N.Y. sous-vide ban puts pressure on fine-dining chefs nationwide

Nation's Restaurant News,  April 3, 2006  by Milford Prewitt

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NEW YORK -- Fine-dining chefs nationwide are troubled by a ban on vacuum-sealed cooking at this city's restaurants enacted last month by local health authorities.

Fearing that vacuum-sealed cooking--also known as sous vide--could lead to incidents of food poisoning if done improperly, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene prohibited use of the technique until officially sanctioned safety guidelines for the process are drafted. Health officials said they were particularly concerned about outbreaks of Listeria and botulism if temperature controls were poor or if oxygen were to breach the vacuum seals of sots-vide items.

Although the ban is in effect only in New York and it is unknown how many operators are affected, chefs across the country are concerned that the move by New York health authorities could influence officials in other cities to take similar action against the technique, in which vacuum-packed food is slowly cooked at 180 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit and then refrigerated until it is later reheated.

Arguing that sous vide is essentially a food manufacturing process that chefs are not taught in culinary school, New York health officials said chefs must either submit and gain approval for their own detailed Hazardous Analysis Critical Control Point, or HACCP, plans, or wait until the city unveils its own food safety protocols, which could happen as early as June. If chefs outline their own programs, they must consult with a credentialed food scientist or sanitarian and address how each food item--especially meat--is to be prepared.

In the meantime, New York operators are required to cover up the vacuum chamber machines they use to make sous-vide items. Some chefs already have been fined $300 or more and have said they have had to throw away thousands of dollars of prepared sous-vide dishes that had been frozen.

While it is unknown just how widespread the use of sous vide is nationwide, the New York ban has sent a chill up the spines of operators in other cities, who said they see the prohibition as unnecessary bureaucratic meddling in the businesses of a small number of fine-dining chefs.

"New York City is the leader in this industry," said Michael Long, chef-owner of Opus in Littleton, Colo., and a managing partner of the nearby Mill Steakhouse, who uses a vacuum chamber machine to prepare several menu items. "Those chefs are the most influential in our business, and it is a shame that among such a small network of passionate professionals a bureaucracy can upset their business overnight.

"But I fear this is something that is going to spread beyond New York, since so many get so many ideas from there," he added.

Christopher Lee, executive chef of Striped Bass in Philadelphia, said he does not understand the decision by New York City's health authorities to ban sous vide.

"You keep cold things cold under 40 degrees [Fahrenheit] and you keep hot things hot over 140 degrees [Fahrenheit], if you want to kill the bad stuff--no matter what technique you use to cook," said Lee, who regularly uses the sous-vide process. "Now unless that has changed, last time I checked that was still the best practice, and it's what they taught me in culinary school."

He added, "I guess it will only be a matter of time before Philadelphia's health department comes up with a similar guideline."

Long and Lee were not alone in their foreboding.

"I hope this doesn't give our local guys any bright ideas to do the same thing," said a prominent Los Angeles-area French chef, who requested anonymity in this article. He noted that his countrymen invented sous vide right after World War II. Sous vide is French for "under vacuum."

"We've been cooking this way for more than 14 years here, and the French have been doing it since the war," he said. "Show me where the danger is."

Health departments in other cities so far have not followed New York's lead.

Health authorities in San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia confirmed that they have not changed or altered their enforcement or inspection guidelines as they relate to sous vide. They noted that operators are obligated to use the standard put forward in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's 2005 model food code, which relies on HACCP, in the preparation of sous-vide items.

One of the elements of the food code enforced in Chicago is that operators are required to keep their vacuum chamber machines in an isolated area separate from the rest of the kitchen's food preparation and cooking stations, explained Tu Duc Pham, supervising sanitarian of the Chicago Department of Health.

A spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declined to discuss the new regulation in New York, but reported that the agency has no record of anyone in the United States becoming ill after eating food prepared through sous vide.

While many industry leaders and operators note that sous vide has been practiced by restaurateurs in New York since at least the mid-1980s, Elliott Marcus, associate commissioner of the New York City Health Department, said in an interview with The New York Times that the department didn't realize until January that chefs in the city were using the technique. He added that the agency considers sous vide a food manufacturing process that chefs are not taught in school, which poses a food safety liability if handled improperly.