Happy New Year to everyone! I am looking forward to some exciting things for 2019, but first I would like to do a quick recap of what we accomplished in 2018. If you don't know, we started developing "Fire & Water Cooking" in May 2018 as a way to help others learn how to use sous vide and mix it in with barbecue, smoking, and grilling. I had spent a few months really studying sous vide and found that it worked perfect incorporating it into my barbecue and other cooking I have

One of the things I learned a long time ago when I first started cooking in restaurants at the sweet young age of 16, is that people love to eat food that tastes good but that also looks appetizing. There is no doubt in my mind that plating and presentation can affect how people perceive the food they are about to eat, especially if they are paying a big premium for it at an expensive, white table cloth restaurant. When we pay premiums for something we also expect a premium p

A little history... Since I was really young I have been drawn to the kitchen for some reason. I used to love hanging out with my mom as she cooked, baked, and prepared our meals. I would watch her put time, attention, and love into every thing she made even if it was just a box of hamburger helper. We grew up pretty poor and she had to raise six children on her own, but we never missed a meal and those meals were always cooked with love. I started my first job when I was lik

One of the biggest issues that seem to infect many parts of the social media cooking groups that gets under my skin is the notion that there is only one "best" way to cook something. It does not matter if it is a sous vide group, a barbecue group, or even a overall cooking group, there are always those few guys out there that like to beat people over the head with their idea of what is the "Best" way to do something, and if you dare do it any other way you are wrong... I have

If you ask Meathead from Amazing Ribs, he will tell you he invented the term "Sous Vide Que" a couple of years ago when he started playing around with the method and noticed it would work great with some of his barbecue recipes. I have always admired Meathead as he has always been more science focused on how barbecue and most other cooking preparations work instead of going by tradition, rumors, and old wives tales. Meathead went on to do some work with the guys over at Chef

one of the most often asked questions that comes up in the sous vide groups on Facebook from people who are new to it is "Is it Safe"? Two of the main reasons this is asked is due to the cooking temperatures used in sous vide are usually well below what the USDA says are "Safe" to avoid food borne pathogens. The other is from those how fear that cooking in plastic may leach unwanted chemicals into their food. I will address these two topics below. Unsafe Temperatures?: There

Let me start by saying I have always loved to cook since I was just a kid watching my mom make me meals in our modest kitchen back so many years ago. I always loved to help out and when I was in my mid teens one of the 1st real jobs I had was washing dishes in a restaurant at the age of 14. When I turned 17 I was able to step up and move to being a line cook learning how to prep and plate breakfast, lunch and dinner menu items for a popular chain restaurant. My love of cookin