"At one point, Chef Ian was walking with me, grabbed a round silver tin 'bucket', and he told me the name of it. He repeated it, looked me in the eye, and told me, "Now, next time I ask for this, you'll know what I want." Yay! He had said the magic words. NEXT TIME. I had to do everything I could to stop from smiling at the thought of a next time. With all of my energy focused on that, I managed to forget the name of the ‘bucket’. Damn it!"
So. Since then, I’ve been trying to find out the name of this tool! The other night, I was recapping some of my kitchen stories to a group of friends at dinner, and as I started telling this story, I realized, I was sitting next to a chef! He would know in a SECOND what I was talking about. I didn’t even finish telling my story, I turned to my other side, grabbed Chef John’s hand, interrupted his conversation, and told him I needed help. He gave me a strange look, I’m sure wondering what I could possibly need help with in the middle of our dinner, and I started telling him the story. Within seconds, he knew. He said “Oh, a bain marie.’ YES! That was it! A bain marie! That’s what Chef Ian had wanted.
For those of you that still don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s a photo:
Thank god for industry friends that can help bail me out of these dilemmas. Ok Chef Ian. I’m ready. Bring it on! 
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So now I'm wondering what you DO with a bain marie...
ReplyDeleteI think traditionally it's similar to a double boiler. Used for melting chocolate, making custards and cheescakes.
ReplyDeleteBut I think in terms of practical every day kitchen purposes, we used it to store liquids (tons of plastic wrap later, you can put something in the walk-in), it's also used to cool liquids (I think the reason we needed it was for the ice cream--we placed the caramel in a bain marie and then placed it in an ice bath in a larger pot)...and what else? Guess I'll have to pay more attention