Modern Use
The sous-vide method is used in many high end gourmet restaurants by chefs such as John Tesar, Heston Blumenthal, Paul Bocuse, Michael Carlson, Thomas Keller, Grant Achatz, Ferran Adrià, Joël Robuchon, Alessandro Stratta, Charlie Trotter, Michael Mina, Jason Gibbins and others. Amtrak also uses this method for meals served on their trains, including Acela Express. Sous-vide has become a common feature on television cooking shows. It has also been used to quickly produce significant quantities of meals for hurricane evacuees. Non-professional cooks are also beginning to use sous-vide cooking. Initially, enthusiasts used laboratory-grade thermal immersion circulators, often bought used on eBay and requiring very careful cleaning, even then not being recommended for kitchen use. Beginning in 2008, Auber Instruments and Fresh Meals Solutions made available comparatively inexpensive, yet highly accurate PID controllers with an attached thermocouple probe that could be used to control a commercial rice cooker, slow cooker, electric stock pot, or similar apparatus. In late 2009 the Sous Vide Supreme sous-vide machine (which does not circulate the cooking water) and Addélice swid immersion circulator, both intended for home use and less expensive than laboratory-standard equipment at a few hundred US dollars, went on sale.
It is possible to duplicate some effects of sous-vide techniques with the use of a beer cooler filled with warm water, checked with an accurate thermometer, and ziploc bags with the air sucked out to package the food for cooking. However, the heat loss involved in this technique makes it unfeasible for long-term (4+ hours) cooking. Additionally, the high temperatures required for vegetables may melt the materials of the average cooler.
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