Introduction
Sous vide is French cooking, which has the characteristics of accurate temperatures, easy operation and complete nutrition preservation. People widely use it all over the world, except in China. This article introduces the application status of French sous vide in the catering industry in China. Sous vide comes from French, which means a vacuum. The French sous-vide method began to be used in the later 20th century.
A French chef named Georges Pralus from Troisgros restaurant tried to put foie gras in a plastic vacuum bag in a low-temperature water bath to successfully obtain food with less quality loss and better texture and color than that produced by traditional cooking methods. China is a country that is thousands of miles away from the source land of Sous vide. China has a long and splendid food history, but the research and application of Sous vide is far behind that of developed countries in Europe and America. There are only a few high-class restaurants or individuals exploring and using Sous vide cooking.
1. The development status of Sous vide in China’s catering industry
1.1 The catering Industry
Although we relatively use the Sous vide much in the cooking of Western dishes, there are some high-class Chinese restaurants that have explored and studied Sous vide, and combined with traditional Chinese cooking, they have made many Chinese innovative and unique dishes. For example, VIA Slow Cooking Experience Restaurant located on Jianguo West Road in Shanghai is a Chinese restaurant specializing in Sous vide dishes. It is famous for dishes we make by slow cooking. There is one specialty we call it Sous vide fish. We cut a kind of fish with thick and tough skin into small cubes; then, quickly fry until it turns golden. We cook it at a low temperature for a long time. Finally, we serve it with broth. The fish is moderately tender.
1.2 Individual users
With the promotion of Sous vide, it has gradually changed from exclusive use in dedicated restaurants and the food industry to ordinary households. Sous vide cookers produced to meet the needs of civilians gradually appear. There are brands such as Nomiku and Polyscience. Since the Sous vide has entered the home as a new cooking method, people have begun to experience the sous vide while keeping the traditional cooking way, which greatly simplifies the processing of certain ingredients, improves the overall quality of home dishes, and subverts traditional home cooking.
1.3 Other related catering industries
In addition to the popularity in restaurants, the sous vide has also greatly impacted the food industry. Vacuum prepared food is called the new third-generation prepared food after the first-generation prepared food (canned food) and the second-generation prepared food (frozen food). A Frenchman named Nicolas Appert discovered that the food cooked in the bottle is not perishable without the leakage in the early 19th century. Canned food technology has become mature after hundreds of years of research and exploration. It is easy to store and was widely used as a kind of durable and important military supply; today, it has become a convenient food that everyone can easily get.
