To cook or not to cook

A couple of years ago I came across a recipe book titled `To Cook, or Not to Cook, That Is the Decision’. But what to do if the decision endorses cooking but the most critical ingredient for cooking is missing. Yes, we are talking about the current crisis of LPG or cooking gas, a consequence of someone else’s war. It is interesting to note how the induction cooktops are flying off the shelves. That very cooking device, which most of the people – home cooks and chefs alike – were reluctant to even look at till a few days ago. For quite some time we have been evangelizing induction cooktops simply because we ourselves use the induction cooktops extensively as the primary cooking device in our kitchen, LPG being used only for specific dishes like phulkas or as a backup.

But it reminds me the energy transition journey that I have witnessed insofar as cooking is concerned. I vividly remember my childhood days in early 60s when out house used to have a small room for storing different kinds of firewood besides varieties of coal: hard coke and charcoal. This assortment was used daily in a range of cookstoves, for instance; in-situ mud stoves and angithis as well as the portable ones. Igniting them and manipulating the heat itself was nothing less than an art form. Kerosene being rationed, was much lower down the fuel stack. Also, there was this issue of its strong smell particularly when the stoves were doused. And then came the LPG, first introduced by Burmah Shell (nationalized in 70s as BPCL). But to get a gas connection was not easy and it helped to have `connections’ to have one! But changeover from firewood to LPG in urban kitchens of that time was far from smooth.  Naturally, the traditionalists were of the view that the food cooked on LPG was inferior in taste compared to that cooked on firewood (interestingly, the same thing happened when pressure cookers were launched in late 50s-early 60s). I believe that it was sheer convenience of using LPG that eventually tilted the scales. 

The first oil shock of 70s spurred worldwide R&D in solar energy, India too being one of those pioneers. Domestic cooking was an area that attracted a lot of attention and the results were the family-size biogas plants and solar cookers. Indeed, if I may say so, the box-type solar cooker was the OG of slow cooking. Just fill the 4 containers with food items in the morning and leave the solar cooker outside in sunshine and presto, by noon you would get perfectly cooked dal, rice, and vegetables. Several constraints like the fact that it required open, sunny space or that roti and puries etc. couldn’t be cooked in solar cookers, or lack of after-sales service put paid to their proliferation. But many enthusiastic owners still vouch for the taste of solar cooked food. Slowly, the LPG became the mainstay of urban Indian cooking and with Ujjawala programme, LPG reached even rural areas. The present oil/gas shock has to be viewed against this backdrop. Somehow, even after accumulating all sort of electrical cooking appliances, urban kitchens do not use them optimally. Even as versatile appliance as microwave oven is used mostly for reheating only although people keep on buying fancier models with convection and air-frying features. Same goes for electric rice cookers.

With country importing 60% of its LPG requirement and about half of its liquefied natural gas (LNG), it is imperative to transit to more secure cooking alternatives like electric cooking to be self-reliant and resilient to external supply disruptions. The imported coal, on the other hand, for electricity generation constitutes only around 23% and is on declining trajectory with higher domestic production as well increasing share of renewable energy in India’s electricity mix (presently over 20%).  Of course, critical prerequisites for wider adoption of any kind of electric cooking remain the reliable and affordable electric supply although even today, at certain electricity tariffs, induction cooktops are more cost effective than LPG given their higher efficiency. An energy-secure and clean kitchen requires creative ways to circumvent any cooking constraints and above all, more adaptive mindsets.        

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