Very interesting development, restaurants going all electric and hoodless. What I want to see is the “super-powered $20,000 Unox electric oven, which allows him to cook a half chicken, which normally takes three-quarters of an hour, in all of eight minutes.”
A growing number of restaurants are swapping smoke and fire for hot plates and toaster ovens.
There was one notable omission. Unlike most restaurants, Cafe Sebastian would not have a hood, the exorbitantly expensive and historically crucial piece of equipment that sucks grease, smoke, and fumes from the air above a stove. Without one, the infamous heat of a traditional restaurant kitchen is typically unbearable for even the most hardened cooks. But this would not be one of those “if you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen” kitchens.
Like a growing number of San Francisco chefs, Kilgore, who estimates he has designed more than 20 restaurant kitchens during decades in the industry, has foregone the trouble and expense of installing a hood. Instead, Cafe Sebastian, which opened in mid-November, relies on equipment and techniques that don’t necessitate one. The decision cuts costs — Kilgore estimates he saved as much as $400,000 by not putting a hood in Cafe Sebastian — and allows for operation in less expensive spaces, often ones that weren’t previously home to restaurants.
