Microsoft’s hottest new product is . . . a wok

▤ Summary

The company is adding 3 million square feet of offices and facilities, and the entire project is being designed to be powered by a vast geothermal system and produce zero carbon emissions. “Commercial kitchens use about five times more energy than an office building,” says Katie Ross, global real estate and facilities sustainability lead at Microsoft. It’s a 13,000-square-foot LEED Platinum-rated green building, with 400 pieces of electric kitchen equipment capable of preparing about 1,000 meals a day across 9 dining concepts featuring different cuisines. Chefs keep these pans smoking with hot oil, moving almost nonstop and tipping their edges to touch the flames of the stovetop, giving food a characteristic sear and char. Over the course of two years they codeveloped a new kind of wok-cooktop combination that allows both the motion a chef needs and the constant contact induction cooking requires.

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Microsoft

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