This question comes up in the Facebook groups all the time when people 1st start using sous vide with their smokers and grills: "Should I smoke it before or after Sous Vide?". As with most cooking procedures, methods, doneness, tastes, etc, this can boil down to how you like to cook or which finished product you prefer after trying them both. You will always have people on both sides of any issue like this including pre or post seasoning, preferred times/temps, etc, but I am

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

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