Italian cuisine meeting held in Cuba
Havana, Oct 27 (RHC) A meeting on Italian cuisine in Cuba concluded today at the ArteChef School Restaurant with the aim of expanding the spectrum of gastronomic tourism in the island.
Under the title The Secrets of Italian Cuisine in Cuba, it was held from October 23 to 27, with the purpose of updating, training and internationalizing local chefs in the flavor and creativity of Italian dishes, favoring the meeting between two important international cultures.
The cooking teacher at the Italian Enaip Veneto Impresa Sociale, Chef Davide Saretto, was in charge of the Sous Vide course, Vacuum Cooking at Low Temperature, knowledge that provides the possibility for Cuban chefs and Italian teachers to carry out a rich cultural exchange.
He specified that it is the fourth time he visits Cuba through the Italian Agency for Foreign Trade ITA (Italian Trade Agency), office for the promotion of commercial exchange of the Italian embassy in Havana.
He described such an opportunity as an enormous pleasure, as well as spreading the use of new technology to carry out Sous vide cooking, a French term that means Under vacuum, which refers to the cooking of food under controlled and stable temperature conditions inside empty plastic bags.
Saretto specified that this method is used in the food industry to increase the shelf life of a food, and when vacuum pasteurized bags are stored below 3.3 degrees Celsius they remain safe and pleasant for about three or four weeks.
He further explained that Sous vide cooking is different from traditional methods essentially involving raw foods placed inside vacuum-packed plastic bags where the food is prepared using heating tools that allow precise temperature control.
Saretto added that the vacuum bag with the food is immersed in a temperature-controlled water bath and the sealing has several advantages because it allows heat to be efficiently transferred from the water (or steam) to the food, which increases its autonomy and eliminates the risk of re-contamination during storage.
According to the Italian ambassador to Cuba, Roberto Vellano, these cooking courses have the valuable collaboration of Enaip Impresa Sociale, one of the most important networks of professional training centers in his country.
The Sous Vide method was first described by Sir Benjamin Thompson, Earl of Rumford, in 1799, but used air instead of water as the thermal reactor fluid and was rediscovered in the mid-1960s by American and French engineers. (Source: PL)