These are the instructions that came with my wok from wokshop.com: The wok is carbon steel and has to be seasoned to prevent it from rusting. The seasoning process is relatively easy to do. Just wash and dry your wok thoroughly. Coat lightly, interior and exterior , with cooking oil. Bake in hot oven, 425 degrees for 20 minutes. Place in oven upside down. (before baking, remove side handle and cover spool handle with damp dishcloth and cover dishcloth with alum foil. This will protect your wooden handle. You will have to dampen cloth each time you bake because heat will dry out dampened cloth...2 times...) Remove from oven, let cool to touch and scour wok with an abrasive pad. Scour the "seasoning" or patina away...like you want the wok back to its original finish. Wash, dry, coat and bake again...same process. Do this 2 times. After the last baking, you will not be able to scour the seasoning away...and that is the result you want. The wok is seasoned. Mine is all seasoned and ready to fire up. Now all I need is my Culinarian. Should be here any day now....

For stir-frying, burner shape is as important or even more important than burner power. I test drove the Miele and Dacor cooktops as well as the BlueStar rangetop we chose. (Not an apples to apples test but at first I was hesitant to give up the space to a rangetop - then when I found out how much better the BlueStar performed for stir frying I changed my mind.) The 15K BTU burners on our Bluestar that are about the same power as the Miele and Dacor burners stir fry much better because they are much more efficient at delivering heat to the bottom of the wok and they do it very evenly. The 22K BTU burner on our BlueStar is even better. When I tested the Dacor and Miele with a chicken stir fry, I put in half the chicken at a time to sear to not overload it and it still wasn't a perfect sear. When I tested the BlueStar, it was a hot day and my DH had packed the ice chest so carefully that the chicken was mostly frozen when I took it out to start cooking. But if I was going to sacrifice my drawer to the rangetop it better be good so I put in all the chicken at once and the BlueStar immediately had it sizzling and seared perfectly. The food really tasted different cooked on the BlueStar. I highly recommend calling around the appliance stores to see if you can find one with the types of burner you are considering hooked up so you can try a stir fry recipe on the burner. I took the same wok and recipe ingredients to each cooktop/rangetop I was considering and learned a lot by doing that. If Bluestar offered a single burner version of their rangetop, that is what I would recommend to you. If you don't have a chance to do that, what you want to look for is a burner that has a shape to deliver heat efficiently and evenly to the bottom of a wok. An example of a bad type of shape is the sealed burner like on the Dacor and Miele cooktops. These have a flat circular top and flame comes out of the side of the circle. The higher you turn the burner up, the more the flame shoots out to the side; no flame goes up in the center of the burner. An example of a type that works really well for a wok is the BlueStar burner shape where the flame comes straight up out of the burner. The burner shape has a circle of flame at the center of the burner and 8 star rays of flame coming out from that circle. The center grate comes off the burner so that the wok sits right down into the flame and heat is delivered to the whole bottom of the wok. This is very similar to the wok arrangements I saw in China. A friend has the DCS wok burner and that does a very good job. We have the Miele oven. I'm very happy with its cooking performance but I find its controller kind of annoying at times. Its heating is very stable and accurate. It cooks bread well. Things I don't like: Maximum timer setting is 59 minutes and 59 seconds. I'd gladly give up the seconds to have a timer that times longer than an hour. If you put in the time and then forget to hit the button that starts the timer, it waits a bit and then cancels the timer. Too many modes - for example they have a proofing mode that only allows two temps (both higher than I would usually want to proof at) and a defrost mode with a wide range of temps (which is what I use for proofing because I can set it to 80 or 90 degrees). One ends up having to learn little tricks like which baking mode lets you set the temp up to 550 degrees (most of the modes stop at 500). If the BlueStar ovens had been available when we were choosing, I'd have been very tempted to choose them. I'm short and the side opening door would be easier for me. The one downside is that they aren't self-cleaning and I'm rather addicted to not having to clean my oven. How is your breaker box occupancy? Ours is full. If you want to add that other oven at a later date, will you have a 220 V breaker spot open? That might be one reason to choose between gas and electric ovens.

Thanks for your insights. Commenting on your questions in reverse order: (a) I do not have any experience with gas wok cooking, so even if I thought my induction wok technique was good, I couldn't compare. I can say that for quantities sufficient for several people, cooked sequentially in the induction wok and then combined and finished, my 3500W Cooktek can manage more than enough power. However, it heats a ring area of the wok so the very bottom (4-inch diameter?) is heated via conduction. I suspect a gas-experienced wok user would have to modify his technique somewhat. (b) I recommend reading the first dozen pages or so of Greenheck's guide: http://www.greenheck.com/media/pdf/otherinfo/KVSApplDesign_catalog.pdf particularly the table on airflow rates, to gain insight into this subject. I usually recommend 90 CFM/sq. ft. of hood entry aperture. This is realized (actual) flow rate; blower rated flow rate may need to be 1.5X or more of this value depending on various factors. Hoods need to overlap the cooking zone, and side skirts may be called for in some configurations. MUA is a big deal and needs to be addressed at the same time as the ventilation approach. (c) If you were to use a commercial wok burner and commercial hood, the fire suppression is built in. I don't know what options are available to avoid a possible sprinkler mess vs. some other kind of chemical spray mess. Non-messy halon extinguishers may not be allowed in a home. What is allowed needs to be discussed with your code enforcement officer. I don't doubt that there is some construction approach that should be acceptable, but it is likely location specific. Also, ask your insurance company. Give up the idea of nesting the range and hood into a nice set of wood cabinets if you are going commercial. Stove and hood may need to be spaced away from any walls, which in most residences are combustible, no matter what surface materials are used to protect them. In new construction, or with sufficient land, thought could be given to following the approach of 'higher-end' historical Chinese rural homes -- wood construction kitchens were separated from the wood construction living quarters for good reasons. http://yinyutang.pem.org/

If I might offer a downside to using a ring between a round bottom wok and a gas burner... If used often enough with high heat, the stovetop area within the ring begins to degrade, stain and in some cases warp somewhat since there is nowhere for excess heat to go except to be absorbed back into the stovetop surface. I have several woks of different materials and sizes and when using inside, I prefer my nonstick anodized aluminum flat bottom wok which will sit squarely above (gas) or directly on top of an electric burner. (Seems like there should be a comma or two in there but don't know where they'd go!) I also have a couple of steel woks, one perforated and one large round bottom with no holes that I use on my outside grill. If I was in the market for a wok, my first choice would be flat bottomed as you can use it on just about any surface except the blowtorch style stovetops you find in an oriental style kitchen or restaurant. Wok material is best left to your own situation but would note here that personally, I wouldn't spend a load of money on a pan that is particular to a cooking style that you may or may not be attracted to after a few meals. Woks can be had for dirt cheap to extremely expensive so even though a carbon steel wok may be the least expensive and have a tiny bit more maintenance, its probably the best starter pot unless you're one that likes to show off your cookware. Although I've seen cast iron woks, they seem very heavy (weight wise) compared to other materials. As noted above though, cooking items in a wok can also be accomplished just as easily in almost any cooking pan of suitable style, height and weight. It might be advisable to try the method first, adapt to the different cooking style it presents, and then add another pan to your collection only after you see if it meets your expectations. Some of us may have limited storage area for cooking pots and pans and from experience, I know that in general, a wok of any style is not usually an everyday cooking accessory unless you really want or need it to be.