Terrapin: Colonel Terrapin

The Colonel is quoted as saying, "There's no reason to be the richest man in the cemetery. You can't do any business from there."

There are so many reasons to avoid the fast food industry. The goal of our kitchen is to help the slow food movement, avoiding all corn syrups and avoiding preservatives in our staples and cooking mediums such as TBHQ (tertiary butylhydroquinone) in our frying oil and salt in our butter. Salt is a preservative in itself, so salted butter is therefore not nearly as fresh as unsalted butter. We mix our own cooking oil using olive oil and grapeseed oil, therefore increasing our smoking points while retaining the flavor of the oil itself.

But even with all the hatred I carry for fast food operations who force our agricultural systems to feed corn to cows, and force chickens to grow at an exponential force, the Colonel was actually good for something in the end.

Please check out www.cookingissues.com for an expansive explanation of food sciences.

CVap Ovens

"CVap technology was originally developed for Kentucky Fried Chicken. Colonel Sanders needed something that would hold his chicken in perfect condition; he asked his friend and fryer guru, Winston L. Shelton, for help. In response, Shelton invented CVap (Controlled Vapor) technology. CVap ovens are basically food holding cabinets with a bain marie in the bottom. Both the oven cavity and the bain marie are heated and temperature controlled. The cook can control the humidity inside the oven by adjusting the difference in temperature between the bain marie and the oven air. The core temperature of the food will not rise above the temperature of the bain marie. The surface texture of the food is controlled by the humidity of the oven air. You set the temperature of the oven air much higher than the water for crispy foods, like fried chicken, and you set it the same temperature for low temp cooking. For a detailed discussion of why the CVap works, see here.

CVaps come in many shapes and sizes, from very large down to single drawers like this one.

The inside of a CVap.

The Cvap comes in a range of sizes, is much cheaper than a combi, doesn’t require a lot of power, doesn’t require a water supply or a drain, and is extremely easy to retrofit. Many restaurants in New York City bought CVaps immediately after the Health Department instituted HAACP control for sous-vide cooking. It is difficult to get a HAACP plan approved for sous-vide fish, and it is impossible to get one approved for fish below pasteurization temperatures (which is where we usually want to cook it). Since the possibilities of low temperature fish attracted many chefs to low temperature cooking in the first place, many took up the CVap. It was basically unheard of in chef circles prior to the health department crack down. The disadvantage of the CVap: it can start sucking wind if overloaded, or if the door is frequently opened and closed."

I've never worked with one of these machines before, but I have been fortunate enough to eat at Mccrady's in which these things are used to hold proteins at an alarmingly consistent rate. So in the end, without the expansion of our Colonel's fast food chains, chef's worldwide would have missed out on a groundbreaking kitchen tool that is rapidly spreading among the countries best kitchens.

The whole point of the rant was to remind everyone that we are serving our fried chicken and a glass of pinot every Wednesday night at the bar for $15.