creates a magnetic field as it flows through a wire. Then he figured out the world-changing part: this process works in reverse. Magnetic fields can induce an electric current in wires without coming into physical contact with them. Faraday’s law of induction would explain a key technological discovery of the modern age, as he had found a source of energy, light, and heat that didn’t require burning something.”
A Groundbreaking Discovery and Its Applications
“Faraday used induction to create the first generator, and his invention lies at the heart of our grid to this day. In a generator, a turbine driven by steam, wind power, hydropower, or Faraday’s original hand crank is used to rapidly spin a magnet at the center of a coil of wires. The continuous oscillation of the positive and negative poles on the magnet induces an electrical current to flow from the coil, transforming mechanical energy into electrical energy. That’s what lights our lights, and everything else. It’s hard to imagine the stunning impact of something that now seems an ordinary fact of life, but the human world was forever changed by Faraday’s discovery, which is why he is considered one of the greatest experimental physicists of all time. He had harnessed an elemental force. He gave us control of the lightning.”
The Wide-Ranging Impacts of Induction Technology
“And the generator was just the start. Electric motors basically reverse the process, turning electricity into mechanical energy. Without induction, there are no electric cars, no power drills, no blenders or washing machines. There’s another kind of induction that doesn’t require spinning magnets to create electricity. Instead, it relies on the fact that our home electrical outlets deliver alternating current, which constantly oscillates all on its own between positive and negative, creating the same effect in a coil of wire as spinning magnets. This form of induction lets transformers change a dangerous high-voltage current into lower, safer voltages – big transformers atop utility poles, as well as tiny ones inside many devices, from home computers to model train sets. This is also how wireless phone charging works: the AC current flowing through a metal coil inside the charger projects an oscillating magnetic field upward, inducing a current inside a phone positioned above, which then flows into the phone battery and charges it.”
Induction Cooking and Its Efficiency Advantages
“Have you noticed that these chargers and your phone get quite warm in the process? In the charger, that heat is an unintended by-product of induction. In an induction stove, the heat is the main product.
Induction was first introduced as a means of cooking in the “Kitchen of the Future” display at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. “Cold cooking” astonished onlookers by making a teakettle boil while sitting atop an ordinary book, which suffered no damage as the magnetic field passed through it harmlessly. It would take sixty years to turn this sideshow attraction into a reliable consumer product in which a powerful oscillating magnetic field could be created on induction “burners” beneath a saturday ceramic glass stovetop. The magnetic field it projects focuses on the bottom of a pot or pan set down just like a phone on a charger. Once the current flows into the cookware, it has nowhere to go – no batter to charge, no blender to spin – so those electrons bounce around in the bottom of the pot, colliding with one another and creating powerful heat very quickly. The pot, not the stove, serves as the heating element.”
Why Induction Stoves Outperform Gas and Electric Stoves
“This explains why induction is so much faster and more efficient, using less energy to accomplish the same cooking compared with other technologies. With gas stoves, the fire heats the air underneath a pan, and the hot air then heats the whole pan (as well as the handle, the stovetop, and the air in the room), which then heats the food. That’s three separate transfers of heat, with each step adding waste and diminishing the amount of heat left to pass up the line, which slows down the cooking and requires extra time and energy to get the job done. That’s what makes gas stoves the least efficient cooking technology. Conventional electric stoves are more efficient because they cut the process down to two transfers: the hot coils touch the pot directly, transferring heat to the pot, which then heats the food. Induction stoves do better still because they need only one heat transfer, pot to food, achieving 90 percent energy efficiency – about 10 percent more efficient than conventional electric burners and three times better than gas cooking. And induction stove doesn’t make any heat to transfer, and the “burners” aren’t burners at all – that’s just a term of convenience. The ceramic glass cooktop, like the book in the 1933 World’s Fair demonstration of cold cooking, is unaffected by magnetism – so even the part directly under the pan doesn’t get very hot, except from the heat reflected back from the bottom of the cookware. A metal pot handle won’t get uncomfortably warm on an induction stove, either,because the magnetic field reaches only the bottom of the pot. On a gas stove, you better use a potholder to avoid painful burns.”
For more information about induction cooking and other useful appliances for your home electrification journey please visit: The Switch Is On