Do You Know... About the Omega Juicer Company?

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Why do certain dishes and most recipes taste better at your favorite restaurant than at home? Basically, the secret is known as "recovery time". Any stove burner can get an empty skillet hot. On most traditional home stoves, the burners are around 8,000 BTU's, with an occasional single burner set at 11 or 12,000 BTU's. (Remember that BTU's are an input rating of gas burners and not a true measure of heat potential) These are typically a 2 to 3 inch diameter burner. Electric stoves usually provide one larger diameter coil burner and a setting of "high" which, when empty, gets all the rings glowing.

Here is what happens. You get out your 10-inch skillet to sauté some vegetables or chicken scaloppini or better yet, you get out your flat bottom wok to whip up a great stir-fry, then you put in a little oil or butter and pretty soon your pan is hot to trot. Then you put in your cold food and whammo! The sizzling stops and the food sits there in the oil. Eventually it will cook, but not until the food soaks up most of the oil and looses its color, turns limp and gets mushy. Soon that Mandarin stir-fry chicken with snow peas becomes stir-boiled chicken mush.

High flame burners power through that cool-down phase, so that the food starts to cook immediately upon hitting the pan and never lets it cool enough to stop cooking. Therefore, the food cooks much more quickly (very important in a restaurant for table turn over reasons), stays crispier, better tasting, and less oily plus better color and texture of the finished dishes.

Most restaurant stoves now offer 20,000 to 26,000 BTU rated top burners. These are for high production restaurants, however the high-end ranges we sell for the home kitchen offer 15,000 BTU rated burners which, unless your loading up a 14 inch skillet like they do in restaurants, will provide all the power you need to duplicate those favorite restaurant recipes.

As a former manufacturer of high flame cooking equipment, I knew the importance from a cooking point of view of power. I call stoves and ovens; " Appliances of Creativity" because all the appliance really does is supply you with controlled heating power. You need to make the final outcome (the meal) come together with great taste and creative method. Convenience appliances such as refrigerators and dishwashers basically do all the work, but they all do it the same way. A cold beer is a cold beer. Cooking is very different. It is a creative exercise filled with experimentation, individuality, and successes and of course failures, but the fun is in the trying. It is important to have the right tools to do any creative project right. Choose a stove where every burner offers the most flexibility.

Ethnically, many cultures around the world only succeed in their traditional recipes when using high flame burners. With the easy availability of ingredients from around the world at our local grocery stores, isn't it about time that we outfit our kitchens with the equipment that can enjoy those textures and flavors fully.

One restaurant stove manufacturer once said at a meeting of kitchen designers, "People who buy these big commercial style ranges don't really cook on them, they just make reservations at the restaurant or have their maid whip something up for them. Well, I believe that is totally wrong. The status behind owning a high flame commercial style stove is nice, but how they enhance your enjoyment of cooking is unbelievable. You don't need an expensive home to enjoy cooking great food for your family, just get yourself the right tool.