I've cooked every day for 40 years. Before that, I learned to cook at home on an old fashioned electric stove with the coil elements.

Sure, the reaction time is slower. You learn to think ahead.

Nothing is optimal. The tenements that my kids lived in as students had gas stoves and zero ventilation. That couldn't have been a good idea.

Our latest stove is induction, made by LG, with control knobs. I love it. Best thing is it's easier to keep clean. I'm learning to be more reactive about turning the heat up and down, just because I can. Maybe I'll discover what I've been missing all these years.

Julia Child wrote that a home cook doesn't have to be a chef.