"SousVide" news and stories

A few of the best stories spied elsewhere on the Web this week:

Bravo announces that "Top Chef Masters'" will be renewed for a second season, this time with the addition of Food & Wine's Gail Simmons to the judges' table.

Chicago pizza lover Craig Scharoff takes a bet to eat only sausage pizza for one month and, with a little over a week left, Scharoff has actually lost a few pounds, owing to the fact that he no longer eats his kids' leftovers.

We know you'll be lining up for the Heston Blumenthal-endorsed SousVide Supreme, the first to market sous vide machine for the ambitious home cook who can't live without the tender texture and flavor the cooking method yields.

In surprising and annoying study news, researchers found that in addition to red wine, prolonged contact with white wine erodes tooth enamel -- making teeth more sensitive to cold, hot and sweet food, as well as staining. Even more surprising is that brushing teeth after drinking white wine worsens the damage.

The new edition of classic cooking tome "Larousse Gastronomique" arrives in stores with a thud, weighing in at eight pounds and 1,206 pages, with updates from avant-garde chefs such as Ferran Adria and Thomas Keller along with recipes for traditional French dishes like crepes suzettes.

For your ever-so-gently-surreal Thanksgiving viewing pleasure, Alinea's Grant Achatz breaks down and sous vides a turkey -- just like Grandma used to. No vacuum sealer or immersion circulator needed. Sadly, there's no nitrogen-blasted green bean casserole or marshmallow and yam alginate spheres on the menu this time, but hey -- there's always Christmas.

Watch Part 2 -- Sous Vide Stuffing and Deep-Fried Bourbon Pumpkin Pie on a Flaming Cinnamon Stick on YouTube and sign up for free recipes at alinea-mosaic.com.

The New York City campaign against sous vide cooking continues, but with a little bit of new light shed on the subject. As expected, it is not the practices of all chefs who use the technique that are under fire, but the practices of some who are risking the use of the cooking method for all. According to this week's New York Times, the cooking technique that locks in moisture and flavor by keeping the food sealed in a vacuum might also lock in bacteria because some sous vide chefs also store their food in vacuum sealed packages.

Contrary to popular belief, vacuum sealing a food is not enough to prevent the growth of bacteria and cooks who store and cook their food in the same container are risking the health of their customers. In France, where the technique originated, chefs are required to cook food immediately after it has been sealed and cooked to an internal temperature of at least 132.8 degrees F, at which point most of the potential bacteria in the food will have been killed.

The health department's new guidelines will not be released until the summer, and until then chefs who use sous vide in New York risk facing charges of a misdemeanor, with a possibility of imprisonment.

Source

Food trends aren't sudden and flashy like the styles clothing or iPods; they tend to ebb and flow; few foods gain universal acceptance, few ever die out entirely. The trends of one year will overlap with those from the year before. You'll see many of these on the lists of 2004 and 2006, and probably a few on 1952, 2035. There were some undeniably 2005 phenomena, like cold sake and sous vide. Others are just a bit more hip this year than last.

The food fashions of 2005 run the gamut from the saucy to the silly to the sublime. Our ratings? They're completely subjective. Let us know what you think.