Case Study: Gold Leaf Chinese Restaurant

Waterless Woks Case Study

Wok stoves in commercial kitchens often require constant flowing water to maintain the right temperature. The waterless wok presents a great opportunity to reduce water use in Asian food restaurants & takeaway establishments.

Overview

Gold Leaf Chinese Restaurant is based in Sunshine, Victoria. The restaurant uses woks & steamers to produce a lot of its cooked food. Gold Leaf partnered with their water supplier, City West Water, who provided advice on how the restaurant could reduce it's water usage.

Wok stoves in commercial kitchens often require constant flowing water to maintain the right temperature. The waterless wok presents a great opportunity to reduce water use in Asian food restaurants & takeaway establishments.

Aim

To reduce water used in Asian style restaurants with commercial wok stoves and steamers

Project implementation

Upgrade of commercial steamer and dishwasher and the introduction of a waterless wok.

Technology used

Like most wok stoves in commercial kitchens, Gold Leaf’s wok stoves were previously cooled by a constant flow of water to keep the woks cool enough for the chef to cook. Each stove could use up to 5,000 litres of water per day. By replacing one stove with a waterless wok that uses air rather than water for cooling, along with a new steamer and dishwasher, the restaurant’s water consumption has decreased by around 90%.

Results - Water savings

Over 5 million litres of drinking water per year (Around 14,000 litres water per day).

Other savings or improvements

• Staff educated in reading the meter each night to look for unusual increases in their daily water use.
• Owner was able to raise awareness of water shortages with his staff, as many do not speak English as their first language.
• Old wok stoves that still use water are now switched off when not in use
• Water monitoring led to the discovery of a massive underground leak in 2009, resulting in renovation and new plumbing to prevent any future leaks.

Total Project Cost: $20,000
Project Payback: 3 years
Project Completed: 2008