{"id":486718,"date":"2026-10-06T08:48:53","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T08:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/486718\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T08:48:53","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T08:48:53","slug":"what-east-bay-restaurants-have-learned-from-swapping-gas-for-electric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/486718\/","title":{"rendered":"What East Bay restaurants have learned from swapping gas for electric"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the highly partisan debate over which\u00a0Bay Area<\/a>\u00a0restaurant makes the best pizza, Thomas McNaughton admitted his choice to use an electric oven is controversial.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For years, the CEO of Flour + Water Hospitality Group \u2014 a collection of six Bay Area restaurants and a food brand \u2014 couldn\u2019t fathom an electric oven that produced the high heat critical for its award-winning pizza. Most pizza joints use gas or wood-fired ovens instead.<\/p>\n

But that changed after he discovered professional electric pizza ovens around six years ago and fell in love with how they performed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Ryan Pollnow, co-executive chef, prepares a pizza at Flour + Water Pizza Shop in Oakland on July 29, 2026. The Oakland location uses all-electric kitchen appliances, including its pizza oven.\u00a0(Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aIf you\u2019re talking deck ovens, the electric models now outperform gas ovens 100%,\u201d McNaughton said. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize how evolved the technology really is. They\u2019re incredibly powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the helm of a restaurant group that holds environmental sustainability as one of its core values, McNaughton realized Flour + Water could have an even greater impact if he switched the power source in their restaurants and kitchens from gas to electric.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A deep fryer at Flour + Water Pizza Shop in Oakland on July 29, 2026.\u00a0\u00a0(Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aIf this oven is so powerful, couldn\u2019t we build our entire operation around electricity?\u201d McNaughton said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Flour + Water\u2019s Oakland location, which opened Jan. 2026, is a testament to that vision. There, everything from the boozy slushie machine to the deep fryer, induction cooktops and pizza ovens \u2014 which churn out hundreds of pies a day \u2014 are 100% electric.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Three years ago, the company committed to all-electric power in all of its future buildouts, McNaughton said, including a planned pizza shop in Palo Alto and a dough production space in Oakland. Two of Flour + Water\u2019s restaurants are now gas-less, and its flagship location in San Francisco\u2019s pizza-dense North Beach neighborhood is mostly electric.<\/p>\n

\"\"An employee places a pizza into an all-electric oven at Flour + Water Pizza Shop in Oakland on July 29, 2026.\u00a0(Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s much easier than people think, and I think there will be a point where it\u2019s not an option,\u201d McNaughton said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chefs like McNaughton are part of a Bay Area culinary movement proving that all-electric restaurants are not only financially viable, but able to produce the same quality food \u2014 or even better \u2014 as their fossil-fueled peers.<\/p>\n

Still, these chefs are cutting against the grain in California, where restaurants still rely heavily on gas and industry groups have resisted the switch to electric cooking in the past, most notably by defeating Berkeley\u2019s first-in-the-nation ban on natural gas hookups in new construction.<\/p>\n

The switch to electric appliances \u2014 which are less polluting, safer and cleaner \u2014 continues to be hampered by transition costs and misconceptions about inferiority.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aWe\u2019re truly not giving up a single thing,\u201d McNaughton said. \u201cIn fact, we\u2019re enhancing what we believe we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018A gas-heavy state\u2019<\/p>\n

Despite California\u2019s goals to fight climate change, including achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by\u00a02045<\/a>, it\u2019s a \u201cgas-heavy state,\u201d according to Rob Jackson, an environmental scientist at Stanford University.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In California, 85% of restaurants use gas to power their appliances, Jackson said, higher than the\u00a0national average<\/a>\u00a0of 76%.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Thomas McNaughton, co-executive chef and CEO at Flour + Water Pizza Shop in Oakland on July 29, 2026. The Oakland location uses all-electric appliances in its kitchen.\u00a0(Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aIf we\u2019re to reach our climate goals, eventually that has to stop,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n

Buildings account for nearly a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions in the state, and restaurants require more energy to run than other commercial buildings, Jackson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Natural gas is mainly composed of methane, a greenhouse gas 28 times more potent, but shorter-lasting, than carbon dioxide. Transitioning from natural gas to electric appliances is the best way for restaurants to reduce their environmental and carbon footprints, Jackson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Utilities in the state are under a mandate from lawmakers to source 100% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2045. The state is more than halfway to that goal, having sourced 67% of its energy from renewables in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But more emphasis needs to be put on decarbonizing the demand for energy in the state, said Brady Seals, director of electrification for health at Stanford\u2019s Center for Human and Planetary Health.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A healthier, more efficient kitchen <\/p>\n

Emissions released by burning natural gas may also enter the human body, posing serious health risks. Gas cooking exposes restaurant workers \u2014 and homeowners alike \u2014 to harmful gases such as methane, benzene and nitrogen dioxide, which leak from stoves whether on or off, Jackson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Exposure to nitrogen dioxide from gas and propane stoves may be responsible for up to 19,000 deaths annually in the United States, roughly 40% of the deaths attributable to secondhand smoke, according to a\u00a02024 study<\/a>\u00a0which Jackson led.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would never stand over the tailpipe of your car breathing in those pollutants, and yet people stand over the stove breathing the same pollutants day after day, meal after meal,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n

He called commercial kitchens \u201camplifiers\u201d of that pollution. Instead of using a single stove, like in a home, professional cooks may work at a 12-burner stove for hours, increasing their exposure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\/An employee prepares a pizza before placing it in an all-electric oven at Flour + Water Pizza Shop in Oakland on July 29, 2026.\u00a0\u00a0(Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aWe know the pollution that\u2019s created by burning fossil fuels is harmful, and there\u2019s no reason to do that when cleaner, better technologies are available,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n

Chefs have reported other benefits from switching to induction cooktops, a type of electric stove which uses electromagnetic energy.<\/p>\n

Induction cooktops are more efficient than gas ones because they heat pots and pans directly, instead of a gas cooktop, where an open flame heats the air around cookware, indirectly warming it, Jackson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aWhen people say \u2018electric kitchen,\u2019 they think about your average apartment stove with a little coil on it, and they\u2019re like, \u2018You expect me to run a restaurant on that?\u2019 But that\u2019s not what it is at all,\u201d said Ava Agopsowicz, a line cook at Flour + Water\u2019s Oakland location.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Working at an induction cooktop feels \u201cless greasy,\u201d Agopsowicz said, adding that the kitchen also doesn\u2019t get as hot as cooking with an open flame.<\/p>\n

Induction cooktops give chefs what McNaughton described as an \u201cinsane\u201d amount of temperature control.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will never have a pot of cream boil over because they\u2019re just so exact, which is really, really great,\u201d McNaughton said.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Jairo P\u00e9rez prepares food at Flour + Water Pizza Shop in Oakland on July 29, 2026.\u00a0\u00a0(Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

Katie Chin, a Southern California-based \u201cchefluencer\u201d for the Building Decarbonization Coalition, a group that works to eliminate fossil fuels in buildings, said she was thankful to find an induction kitchen at a client\u2019s house once working as a caterer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said she was late to the gig and needed to boil a lot of water in a hurry for a 200-person event.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aLuckily that client had induction, so I was able to boil the water for six hundred dumplings in a fraction of the time it would\u2019ve taken for me to use a gas stove and heat up all that water,\u201d Chin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But while the advantages are many, the barriers are still significant.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s not sugarcoat it. It\u2019s not easy to electrify when you already have gas,\u201d Seals said.<\/p>\n

Change is hard \u2014 and expensive <\/p>\n

One of the biggest challenges for Flour + Water to realize its all-electric dreams has been finding spaces that can be upgraded to provide the massive amount of energy needed to power their electric ovens, McNaughton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of older properties we\u2019re not able to look at, so that can feel somewhat constricting at times,\u201d McNaughton said.<\/p>\n

Whereas many commercial spaces come with gas lines sufficient for restaurant service already installed, McNaughton said setting up the electric service at their Oakland location was a challenge, as it required contractors to \u201cpush incredibly thick conduit through many different 90-degree turns,\u201d a step that wouldn\u2019t have been necessary if they opted to use gas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A lot of the cost of converting to all-electric isn\u2019t the appliances themselves; \u201cit\u2019s really the whole electrical system to support it,\u201d Seals said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

California\u2019s highest-in-the-continental-U.S. electricity rates are also a consideration. Flour + Water\u2019s Oakland location spends around $8,000 a month on electricity, according to a utility bill shared with KQED. Flour + Water\u2019s most recent electric bill saw usage about 34 times greater than the average home in California uses in a month, according to the latest\u00a0data<\/a>\u00a0from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aThe rule of thumb for us is that it\u2019s a small increase to purchase this equipment, and slightly more to run it on a monthly basis,\u201d McNaughton said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chefluencers like Chin are also working hard to dispel stereotypes about induction cooking, namely, that it doesn\u2019t get hot enough to appropriately use culturally specific cooking techniques, like Asian Wok cooking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aYou just have to keep an open mind that Asian cooking isn\u2019t synonymous with the blue flame,\u201d Chin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\/An employee walks through a kitchen with all-electric appliances at Flour + Water Pizza Shop in Oakland on July 29, 2026.\u00a0\u00a0(Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

On the contrary, induction wok burners get \u201csuper hot, so quickly,\u201d and have actually improved her cooking due to induction\u2019s superior temperature control, Chin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019m not so cranky because it\u2019s cooler in my kitchen,\u201d Chin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Learning to cook on induction does require some technique changes, \u201cbut we\u2019re hearing that line cooks are picking it up in a matter of weeks, not months,\u201d Middleton said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen cooks try induction cookware, they\u2019re often surprised and don\u2019t want to go back,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The idea that induction cooktops could replace gas ones has been challenged by restaurant industry trade groups, such as the California Restaurant Association, which has argued induction cooking is inadequate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The group did not respond to an interview request, but Jot Condie, the Association\u2019s president and CEO, has previously\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0that the loss of flame cooking \u201cwould dramatically impact restaurant kitchens\u201d and that chefs rely on gas stoves to \u201cgrill vegetables, sear meats and create meals of all kinds inspired by cuisines from all over the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Building momentum <\/p>\n

The city of Berkeley led the charge to incentivize building electrification in 2019 when it passed a first-in-the-nation ban on natural gas hookups in new construction.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aThe essential point of the bill was to say, if you\u2019re building something new, then you would be putting in all-electric,\u201d said Kate Harrison, a former Berkeley City Council member who spearheaded the ban. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to expand the gas network.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Berkeley was ultimately forced to repeal the ban after a federal court sided with a lawsuit brought by the California Restaurant Association, which argued the city overstepped its authority and violated federal energy law.<\/p>\n

Still, other municipalities are moving forward with all-electric mandates of their own.<\/p>\n

California\u00a0established<\/a>\u00a0electric-ready infrastructure requirements for some newly constructed commercial kitchens in 2024, mandating that buildings be constructed with the wiring and circuits necessary to replace gas infrastructure. New York City has also successfully\u00a0defended<\/a>\u00a0its own ban on natural gas in new buildings against legal challenges brought by plumbing and building trade groups.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As support for going all-electric builds, Harrison said she sees Berkeley\u2019s original ban as a \u201cproof of concept.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s inevitable. This is where we\u2019re going,\u201d Harrison said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Electric-ready mandates in new construction are good policy if California is to meet its climate goals, Seals said. But retrofits \u2014 redesigning existing spaces to use electricity instead of gas \u2014 are \u201cthe hardest nut to crack,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aPolicymakers have a real role to play for spurring this market, and that\u2019s going to be happening in places like building codes and other kinds of rulemaking,\u201d Seals said. \u201c\u200aThis is a sleeper issue that hasn\u2019t gotten a lot of attention until recently, and we\u2019re really in the beginning part of this wave, which I find to be very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Chin, encouraging electrification also means education tailored towards specific ethnic groups and overcoming language barriers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aI do feel like a lot of the Asian restaurant owners may not have access to learning about induction cooking,\u201d Chin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Induction advocates said the future is all-electric.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aThe Great British Bake Off is induction. Some of the top restaurants in the world are induction,\u201d Seals said. \u201cThe momentum in the market is pushing toward renewable energy and electrification.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flour + Water\u2019s McNaughton isn\u2019t looking back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never said, \u2018Oh man, I really wish we had a six-burner all-gas range,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t miss it at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berkeleyside is a media partner of\u00a0KQED<\/a>, a listener-supported public radio station serving Northern California. Berkeleyside occasionally republishes KQED stories we believe will be of interest to our readers.<\/p>\n

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