Chefs Sing Praises of Sous Vide

"This is not your mother's boil-in-a-bag," write's Tara Duggan of the San Francisco Chronicle of "sous vide" cooking, a French cooking technique of immersing food in a vacuum-sealed bag. While they don't trumpet it on menus, Bay Area Chefs are smitten with the precision and flavor of sous vide.

Meat can be cooked to the desired temperature without getting tough; vegetables without getting mushy. "There's no mistake possible," gushes chef Thomas Keller, who's writing a cookbook on the subject.  Still, it's not something to try at home just yet; it takes training to avoid bacteria that thrive in low temperatures. (More sous vide stories.)