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Has the focus of Chef Steps shifted?

Rory_22257

From the Sous Vide course to recipe publication? I'm not complaining either way but we seem to be seeing fewer of the former and more of the latter.

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richard.fine

One of the things that's particularly valuable isn't just when you explain how and why to do something, but also when you explain how and why *not* to do things - particularly when it comes to approaches that others might recommend. Sometimes it's pretty obvious from the explanation of what's really going on with the food, but it can help to directly call out popular misconceptions and tempting (but harmful) deviations.

michaelnatkin

Adding on to this, another direction we see things going is more just-in-time learning in the context of a recipe. So if a recipe is asking you to trim an artichoke or smoke a beet or make a fluid gel, and you aren't sure how to do that - or, equally, if you know how, but want to understand the science behind it - that information is presented to you right when you need it.

Rory_22257

Thanks Chris for your comments.

Personally I love the site, I can't get enough of this stuff and I check the site every day to watch the latest video whatever it be. But I ask because the Sous Vide course content is quite unique and it brings this new cooking technique to a much wider audience than those of us who have a chemistry set for a kitchen (I am guilty of this).

I gave my Mum (who is a very competent cook) a sous vide for xmas along with Modernist Cuisine at Home. Despite being quite accessible she found the whole lot a little too intimidating and 'too technical looking'. However more recently I sent her some links to the early sous vide course videos to which she replied "Well thats easy, I can do that!".

I'm excited about what the Chef Steps team has in store for the future. Keep up the good work.

Chris_Young_80640

@Rory — No, ChefSteps will not just become a recipe site. But, yes, we are making some big changes and you'll start to see these as soon as next week. We really have three different kinds of content we would like to be able to share:

(1) Cooking Knowledge: Food science and sometimes simply things we find interesting about how the world around us works. Think of this as answering the why's that often get asked about recipes and techniques.

(2) Cooking Technique: This is really the how's of modern and traditional cooking.

(3) Recipes

Of these, recipes are about ten times faster for us to produce, and so you've been seeing a lot of these lately. But be assured that we aren't abandoning techniques or the science of cooking. More of this will be coming.

seijoed

I'll add a second comment, this is all about techniques with a lot of science,

In cooking school you'll see things like, knife skills, prep, sautée, braise and roasting

classes, forcemeat, fish, game, butchering - all of those classes

will focus in learning techniques - right?

Since I think we all here for some value of it want to explore modernist

techniques, the recipes are an invaluable way of sharing techniques.

Already in the first salmon recipe we got Xhantan,

In the smoking we got thermometer and humidity control.

With the challenges we see people sharing and it i bet gives

The guys and gals a pretty simple way of judging when to introduce new things,

we attract more and more skilled people, we are moving at a pace I find tons

better than what occurred on eGullet and other forums.

Just my .2c

seijoed

I'm kinda tickled pink that that is happening to be honest.

It might be that I'm a long time sous vide tinkerer but once you

have your protein and veg temps and times there is not that much

to it, the insight into recipe creation, people discussing new techniques

and sharing insight is far more valuable to me.