A new way of working with woks saves water
Traditionally, within a commercial kitchen a wok-stove needs a constant flow of water to keep the work top cool enough for the chef to cook – each stove can use up to 5,000 litres of water a day. In fact, studies have shown that Asian-style restaurants can use twice as much water as other restaurants due to traditional cooking methods like steaming, seafood preparation and cooking with water cooled wok stoves.
We found that many Asian restaurants in our service area were keen to save water but had simply never been told how. In early 2008, we started work with Gold Leaf restaurant in Sunshine to reduce their water use. With 300 seats, Gold Leaf is one of the biggest yum cha restaurants in Melbourne’s west.
Its bustling kitchen contained commercial steamers and three 5-burner wok-stoves, and these were using considerable amounts of water. Needless to say, Gold Leaf’s water bills were high.
Gold Leaf management were keen to trial new ideas to help curb their water use. The commercial steamers were promptly replaced and the kitchen staff trialled a new waterless wok, which uses air to cool the stove top rather than a constant flow of water.
Gold Leaf staff learned how to read the meter each night to look for any unusual increases in their daily water use. Water bills were also translated into Chinese so staff could see the water and cost savings for themselves.
As a result of their hard work, Gold Leaf restaurant has slashed its water use by around 12,000 litres a day and expects to further reduce it by up to four million litres a year.
To encourage other businesses to follow Gold Leaf’s example, we developed a specific program for Asian restaurants throughout the CBD and western suburbs of Melbourne. The ‘Woking the Way to Water Savings’ program includes tailored workshops and brochures about how to save water and money in Asian languages. The program was officially launched at Gold Leaf in March 2008.