I’m always curious about this sentiment. I find gas really bad feeling to cook on. Gas stoves are very difficult to keep clean. The surfaces can’t easily double as counter space. All the waste heat makes my kitchen hot and pot handles hot (I regularly burn myself when using gas stoves now because I am just not used to having to use mittens to handle pots on the stove). Finally, literally allowing the byproducts of combustion to float around my non-existantly ventilated American apartment kitchen feels barbaric.
What is it that feels good? Is it nostalgia? Is it literally just visible fire feels dangerous and powerful?
My most often-used pans are small, not very flat, and aluminum. Any one of these traits disqualifies them for induction use. I use these pans-- a small garlic pot and a saucier-- literally every day. I could use other pots, but I'd be slower and less efficient.
The jumpers I use to saute things are induction-capable, and large enough to be responsive and efficient on an induction cooker, however they're still useless on either induction or electric, because an electric or induction hob only heats a pan when it's making contact with the surface. The moment I lift it to jump a meatball the cooker stops cooking. This is especially true for induction cooktops, which will typically de-energize if you take the pan off the surface.
You can mitigate this somewhat by using a heavy saute pan or skillet, which will maintain its temperature longer when it's not in contact with the cooking surface. But sauteing this way is a lot slower and more painful that using a light steel or aluminum pan. And at some point, I'm not strong enough to handle a heavy pan safely anyway.
My gas range is controlled by simple knobs. I use it by feel, and I always know how much power I'm using because I can see the flame and feel the heat on my face and hands. My induction cooker has a touchscreen and gives no feedback. I adjust it by guessing what number to enter, and then waiting for the food to make sounds. I am much less connected to the induction hob, and I'm therefore slower, less efficient, and I fuck things up far more often than I do on gas. Same problems with radiant electric.
The vast majority of the indoor pollution from cooking comes from the food, not the gas combustion.
Getting burned by handles sucks, and is probably unavoidable if you cook long enough on any surface. As Marco Pierre White says, "handles are for burning". If the pots and pans don't get you, the oven door eventually will.
I don't ever, ever, fucking ever use any cooktop as counter space. That's just asking for a catastrophe when a hob is accidentally turned on.
I feed a family with these tools, so I don't feel that the difference is merely one of convenience.
I always feel pans are going to be knocked over on gas stoves, resulting in a few litres of boiling water over me and the floor. I don't understand why the burners and parts the pan sits on don't screw together, rather than just being placed together.
My only gripe with induction is most of them have terrible touch sensitive unless it's even remotely damp buttons. The next one I buy, I will try to have knobs instead.
What is it that feels good? Is it nostalgia? Is it literally just visible fire feels dangerous and powerful?