Dear Meagain, I've been following your postings for a while now, and almost feel I know you. Caveat on the gas cooktop. I too am a fan of cooking with a wok. When I built my house two years ago, I wanted a gas cooktop, since I've always been told how superior cooking on gas is. All gas cooktops are not alike! While shopping for my gas cooktop, the salesman never mentioned anything about BTU's. I just figured the same amount of heat must come out of all gas stoves. Wrong! Make sure that you have at least one burner with at least 14,000 BTU's for your wok. My puny 10,000 BTU burners on my GE cooktop merely get the oil in my wok to simmer, causing the food to absorb way too much oil as I stir fry. Can't you use the side burner on your Virco to do your woking? I just purchased a Virco, and the side burner on it produces more heat than my kitchen stove. To be honest, though, I haven't tried stir frying outside yet.

wekick, Thanks for your post. I'm sincerely glad you haven't had the issues I noted with the Wolf range. How long have you owned your Wolf? Wondering if it's only an issue with the recent Wolfs (Wolves?). Look at this link to a video of a paper test. Is this inaccurate?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGyugwvncFA&feature=related Interested to know if you found different results. Most shocking to me is the heat pattern. As for Wok cooking, I have a fairly powerful outdoor Wok burner 137K BTU but can't really accomplish that in my kitchen (probably unsafe and illegal). I live in northern Vermont and "wokking" outside isn't pleasant in the sub-zero weather we often get here. Also don't want a separate wok-only venting system and don't want to void my fire-insurance policy. Many of the dedicated built-in wok burners i've seen suitable for the home are actually rated around or even lower than 23K BTU and the better ones aren't much more than 30K BTU. Wolf's dedicated wok burner, for example, is only around 22K btu. I found the 23K Culinarian burners to do a fairly admirable job. In my experience, it's not just the BTUs that matter for successful wok cooking, but heat/flame pattern is equally important. I found the Culinarian burner flame pattern to be extremely Wok-friendly. There's an ongoing debate as to whether gas or electric is better for pastry baking (IMHO it depends what you're baking) but there's not much debate that gas is generally preferred for cooking/roasting meats/veggies and even bread which is more my bag. Depends upon preference, as you noted. Also I didn't mind the lack of rolling racks on the Wolf, but the Wolf range I tried didn't accommodate full-sized commercial sheet pans. Oven seemed a bit cramped. I also considered the Bluestar and still very much like the cast iron tops on them. The service record, however, concerns me. There also apparently remains major problems with door hinges, failing igniters, etc. I've considered an "additional" induction burner for my new kitchen, but would never replace open-flame cooking with induction. It is incredibly efficient but somehow lacks soul. Call me old fashioned or romantic or whatever, but I derive great joy from cooking and have never found cooking over electric, ceramic, or even induction to be as dynamic or satisfying. I won't even consider a sealed burner. This may be why i'm smitten with the Culinarian. It has the feel of a true commercial, open burner range, and nearly the power of one. I hope you don't take my post as in any way diminishing your choice. As you say, it's all personal preference and, having not yet placed my order for our 48" inch Culinarian, I'm open to being convinced to go another route if my experiences were anomalies that can be demonstrated. Continued satisfaction and happy cooking!

I think if wok cooking is priority, then open burner is a must. This is from personal experience. Do a search on "edge heating" or "perimeter heating" and you will probably find some discussions about this. I didn't mention Capital because, at least for now, there is not a Culinarian (i.e. open burner) drop-in cooktop yet. Once there is, my vote would move to that based on my experience with my CC range. Restaurant wok cookers/ranges are all north of 100k BTU some of the larger ones are around 200k BTU. Plus they use gas jets to focus the heat into a 3-5 inch diameter. It's pretty typical to get the bottom of the wok red hot while pre-heating... and yes, these high btu burners can get really dangerous in inexperienced hands. I have a 135k btu outdoor portable propane burner from outdoorstirfry which can outcook both the CC and BS.

I have the Eastman unit, and I've been very happy with it. Compared to a regular indoor gas stove burner it is very powerful, and I usually do not turn it up all the way. It has been very effective in stir frying relatively large quantities of chicken, veggies, etc, producing a true sear without steaming. The price is very reasonable, especially as it comes with the stand, wok, spatula, ladle and thermometer. It does not come with a lid, which I think is important for safety, but I ordered one from the Wok Shop. The OutdoorStirFry products look great also though. I'd love to give the 130k burner a whirl. kitch