The Los Angeles City Council has joined other liberal cities in voting to ban gas stoves in new buildings, citing climate change — an absolute assault on good cooking.
Anybody who has cooked anything more complicated than Kraft macaroni and cheese can tell you that electric stoves, even the fanciest ones, are no match for cooking over a flame. Gas stoves produce heat immediately, while electric takes time to reach the desired temperature. More importantly, gas allows the cook to easily increase or decrease the temperature, which is essential in foods such as soups and sauces, that often require bringing something to a boil, then transitioning to a low simmer. When forced to use electric appliances, I will often have to turn on multiple burners at the same time, at different temperatures, so I can more easily navigate a recipe.
Using an electric oven is one thing, as in that case the ability to maintain a consistent temperature is a bonus, especially in baking. But an electric stove is a non-starter for any serious cook, and as Judd noted a few months ago when San Francisco made this move, it is outright impossible for many ethnic foods.
The effort to ban gas stoves is indicative of a broader challenge to the environmental movement, which is that it’s difficult force people to accept an objectively worse lifestyle. Bill Gates can talk all he wants about how rich countries should shift 100 percent to fake beef — coerced by regulation if necessary — but nobody is fooled by the difference between a synthetic meat product and the real thing.