commissary INSIDER - December 2017 - 14

Equipment:

The sous vide
emergence
by Ryan Atkinson

ous vide isn't necessarily a new
cooking technique, but it isn't still
in its infancy either. First used in
1799 and re-discovered by American
and French engineers in the mid-1960s,
the sous vide method involves cooking
food - usually meat - in a vacuumsealed plastic pouch that is then placed
in a water bath for longer than normal
cooking times.
While sous vide is catching on in home
kitchens across the country, its acceptance in supermarket foodservice
departments, c-stores - and the production facilities that supply them - is
moving at a much slower rate.
In fact, Chuck Currie, a well-known
British Columbia chef and current foodservice consultant, says even restaurants have been slow to come around to
sous vide.
"To be frank, I don't really blame anybody (in the retail world) for not getting
this about sous vide because the restau-

rant industry is no better," says Currie,
who owns Quality Food, Systems and
Training. "Sous vide in restaurants is the
area with foufou chefs."
And that's too bad, Currie says, because
the method can be a monumental money maker.
"The crazy thing on the sous vide side:
if they went to sous vide beef and turkey - it could also apply to hams and
corned beef too - they would save so
much money. Holy cow," he says. "It's a
20 percent higher yield than any other
method and that 20 percent yield is all
there in flavor and tenderness."
The extra yield, flavor and tenderness
is the result of the meat cooking at the
correct temperature, where the connective tissue collagen is transformed
to gelatin. The product is preternaturally tender and juicy. The gelatin, according to Currie, also help keep the
meat's flavor on the tongue longer, dramatically enhancing taste. For poultry,

THE LOWER COOKING TEMPERATURES AND
INCREASED COOKING TIME OF SOUS VIDE HELP
INCREASE YIELD, FLAVOR, MOISTNESS AND
TENDERNESS,
PHOTO: QUALITY FOOD, SYSTEMS AND TRAINING

lean meat gets more and more tender
and stays moist.
"When you're talking about turkey and
beef and other things supermarkets deal
with, this is one of those rare things that
could revolutionize their business," he
says. "You're talking 20 percent higher
yield and an unbelievable difference in
quality."

Inside the reluctancy
Currie puts much of the blame for sous
vide's slow uptake on one major factor:
simply, supermarkets don't know what
they don't know.
"In my experience, the problem is that
they're moving into home meal replacement in addition to the deli stuff and barbecue chicken," he says. "And they don't
have anybody from foodservice in their
corner. It's a fantastic model for business,
but they're not getting the help they need."

SOUS VIDE CAN INCREASE YIELD IN ANY CUT OF MEAT. CHEF CHUCK CURRIE SAYS THAT EXTRA YIELD
AVERAGES AT LEAST 20 PERCENT. .
PHOTO: QUALITY FOOD, SYSTEMS AND TRAINING

14 * DECEMBER 2017

commissary INSIDER

Many retailers, he says, are still working with the same suppliers they always
were, even before the days of increased
emphasis on foodservice.

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