Do Chefs Use the Instant Pot (Pressure Cookers?) (2024)

Do Chefs Use the Instant Pot (Pressure Cookers?) (1)

Do Chefs Use the Instant Pot (Pressure Cookers?) (2)

Do Chefs Use the Instant Pot (Pressure Cookers?) The Instant Pot, colloquially known as the Instapot, is the most popular pressure cooker on the market. Widely loved and praised for its ease of use, safety, and hands-off cooking, it is the kitchen application of choice for many busy families.

Many Instant Pot beginners find themselves saying, “Surely this is be too good to be true.” Subsequently, one common follow-up question is, “do chefs use Instant Pots?”

Instapots are multi-cookers. In addition to pressure cooking functionality, they offer a variety of bonus features (depending on the model). Your Instant Pot can act as a pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker, steamer, sautér, food warm, yogurt maker, sterilizer, cake maker, canner, and sous vide-er.

Because even the most bare-bones Instant Pot models are comparable to ‘traditional’ pressure cookers, the question you really want to know is…

Do Professional Chefs Use Pressure Cookers?

Answer: Yes! …and, no! The answer is nuanced, so let’s explain.

When are pressure cookers commonly used in professional kitchens?

They are most commonly used in industrial settings to quickly prepare meat or stocks. However, in most scenarios, Elite Chefs avoid using pressure cookers because they provide less control over the final dish. Chefs often prefer slow cooking techniques that accentuate and pull out the flavors of the food.

Benefits of Cooking With an Instant Pot

  • Even professional Chefs find benefits in the Instant Pot’s ability to reduce total cooking time.
  • The pressure cooker’s steam moistens the food in the pot. This cooks the food quickly without losing moisture.
  • Little to no nutritional value is lost because pressure cooking is a closed cooking method.
  • The Instant Pot does not heat up the kitchen and saves on energy costs.
  • The style of cooking prevents flavors from escaping and fully extracts flavors from bones and herbs in minutes.

What Dishes Do Chefs Cook with Instant Pots?

Pressure cookers are popular among chefs, but they aren’t the primary cooking technique they employ. One of the most popular dishes Chefs use pressure cookers for are curries. An Instant Pot will allow them to cook curries considerably faster with little downside.

Check out this video where professional Chef Carla demos how to make Polenta Cacio e Pepe with the Instant Pot!

Why Are Instant Pots Popular Appliances in Busy Kitchens?

If you need to prepare food on a tight schedule, a pressure cooker is one of the most popular go-to cooking tools. With the power to prepare food rapidly, this innovative kitchen appliance transformed domestic kitchens.

As a result, it may appear natural for experienced cooks who are continuously pressed for time to employ it. Surprisingly, this is not always true. Do chefs make use of pressure cookers?

Disadvantages: Why Chefs Don’t Use Instant Pots?

Time, speed, and efficiency aren’t everything! There are several key reasons why some chefs opt for a different style of cooking.

  1. Ingredients cook at different rates

    Do Chefs Use the Instant Pot (Pressure Cookers?) (3)

Some ingredients cook quicker than others. For example, root vegetables take longer than leafy greens. So, you might struggle to use a pressure cooker for recipes with many components that require varied cooking periods. This might not be noticeable for at-home recipes, but a Michelin star chef will disagree!

The solution: traditional pans allow chefs to keep adding ingredients at various stages of cooking.

A pressure cooker’s cover cannot be opened while cooking because all the steam (and pressure) will be released. Any recipe that requires gradual ingredient additions won’t be suitable for Instant Pots. Another solution: modify the recipe or avoid using the pressure cooker.

  1. Zero visibility – you can’t check on the food as it cooks

Chefs frequently check on their foods while they cook. The best usually continually taste, color, etc.

An Instant Pot does not allow you to monitor the food inside. Although most recipes have perfected the exact cook time, your food may be overdone or undercooked if you are experimenting with something new.

The solution: Either use an excellent recipe or take a chance. The issue frequently occurs when a recipe’s duration is unknown.

  1. No ‘season-as-you-go’

A chef’s meal is a work in progress, from start to finish. You will be hard-pressed to find a chef who doesn’t like to taste his or her meal (multiple times) while preparing it.

This continual tasting process helps them to fine-tune the flavor and texture. A pressure cooker does not allow for highly granular control. Seasoning can only be applied before or after cooking. Renowned chefs will find it tough to achieve comparable taste depth with using a pressure cooker versus traditional gradual cooking.

What Are The Worst Foods For Chefs To Cook With An Instant Pot

Pressure cookers are especially unpopular for the following dishes:

  • Meats
  • Sauces

In conclusion, just because most of the top Michelin Star chefs might not use pressure cookers on a daily basis, doesn’t mean the Instant Pot isn’t a perfect addition to your kitchen! Unless you’re preparing highly specialized meals and have all day to prepare, it is unlikely that the opinion of the world’s top chefs should seriously impact your decision to use an IP in your day-to-day cooking.

Tags

professional cooking

Previous Article

Yes, YOU CAN Disable Your Instant Pot's (Horribly Annoying) Beeping 🤯

Next Article

Instant Pot Beeping: What Each Beep Means

Do Chefs Use the Instant Pot (Pressure Cookers?) (2024)

FAQs

Do Chefs Use the Instant Pot (Pressure Cookers?)? ›

They are most commonly used in industrial settings to quickly prepare meat or stocks. However, in most scenarios, Elite Chefs avoid using pressure cookers because they provide less control over the final dish. Chefs often prefer slow cooking techniques that accentuate and pull out the flavors of the food.

What do chefs think of pressure cookers? ›

It depends on the chef and the type of dish they are preparing. Pressure cookers are great for quickly cooking tough cuts of meat, beans, and other ingredients that would normally take a long time to cook. Pressure cooking also helps to retain more nutrients and flavor in the food.

Do commercial kitchens use pressure cookers? ›

Versatile: Pressure cookers can be used to cook a variety of dishes, from stews and soups to vegetables and even desserts. This makes them a great all-in-one solution for commercial kitchens.

Which is better, a pressure cooker or an Instant Pot? ›

Overall, if you want a device you don't have to monitor too much, go for an electric multicooker like the Instant Pot. Stovetop pressure cookers are still great options, they just take a little more finesse and know-how to use.

Do people still use Instant Pot? ›

Sales for multicookers such as the Instant Pot fell by more than half in 2022 compared with 2020, The Associated Press reported. Instant Brands faces many struggles as it restructures, but the Instant Pot's impact deserves to be celebrated even if it's no longer considered the hottest gadget in the kitchen.

What are the disadvantages of cooking in a pressure cooker? ›

However, starchy foods may form acrylamide, a harmful chemical, when pressure cooked. Consumption of this chemical on a regular basis may lead to health issues like cancer, infertility, and neurological disorders.

Do chefs use instapots? ›

They are most commonly used in industrial settings to quickly prepare meat or stocks. However, in most scenarios, Elite Chefs avoid using pressure cookers because they provide less control over the final dish. Chefs often prefer slow cooking techniques that accentuate and pull out the flavors of the food.

Why do people love instapots? ›

People love the Instant Pot for lots of reasons. It's safe, it cooks slow-cooker recipes fast and it's a snap to clean. Brian Bennett is a former senior writer for the home and outdoor section at CNET. You've been toying with the idea of getting an Instant Pot for ages.

Do the French use pressure cookers? ›

Invented in 1953, the SEB Cocotte-Minute® pressure cooker manufactured at Selongey in the Côte-d'Or, revolutionized the daily lives of French people in their kitchens.

How safe are modern pressure cookers? ›

Modern pressure cookers are typically considered safe if the manufacturer has correctly marketed and sold its product. However, if a manufacturing company fails to communicate known product risks and a consumer is injured, they can be held liable for damages for their defective product.

What is the disadvantage of Instant Pot? ›

Con– The Instant Pot uses steam under pressure to cook food and not everything is meant to be cooked in the Instant Pot. I attempted a crustless quiche which turned out well but it was too wet and moist to my liking and I prefer to cook it in the oven with dry heat.

Is an Instant Pot a pressure cooker worth it? ›

So, is the Instant Pot worth the hype? You may not want to toss away your old slow-cooker, but if you're in the market for a new one or a pressure cooker, the Instant Pot does both well (even if you don't find yourself using the bevy of alternate options that often).

Are Instapots better than crockpots? ›

If you are interested primarily in slow cooking, you should buy a dedicated slow cooker. They're more reliable with a range of slow-cooker recipes than an Instant Pot. We found Instant Pot multicookers specifically could not successfully slow-cook dense, high-volume recipes such as beef stew or pot roast.

Why did Instant Pot go out of business? ›

“In particular, tightening of credit terms and higher interest rates impacted our liquidity levels and made our capital structure unsustainable,” Mr. Gadbois said. Instant Brands said in a statement on Wednesday that the new financing would allow the company to continue paying workers, vendors and suppliers.

Why I don't use an Instant Pot? ›

1. The Instant Pot doesn't cook things as quickly as it seems. While you can supposedly cook recipes such as potatoes, soup, stews, rice, and more in a shorter amount of time, there's a major catch: For most recipes, you have to wait for the machine to properly release the pressure slowly.

Is the Instant Pot being discontinued? ›

Instant Brands, the company that makes the Instant Pot (as well as Pyrex, Corelle, and a few other product lines), announced that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2023. But that doesn't mean the company is going under, and for now it hasn't affected the availability of the Instant Pot.

Do people still use pressure cookers? ›

But while such hazards may have been possible in the past, they're practically fiction today. Pressure cookers are safe to use. More than that, they're incredibly useful. In this age of speed, efficiency, and optimization, there are few tools in the kitchen more suited to cooks who demand good food quickly.

Are pressure cookers worth having? ›

A pressure cooker saves 90 percent of the energy used to boil a pot on the hob. Some foods are perfect to cook under these hot and steamy conditions: a meat stock, for instance, takes advantage of all the pressure cooker's benefits.

How do chefs deal with pressure? ›

On the job, one of the best ways to combat stress is to be organized and have everything ready before you start cooking. Once you know what dish you're making, get everything ready, chopped, pureed, and so on, so that you don't have to stop in the middle of the recipe to do yet another task.

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Van Hayes

Last Updated:

Views: 6332

Rating: 4.6 / 5 (46 voted)

Reviews: 93% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Van Hayes

Birthday: 1994-06-07

Address: 2004 Kling Rapid, New Destiny, MT 64658-2367

Phone: +512425013758

Job: National Farming Director

Hobby: Reading, Polo, Genealogy, amateur radio, Scouting, Stand-up comedy, Cryptography

Introduction: My name is Van Hayes, I am a thankful, friendly, smiling, calm, powerful, fine, enthusiastic person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.