Photographs: Jeff Gurwin

Vacuums

THE FINE-DINING CREATION:
Sous vide (low-temperature cooking of vacuum-sealed foods) is probably the best-known high-tech cooking method, but L’Ecole (462 Broadway at Grand St, 212-219-3300) uses vacuum pressure a different way: to infuse the cachaça in its strawberry caipirinha. “With a normal infusion, you have to wait a long time to get the flavor you want, but the freshness is lost,” explains French Culinary Institute director of culinary technology Dave Arnold. The vacuum method is much quicker: All the air is sucked out of the fruit, replacing it with the alcohol; a second whirl pulls some of the alcohol out of the fruit, infusing the cachaça with the flavor of strawberry.

THE INDUSTRIAL VERSION:
“Big companies use [vacuum] techniques primarily for economic reasons, like shipping and preservation,” says Arnold. In addition to these applications, for decades, manufacturers have been using a technique similar to Arnold’s to process rice: Employing a vacuum, they remove air from the rice kernels, allowing water to penetrate them more fully. This results in improved texture, nutrition, and ease of processing.

See the next trick: Peristaltic pumps