Sous Vide - Under Vacuum - from the French translation is actually a method of cooking, which is becoming commonly popular in many top notch restaurants. Indeed it is a favourite of the gourmet chefs such as Heston Blumenthal and Paul Bocouse. Dishes are cooked within vacuum sealed bags in waterbaths - a piece of cooking machinery filled with water and kept at the desired temperature. This may take up to 72 hours for certain cuts of meat but may take only minutes for more delicate and simple dishes such as fish or chicken portions.
Indeed this method has even been used for feeding 400 evacuees of the Katrina hurricane. In a little over sixty minutes chefs had served up a five star menu of nine extravagant courses and maintained this for several days! - thanks to the use of a water bath system of cooking.
By using lower temperatures in the water bath chefs can maintain the veracity of the dishes, often enhancing the tastes and textures of the ingredients, themselves. Sous Vide machines are also used in food production areas and can be used for creating mains and desserts in the same bath. many chefs report that once they know how to use these cooking machines they use them everyday and the usage becomes quite addictive.
These simple but effective water baths do take some practice and experimenting with. There are training courses available for wannabe chefs and professionals to learn how to make the most of this method of cooking. They offer many advantages such as reduction of wastage, speeding up of operations in the kitchen and fast production from store during quieter periods not to mention creating highly polished finished dishes.
Water baths must be used within a professional kitchen environment so that correct health & safety and HACCP procedures are adhered to in order to remove the risk of food poisoning.
