Establish whether the glass is radiant ceramic or induction, because Chef sells both and they behave in opposite ways. On gas, lift the trivets and caps and soak them. Whichever you have, the method matters less than the timing: warm surfaces clean easily and cold ones do not.
Chef cooktops are cheap, durable and everywhere, which means most of them are cleaned by people who did not choose them and have never seen a manual. Two things about the brand decide how the job goes.
It is usually radiant ceramic, not induction
If yours is glass, it is much more likely to be radiant ceramic than induction. An element beneath the glass glows red and heats the glass, which heats the pan, so the whole zone gets extremely hot and stays hot for minutes afterwards. Anything that lands on it cooks on straight away.
Induction heats the pan directly and leaves the glass barely warm, which is why induction advice describes spills wiping off effortlessly. On a Chef that advice usually does not apply.
The test takes seconds: in a dim kitchen, a radiant zone glows orange through the glass and an induction zone does not. Our cooktop cleaning guide covers how to tell them apart properly and the method for each surface.
The practical version is that on a Chef the moment to clean is while the zone is still warm and the cooking is finished. That window is when a spill will still lift with a scraper and a cloth. Miss it and you are into a much longer job.
Sugar is the exception that cannot wait at all. Molten sugar bonds to hot glass and can take the surface layer with it when it eventually comes off, and that is the one permanent mark you can inflict.
The gas models
Plenty of Chef cooktops are gas, with enamelled steel or cast iron trivets over enamelled burner bases.
Lift the trivets, caps and crowns off cold, photographing the layout first because caps are sized per burner. Soak the trivets and enamelled caps flat in hot water with a non-caustic degreaser for an hour, in a tub lined with an old towel. Work them with a stiff nylon brush rather than wire, which scars enamel and leaves the scars to rust.
Clear the burner ports with a soft brush and a wooden toothpick, never a metal pin, because enlarging a port changes the gas-to-air mix. Keep liquid off the ignition electrodes beside each burner, or they click without lighting until they dry.
The rental question
Because Chef is what goes into an investment property, a great many of these hobs are cleaned against an inspection date rather than a personal standard.
What gets looked at is predictable: the glass surface, the trivets and caps if it is gas, the area around the edge trim where spills collect, and the control knobs and the panel behind them. The last one is worth naming because it is the most commonly missed. Knobs pull off on most Chef hobs and the fascia behind them collects a ring of grease that is invisible until they are removed.
Our end of lease oven cleaning page covers what agents in Sydney actually ask for, and the hob is usually assessed alongside the Chef oven below it.
It shares a platform with Westinghouse and Electrolux
All three are part of the same group and their hobs are frequently close relatives, with Chef sitting below Westinghouse on price. If the Chef documentation for an older model is thin, the equivalent Westinghouse listing usually describes the same surface, which is useful when you are trying to establish whether a glass top is ceramic or induction and the badge is all you have.
What never to use
- Steel wool, scourers or scouring powder on glass. One pass leaves permanent haze.
- A metal blade held flat. Ceramic scraper at a shallow angle only.
- Oven cleaner on a glass hob, which can etch or discolour it.
- Wire brushes on enamelled trivets.
- Cleaner sprayed onto the hob, which runs under the trim into the electronics. Spray the cloth.
What actually goes wrong
A ceramic hob treated as induction, so spills are left to cool and then will not shift.
Permanent sugar damage from a boil-over left until the surface cooled.
Haze across the glass from a scourer used in frustration.
A greasy ring behind the knobs that nobody found because the knobs never came off.
Rusted trivets dried by air rather than by hand.
Should you do it yourself?
Do it yourself, and the answer is timing rather than technique. Wipe the zone while it is warm and you will rarely need anything else.
Get someone in if there is an inspection date, if a ceramic top has months of baked film, or if you are booking the oven anyway, which most people do.