Cuisine Solutions is Coming to San Antonio’s Southside
Cuisine Solutions, a leading sous-vide food distributor and manufacturer, is opening a new manufacturing plant at Brooks, on San Antonio’s South Side. Situated on the former home of Brooks Air Force Base, Brooks is a 1,308-acre, mixed-use community where over 3,200 people learn, live, play, stay and work.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the project took place on February 15th, at Brooks’ historic Hangar 9. At the groundbreaking ceremony, Cuisine Solutions CEO and Chairman, Stanislas Vilgrain said, “Brooks is the ideal location for us to establish our presence west of the Mississippi River. San Antonio has an industrious and enthusiastic workforce that we’ll tap into to help support our growth and meet the increasing demand for our restaurant-quality products.” Also speaking at the ceremony was San Antonio Mayor, Ron Nirenberg, who stated, “Our community’s growth momentum continues with 500 new manufacturing jobs for our city’s south side. Cuisine Solutions’ selection reflects our community’s commitment to being a business-friendly city, prepared to meet the workforce needs of rapidly growing, international corporation.” 
The project is estimated to cost $120 million, making it the largest single investment in Brooks’ history. It will also be Cuisine Solutions largest U.S. facility and the world’s largest sous-vide plant. It is also committed to employing about 500 people over a 4-year period.
The 290,000-square-foot facility, set on 24 acres of land, will be located on Brooks’ Aviation Landing. The project is set to begin next month, with an anticipated opening in mid-2020.
Cuisine Solutions was established in 1971 as Vie de France, a bakery/café, in Vienna, Virginia. It is a premium foods company that specializes in fully-cooked sous-vide products that are created by world-class chefs. The company was America’s first major manufacturer of sous-vide products and is currently the world’s largest sous-vide company. Their current headquarters (and one of their manufacturing facilities) is located in Sterling, Virginia and they have manufacturing plants in Alexandria, Virginia; Louviers, France; Le Pertre, France and Bangkok, Thailand.
The company produces a range of products including beef, lamb, pasta/sides, pork, poultry, sauces, seafood, veal and vegetarian. Their most popular products include Beef Provencal, “slow-cooked beef in a sauce of honey, balsamic vinegar and sun-dried tomatoes,” Premium Sliced Top Sirloin, “tender sous-vide beef, slow-cooked and seasoned with savory herbs and spices,” Lamb Shank with Portobello & Red Wine Sauce and Cheese Tortellini with Creamy Pesto Sauce.
Cuisine Solutions supplies their products to professional kitchens, in an array of industries, with the majority of their clientele being airlines, cruise ships, hotel chains, K-12 schools, military bases/outposts and restaurant franchises. They also deliver their products to home cooks throughout the United States.
So, what is sous-vide, you ask? In French it means “under vacuum” and is a method of cooking that allows you to cook food to the exact level of desired doneness, producing evenly-cooked food. More specifically, food is cooked in a water bath, at lower than normal cooking temperatures and longer than normal cooking times. Food is cooked in either vacuum-sealed food storage bags or resealable, zipper-locking food storage bags, so that the food retains its aromas and its juices, producing food that is juicy, moist and tender. The two main types of equipment used in sous-vide cooking are a sous-vide immersion circulator and a sous-vide water oven.
The founder of modern sous-vide is Dr. Bruno Goussault, who developed the parameters of sous-vide cooking temperatures and times, in 1971. Dr. Goussault is a French, award-winning scientist, chef, consultant to some of the world’s top chefs, inventor and economist. In 1991, he founded, and is the current Chief Scientist, the Culinary Research and Education Academy (CREA), which provides sous-vide training courses and consulting services to professionals in the food industry. In 2000, he became the Chief Scientist at Cuisine Solutions.
