Blow Torches: The Ultimate Kitchen Accessory for a Flavorful Finish?
Blow torches probably aren’t the first thing you think of when considering kitchen necessities. These handy little devices are used so seldomly in everyday cooking, considered great options in a commercial kitchen setting or while heating up a perfect, caramelized creme brulee.
Kendall Lane, the Executive Chef at La Pitchoune and Culinary Director of Okay, Perfect, is here to tell a different story. She used to have a blow torch hanging out of her pocket at all times, and our community took strong note of it. She explained once that it is convenient to have a blow torch of some size on your person when there are gas grills in the kitchen, because a lot of them don’t have pilot lights for safety and they’re not exactly brand new stoves. She had clearly been subject to scenarios where a stove went out and she didn’t have anything on-hand to help jumpstart cooking activity again. Rather than deal with the inconvenience - and annoyance - of it, she solved the issue by always having one around.
“My chef actually used to steal it all of the time because she was a smoker,” admits Kendall. “So she would steal my little mini blow torch, use it to smoke, use all the gas out of it, and then it’d be gone. So I bought my own blow torch that was a medium size and I pretty much just have it in the back pocket of my pants.”
Another great reason to keep this mini flame-maker present in the kitchen is that you would need it to burn or quickly reheat things. It helps you bring in nice char flavors where you don’t have time or bandwidth to fire up your grill or the counter space for a Salamander Broiler. While we all consider creme brulee when thinking about it, she wants us to think about burning fish skin. One of the most wonderful options we make in the La Pitchoune kitchen happens when we cut fresh fish into strips and burn the skin. It’s a delicate raw/cooked preparation that is incredibly delicious.
In the same vein, with most meat, chefs can sear the skin and heat it in the oven right before sending it out to their guests. It’s nice to torch the skin again to kind of burn it to make it crispy, especially if you’ve lost a little of the crispiness in the preparation process. We use this method a lot around the Cooking School, because Kendall enjoys it.
In fact, if you visit La Pitchoune for our Courageous Cooking School, we do creme brulees every Monday night. You’ll definitely find a blow torch hanging off of Kendall’s apron or somewhere close in those instances.
Blow torches can feel scary in the kitchen, but they are a very normal thing in the cooking world. If you’re worried about safety in proximity to fabric and clothing, you may want to keep your torch in a less flammable space than your pocket. (Kendall doesn’t necessarily keep it in her pocket as often anymore.) Keeping it in a fireproof box or catch-all on the counter in safety mode is a great practice. This way, you can avoid any burn accidents. Even if the torch is not on, the metal tip may still be hot. Kendall suffered a burn while cleaning up supplies after a creme brulee night, and maintains it’s still one of the most gnarly injuries she has.
With the proper safety precautions, blow torches can light a flavorful fire for your next dinner, dessert, or snacking option. Having a mini blow torch around at your house opens you up to the ability to do more professional kitchen things like what you see chefs do at restaurants.
