Make cooking fun Live life to the full

Start from how you actually cook. Gas gives you a flame you can see and read, and it answers the moment you turn the dial, which suits hard stir-frying and round-bottomed woks. Ceramic is a flat sheet of glass you wipe clean in one pass, and it is the type designed to sit neatly in a kitchen that is short on space. Induction heats fast, holds a level easily, and the surface itself is not the thing producing the heat — that happens in the base of the pan. Plenty of kitchens run both: gas for the wok, induction for boiling and simmering.

A built-in hob drops into the furniture, so the counter has to be cut to that model’s opening. You get a surface that reads as one piece with the kitchen, which suits a kitchen that has already been designed or fitted out. A table-top hob simply sits on the counter — no cutting, and you can move it later. That suits a kitchen you do not want to alter yet, or a rented place. Before ordering a built-in, measure the cut-out and the counter depth against the model you are buying, every time, because the dimensions differ from model to model.

Only with steel or stainless pans that a magnet sticks to, because induction makes the base of the pan heat itself through a magnetic field. If the base does not attract a magnet, nothing happens at all. The quickest test is to hold a fridge magnet against the bottom of the pan — if it grips firmly, it will work. Aluminium, copper, glass and plain ceramic will not. A strongly curved wok base also touches very little of the surface, so it heats unevenly; if you want to keep using a round-bottomed wok, gas is the better answer.

Tell us how wide the kitchen is, what you mostly cook, and whether the counter can be cut for a built-in. The team can shortlist the models that fit. Call 02-493-6565, or open the catalogue first and read the full specs. If you would rather compare several models side by side, scroll down to All Products below.