Evaluation of the basic actors of sous-vide cooking technique within the context of different tourism businesses: İstanbul case study

Sous-vide is an improving and modern cooking technique which is being used by food industry, hotel, restaurant and catering firms. This technique is identified with low heat long term cooking of foods in vacuum sealed packs. This subject is valuable to the ones related to gastronomy science, food and beverage institutions and cooks. In this study, sous-vide will be evaluated as of different tourism sectors located in İstanbul. For this purpose, the way SV is used, how does the cooking process work, it's properties, advantages and disadvantages to the institutions as well as the satisfaction status of operator cooks will be determined. Study is constructed under the qualitative research design and the data is collected via face to face interviews with 30 cooks applying SV technique. Content analysis is used to analyze and interpret the data. As a result of this study, it is found that this cooking technique is used intensively in kitchens and there are differences within the applications of hotels, restaurants and catering businesses. It is specified that the related technique is improving cooks, triggers creativity and supportive for food manufacturing process and kitchen management. On the other hand it is concluded that because of concerns about food safety and Turkish eating habits, this technique still has time to get used to. Some recommendations are developed for practitioners and consumers for introducing and setting a better understanding of this subject as well as determining food safety standarts. Key Words: Cooking techniques, Sous-vide, Vakuum cooking, Various tourism sectors, İstanbul