Hey folks! #anovafoodnerd Kevin Jeras is taking over the blog today to give you the rundown on his life with Anova, how he uses sous vide to enhance his families life, and why he's adding another Anova to the mix with his recent purchase of the Anova Precision Cooker Nano. So, with that said, we'll hand this over to Kevin to share his sous vide story in his own words...
I bought an
Anova Precision Cooker for our household when they first came out to try. My wife initially rolled her eyes at yet another gadget to clutter our kitchen. But as we started to use it to cook steaks and chicken, and began to experience the convenience and freedom, as well as the quality outcomes you get from sous vide, we were hooked!
Meet #anovafoodnerd Kevin Jeras
My family and I just moved to Chicago after residing in San Francisco for the past 17 years. Since we have little ones (2yo son and 4yo daughter), we made the trek to be closer to family. I’m a bit of a tech and gadget geek and keep track of new toys and technologies in the piepline. I started hearing about sous vide probably 5 years ago when the sub $2k units started to pop up on the radar screen. My neighbor in San Francisco was a tech reporter and was headed to a video shoot for
Anova. We started talking about
sous vide and what I knew of the market place and she introduced me to a company I hadn’t heard of yet!
Cooking sous vide with Kevin
I was an early adopter of Anova, buying our first unit when they first released the Precision Cooker, which was probably around 3 or 4 years ago. When I chose to buy our Anova Precision Cooker, I had done all the research I could. There were expensive devices (above $1k), as well as a few other new entrants in the Anova price point. The Anova consistently had the best reviews in regards to ease of use, maintaining the proper water temperature, and the range of pots that you could attach the device to.
I’m a pretty basic cook, mainly do steaks (new york strips, rib eyes) and chicken breasts. I season them with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper before sealing them in a baggy. When I pull them out, I sear them either on a grill or with a blow torch. Occasionally, we’ll marinate a pork loin for a few hours and then sear it after a couple hours in the cooker.
So easy to use
The main reasons I use Anova are:
- Convenience – With the cooker, I don’t have to worry about timing or monitoring of food. It frees me up to get chores done, squeeze in an extra conference call or two, or spend time dancing with my kids while listening to Disney soundtracks.
- Results – You can’t beat a perfectly cooked steak or chicken breast, especially when it’s every single time! This past weekend, I brought over a few steaks that I had prepped in my sous vide device to a friend’s house and then seared them on his grill. He was shocked by how good the steaks where and started asking question after question around sous vide and my Anova cooker. Every time I prepare dinner for friends with the cooker, the conversation always turns to how did I cook such perfect steaks!
- Safety: My kids like to help cook. We prop them on the counters and they help stir, measure, season, etc. With the Anova device, I never have to worry about them getting burned while in the kitchen as the water never gets above 130 or 140 degrees. Now if someone could just invent kid-safe knives that can actually cut, my job as safety officer in the kitchen would be complete!
It’s all about consistent, high quality results. I’m a really good ‘grill-guy’, but even then, one can never control flare-ups, hot spots, etc. You can get close to a good steak using a grill on a regular basis, but, rarely is it perfect. The consistency matter is even more complicated with chicken, which can dry out in a flash! With the sous vide, things are perfect every time.
One of the first to order the Nano
When I saw the
Anova Precision Cooker Nano, I immediately had to order one. We like to take our sous vide device with us when we travel. When we go on vacations, we like to rent places that have kitchens. Not always being forced to eat out every meal is great. We’ve found that having a sous vide device is very liberating. We can drop some steaks or chicken into a pot before heading out for the afternoon and not feeling rushed about getting back and getting dinner ready. It will also fit much better into our suitcase.
I would tell a friend, “stop debating and just go get one!” The ease of cooking, the quality of the results, and the time liberating factors make it a no brainer.
-Kevin Jeras
You can learn more about Kevin's Anova love story in this super-cool video he was kind enough to be a part of:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjYw2gCdb24
Thanks so much to Kevin for sharing his story, and showing the whole #anovafoodnerd army how sous vide has changed his life. You can pre-order your own
Nano, and ensure you're one of the first food nerds to receive it!
