The VITALID method, unique in the world: low-pressure, very-low-temperature cooking

Setting your heat source correctly with VITALID

Whoever speaks of very-low-temperature, low-pressure cooking must think: cold start, low power and a gradual rise in temperature.

Nothing complicated: VITALID simply requires a little attention at the start, just long enough — 2 or 3 cooks — to quickly find your bearings with your hob or burner.

The goal is simple: gradually reach the desired cooking zone without needlessly crossing the 60–65 °C barrier.

Step 1

• Start cold, with no preheating, at around 20–30% of available power — gas between 2 and 3, induction around 200–300 W.
• Simply watch the thermometer — it should not rise too fast or too slowly: generally allow around ten minutes to reach 40–45 °C.

Step 2

• Around 40–45 °C, reduce power by about 30%: for example gas between 1 and 2, induction around 150 W.
• Ideally, 60–65 °C will be reached after 15 to 20 minutes.

Do not try to exceed 60–65 °C.

Note: it is possible to cook using tealight candles, between 2 and 4 depending on their size.

For many thin-to-medium-thickness foods, once the chamber temperature reaches 65 °C, most of the cooking is often practically done. Depending on the food, its thickness and the result sought, finishing with the heat off is often possible, but never for more than 4 to 5 minutes.

Important, depending on the times observed

• If the temperature rises too fast → lower the power.
• If the temperature rise is too slow → increase the power very slightly.
• If the temperature exceeds 65 °C → reduce the heat sharply, or turn it off, then optionally finish cooking with the heat off, or restart the low pressure.
• If the temperature exceeds 65 °C with the lid lifting → turn off the heat, restart the low pressure, then resume heating.

Sticking: a false problem

Why does it stick?

High temperature + contraction + release of juices + evaporation + protein concentration → sticking.

When raw meat meets a very hot surface, the surface proteins denature rapidly and the muscle fibres contract.

Some of the water contained in the cells, along with soluble proteins and other compounds, then migrates to the surface. These juices, rich in soluble proteins, mineral salts and aromatic compounds, end up trapped between the meat and the metal. As the water evaporates, these compounds concentrate, coagulate on contact with the hot surface and can anchor themselves in the micro-roughness of the stainless steel, promoting adhesion to the metal, which is more or less porous depending on its quality.

Then, gradually, the surface dries out, the proteins coagulate further and a crust forms. This crust becomes more rigid and eventually detaches from the stainless steel. In other words: it sticks first, then releases once the crust is sufficiently formed.

This is why sticking is not a matter of material, but a matter of contact temperature.

A little amusement

The water-droplet test does not remove sticking at all. It only helps roughly gauge the pan’s temperature, to avoid certain excesses and speed up the formation of the crust that will later help release the food. It is merely a commercial trick used by stainless-steel pan sellers.

A curious kind of mastery, overheating a pan and then trying to guess its temperature with a drop of water.

This test only shows that the surface is hot enough to trigger the Leidenfrost effect. It gives no precise temperature at all:

• Not hot enough: the meat still sticks, but will release more slowly.
• Far too hot: transformations, drying and the risk of burning — or of producing acrylamide more easily — increase sharply, especially since this temperature will not drop quickly on its own.

You do not really control the temperature this way — you merely try to guess it. An infrared thermometer is a far better tool.

Removing sticking… with a non-stick coating

The industry chose a radical solution to remove sticking: inserting several chemical layers between the food and the metal. A commercial choice more profitable than healthy.

Problem solved? No — just moved elsewhere. And at what cost to health?

PFOA is now classified as carcinogenic to humans by the IARC, while PFOS is classified as possibly carcinogenic. IARC source

Some research on pancreatic cancer still calls for further in-depth investigation. PubMed study

With scratches, wear, friction and ageing, particles can detach and contaminate food; a 2024 study specifically identified PTFE particles from non-stick cookware in prepared meals. Scientific study

Many grey areas still remain around non-stick coatings: wear, mechanical degradation, abrasion, particle migration, heat effects, but also the role of primers, binders, resins and other bonding layers needed to fix these fluorinated, ceramic, mineral or other coatings.

Some studies have already shown migration or alteration of these systems, though not all the long-term consequences are yet fully understood. PubMed study · Scientific study

This much is enough here: we do not claim to know everything, but it clearly shows that many documented questions remain, many still awaiting answers.

Patching without solving — where has common sense gone?

And when this layer deteriorates, some manufacturers’ commercial answer is often to replace the cookware… or to apply yet another coating, in the name of savings or waste reduction.

The pan is protected from the bin. But who really wants to protect the consumer?

VITALID completely reverses the logic

By starting cold, and heating very gradually around 60–65 °C under controlled low pressure, the juices stay within the meat’s structure and sensitive components are less exposed to high temperatures. As a result:

• No burning-hot metal,
• No sudden fibre contraction,
• Proteins evolve gradually, without binding to the metal,
• No massive release of juices, which stay within the structure,
• Excess water does not evaporate and acts, against the metal, as a thin protective moist interface,
• It avoids the need for fat by occupying the micro-gaps,
• Sensitive components are less exposed to high temperatures,
• No dry, hard crust forms, leaving the structures perfectly supple.

No high temperature → no sudden contraction → no massive release of juices → no proteins concentrated against the metal → excess water plays its protective role → sticking no longer forms.

VITALID does not fight sticking. It simply avoids causing it. It is far more logical, and within reach of the very first beginner.

And beyond guaranteeing this stainless-steel cookware for life, the method also guarantees lifelong non-stick performance, without fat.

And what about searing? No, it hasn’t been forgotten.

Rest assured, searing has not disappeared. It simply comes at the right time — ideally as a finishing touch.

In traditional cooking, from raw, high heat both cooks and sears. With the VITALID method, it now serves only to finish.

Meat already gently cooked through no longer reacts like raw meat when it meets high heat. Much of the protein has already been gradually denatured, the structure has stabilised, and the juices have been better retained within the food.

During the final sear, heat therefore acts mainly on the surface. It can quickly trigger Maillard reactions and create a beautiful colour, easily controlled in duration and intensity, without damage — and above all, without sticking.

Cooking and browning become two separate operations. This is when we can truly speak of reverse cooking. The crispness achieved during the finish is no longer softened by surrounding juices: pure joy, no dry crust, and as much crispness as desired.

Understanding what is really at stake in cooking

Since humans first mastered fire, cooking has accompanied humanity. It did not only make food edible: it transformed our relationship with taste, the way we feed ourselves, and even our biological and cultural evolution. Cooking is far more than a culinary gesture: it is a decisive step that shapes both our health and our pleasure.

Heat does not only act on flavour: it transforms matter itself. It coagulates proteins, dissolves collagen, concentrates or dilutes aromas, weakens vitamins, releases certain nutrients… but can also generate undesirable, even toxic, compounds. Every cooking process thus becomes a fragile balance between benefits and losses, sensory pleasure and health concerns.

Understanding these mechanisms means giving ourselves the means to preserve the essentials, limit nutritional waste, improve absorption and support the body’s vitality — all while elevating the food itself.

What should be pure pleasure and peace of mind is, however, becoming a growing source of worry, given the repeated warnings from the media and scientists about overcooking and the dangerous materials used. And despite this, the sad reality is that little truly changes. The debate stays focused on cookware — stainless steel, cast iron, copper, multi-layer, coatings — with every manufacturer promising to heat better, stick less, preserve more, sometimes even to sanitise or master the cooking through its hardware alone.

Why we need a method that is accurate and scientific

Because a piece of cookware does not cook: it simply transmits heat. What truly cooks is the gesture, the technique and the method. A mere container will never cook in your place.

Yet it is precisely this heat that, beyond around 65 °C, according to science, needlessly degrades the organoleptic and nutritional qualities of food.

So why keep heating more than necessary, when both the result and our health are at stake?

We have long known that air, water, temperature, time and the cooking environment directly influence taste, texture, nutritional quality and energy consumption.

But how can we heat less, cook faster and preserve more, without adding water or systematically resorting to steam? How can we reconcile what, until now, seemed irreconcilable? This is precisely the challenge VITALID set out to meet with its patented reverse cooking method under low pressure, at very low temperature.

It was by observing a well-known natural phenomenon found in the mountains — where water starts to boil below 100 °C as pressure drops — that the idea of applying artificial low pressure around food was born.

Between equipment and habits, temperature and cooking time, nature and observation, science and pleasure, tradition and innovation, the VITALID low-pressure, very-low-temperature cooking method aims to restore cooking to its full importance: a moment where our appetite, our nutritional balance, and perhaps the future of more mindful eating, all come into play.

Following the trends in gastronomy: favouring authentic taste and easily repeatable processes

As early as the late 19th century, Auguste Escoffier was already seeking to simplify, to better respect the product and pursue its authentic taste rather than needlessly multiplying compensations, to rationalise and make cooking more reproducible, without sacrificing taste.

Auguste Escoffier himself wrote that one had to “simplify, again and again,” and already sensed a more scientific cuisine, capable of improving the nutritional and gustatory value of dishes. It is precisely within this evolution that VITALID stands today, offering a new technique designed to better preserve the true taste of every food.

This simplicity does not mean doing less well, but doing more accurately. It is found among many great chefs: César Troisgros speaks of “clean flavours,” Alain Passard places the product at the centre, Olivier Roellinger uses spice to reveal rather than mask, while Alain Ducasse seeks stripped-back simplicity and the preservation of the original. Philip Chronopoulos sums up this philosophy in one strong idea: the product comes first, the chef’s gesture comes next.

Alain Ducasse’s example with the scallop is telling. Where it could once be paired with truffle and several other aromatics, he now seeks a far lighter expression — cooking it simply in butter.

Stripping away what surrounded the product still requires that it retain enough of its true original taste to stand on its own.

This is the whole difference between enriching a taste already present and rebuilding a taste weakened by cooking.

A herb, a spice, a jus or a sauce can beautifully complement a food whose identity remains perceptible. But when cooking has strongly diminished it, they must take up more space to give it back its character.

In one case, the cook composes with the product; in the other, they risk having to compose in its place.

A question then arises: what is the point of choosing a line-caught fish, a breed, a variety of fruit or vegetable, a terroir, a producer, a particular way of raising or growing, a specific diet or ripening, if the cooking simply flattens what was chosen precisely for its uniqueness?

This pursuit of authentic taste, however, imposes another requirement: reproducibility. In open cooking, the slightest change in temperature, duration, humidity, air circulation or evaporation can alter the result. Conversely, a closed, airtight environment, with much less air and no added water, greatly limits outside influences and makes it possible to recreate far more stable conditions. This is precisely where VITALID brings a new answer, intervening even further upstream, with its method.

When cooking truly preserves the original taste of the product, the aromatic ingredient regains its true role: to accompany, underline, reveal — not to compensate for what the cooking has erased.

Auguste Escoffier, regarded as one of the founding fathers of modern cuisine, holds exceptional historical authority among contemporary chefs.

He had already foreseen the essential, anticipating that cooking, while remaining an art, would become more scientific. But one key was still missing: low pressure. By adding it, it became possible to overcome certain physical constraints of traditional cooking and reconcile what seemed contradictory: cooking faster while heating far less, all while better preserving the authentic taste and nutritional richness of food.