Industrial Process Heating
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Griddle Me This, Griddle Me That... The owners of Japanese steak house establishment Kanki were planning to open another restaurant and were interested in exploring the possibility of installing electric griddles at the new location instead of the gas ones they have used for 20 years. They sought to increase chef and customer comfort while maintaining the cooking conditions essential to their trade. Duke Energy called in Advanced Energy to perform comparative testing of their gas griddles versus electric griddles in the field and in Advanced Energy's Industrial Energy Lab .
Finally, Advanced Energy was asked to test another brand of electric griddle in our Industrial Energy Lab. A Kanki chef came to visit and cooked batches of rice, shrimp, meat, and vegetables, replicating actual restaurant conditions as nearly as possible.
Based upon the virtually identical performance levels between the two systems, Advanced Energy recommended the use of properly designed electric griddles at future locations due to their ability to deliver greater customer and chef comfort during the cooking process. Kanki's owners are pursuing this option. Foodservice equipment testing is only one of several technical support services Advanced Energy can provide to utilities and their customers. To find out more about what Advanced Energy's team of industrial energy specialists can do for you, please contact Mark Gentry at (336) 679-4020 or mgentry@advancedenergy.org .
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Having griddles that cook fast, heat uniformly, and regain surface temperature quickly after batches of food are removed is vital to Kanki's business. Customer turnaround time is essential, therefore cooking time is valuable. The question-could electric griddles cook as well as gas and provide the same kind of heating necessary to the task? 
To find out, Advanced Energy first ventured to Kanki's existing restaurant in Raleigh, NC to take readings and conduct controlled tests using their gas griddles. Advanced Energy staff took temperature readings and recorded thermographic images using an infrared camera while a Kanki chef cooked various batches of rice and vegetables. 
Then, at the suggestion of the owner, Advanced Energy traveled to Christiansburg, Virginia to perform the same kind of tests on electric griddles in use at Kabuki, another Japanese steak house. Again, Advanced Energy recorded thermographic images with the IR camera. 
Advanced Energy determined that when designed properly, with an adequate number and arrangement of heating elements and proper griddle thickness, the electric griddles could perform as well as the gas griddles from a cooking standpoint. They could recover quickly between cooking duty cycles, to the point of not affecting the speed at which a chef can prepare a meal. In all the tests, the griddle was immediately ready to use again as soon as the cooking was done and the rice removed.