It seems like only yesterday we were all marveling at the new wave in techno cooking: the process of sous-vide. The circulators and gadgets looked fancy and complicated and the results were certainly impressive.
Fast forward to the real yesterday and the story in the Huffington Post: How Sous Vide Went From Haute Cuisine To Casual Dining. Writer Carey Polis tells us how large franchises such as Chipotle and Panera Bread have embraced the sous-vide technique and are now featuring boil-in-a-bag items on their menus.
Anybody else out there remember Stouffer’s or Banquet boil-in-a-bag dinners? If so, perhaps your mom was also an early pioneer (Tomasina Keller?) of sous-vide cooking when she slit open a thick plastic bag and poured chipped beef or Chicken ala King over semi-burnt toast.
Let’s have a little fun here. Panera Bread actually employs a sous-vide (soo veed) chef. In the video above, the handsome French (can we call him a “veeder”?) chef Bruno Bertin and handsome American chef Dan Kish of Panera demonstrate the sous and the vide of it all. Below, I have taken the liberty of posting a vintage Banquet commercial for your enjoyment. I’m dusting off a package of Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix and opening a bag of Fritos for the show.
