Restaurant

If I serve sous vide which takes a long time to make, and serve it on restauarant.

How would you do it for the best results?

What is the disadvantage if one cooks the food before and when the food is done we cool it in ice bath. So into the fridge. And when the customer orders, we warm it in sous vide again.

Is there any meat, fish or vegetables I should avoid in this process?

Thanks!

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Eric_M_16062

I'm not sure the context. There are items that make sense to cool and retherm, such as confits, custards, veggies etc... However, to retherm a long cooking cut sous vide doesn't work for me. I find that searing meat post circulator is texturally more enjoyable. Sear and rest properly.

As far as proteins that wouldn't take long, why cool them at all? It's just going to detract from your finished product. I don't totally agree with the practise; though, I've worked a few chophouses that would use circulators to bring product to just under rare, then we'd finish on the grill. Personally, I feel one should be able to get that accuracy by setting up hot and cool spots with their flame, but given the volume, it made sense.

A good rule of thumb is once you start raising the internal temperature of a protein, try as hard as you can to never let it drop prior to serving. Cooking is all about temperature, not time.

... Not that I'm really in a position to give advice, it's just what's worked for me.

T__2156

I wouldn't give advice on a topic about which your local health department will surely have opinions, but I have often thought that hotel restaurants could jump on sous vide - using precisely the process you describe - for room service meals at 3:00am. One person could retherm and sear off several pre-packaged bags, plate them nicely, and send them up. That said, I'm totally unqualified to give the kind of advice you seek.

As for particular ingredients to avoid or seek, see if you can find someone who owns the Modernist Cuisine six-volume set. It includes "best bet" charts for sous vide cooking a wide range of meats and vegetables. You might be able to find a picture of these charts on the internet if you search...

Lukas_67415

Some things work very well if reheated or just served cold. Salmon 104 for example is amazing. Once you take it out of the ice bath and place in the refrigerator it last up to 6-7 days in perfect conditions. In my restaurant we also cook tough meats the traditional way, let them cool down outside and then in the freezer (*meat should always be cold 5C when you vacuum pack it so it doesn´t dry out ,Modernist Cuisine). Once cold they are vacuumed packed. They last up to 4-5 days in the refrigerator. When needed we just put the bag in a circulating bath at 80 for about 5 minutes and then we sear. The quality is not affected that much. I have done some experiments with tenderloin and the quality is significantly affected when the piece is cooled and reheated. It gets worse as days go by. The meat starts to loose liquids. It would be great if the Chef Steps team could give us a chart with the types of meats that can undergo this cooling and reheating process without the affecting the quality.

Lukas_67415

I will look for the chart. The problem is my version is in Spanish.

T__2156

d'oh. If you have an iOS device, you can try an app called "word lens" which lets you point your camera at spanish, and it'll translate the text on your screen?

Demixl_1012411

There are different dishes, some should be cooled before serving , and some should be reheated.. Molecular cuisine dishes will have to be prepared right before serving, so everything is very individual. By the way I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that there was a molecular kitchen in San Diego. I have long dreamed of trying molecular cuisine and finally my dream came true.As usual on Friday evening I was looking for a restaurant where to go with my husband on the best San Diego restaurants site and saw an offer from this restaurant. We immediately decided to go there ,even though the restaurant is located on the other side of the city. But the time spent on the road was worth it. The food was really amazing...