Friday, November 28, 2008
Sous Vide
As defined by dictionary.com, "the technique of cooking ingredients in a vacuum-sealed plastic pouch, usually for a long time at a low temperature". My definition: it's a bunch of hooey. Oh, I know, technically, it's not hooey, it's science. But I find it highly contrived. It's a method that a home cook can never hope to replicate inexpensively and to me, that makes it elitist in the worst sense of the word. Eating, and thus cooking should be the most democratic (small d) activity in the world. There's no real reason that the average cook should find anything beyond his or her skill/interest level.
Sauteeing fresh greens and presenting them in an appealing way shouldn't be out of the reach of the average cook. You shouldn't have to train for years with a master chef to prepare dinner. One of my fav cooking-y things authors, Michael Ruhlman, is a big fan. Of course, he hangs out with Thomas Keller and Grant Achatz, who made the technique trendy (and I hate putting Keller's name and the word "trendy" in a sentence). I guess if I were buds with them, I'd dig it too. Or at least I'd say I did.
I'm not sure why this cooking method raises my hackles so much, but it does. I find it so freaking pretentious it's unreal.
Sauteeing fresh greens and presenting them in an appealing way shouldn't be out of the reach of the average cook. You shouldn't have to train for years with a master chef to prepare dinner. One of my fav cooking-y things authors, Michael Ruhlman, is a big fan. Of course, he hangs out with Thomas Keller and Grant Achatz, who made the technique trendy (and I hate putting Keller's name and the word "trendy" in a sentence). I guess if I were buds with them, I'd dig it too. Or at least I'd say I did.
I'm not sure why this cooking method raises my hackles so much, but it does. I find it so freaking pretentious it's unreal.
