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kindly see https://youtu.be/t2EeeYOwQxQ?si=JppCxveNM783goTq&t=52

  1. after pouring brandy, why’s chef Pascal Proyart tilting his sauce pan on a flaming gas stove ?

  2. Is he deliberately decanting the brandy down on the gas flames? isn’t this dangerous?

  3. Even if he isn’t intending to strew the brandy on the flame, doesn’t slanting unnecessarily cause risk of pouring the brandy on the flame, which can cause kitchen fire? and explosion?

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    Chefs who do this minimize the risk of a kitchen fire by not having anything burnable in the kitchen. Commercial kitchens have stainless steel cabinets, shelves and other components. The kitchen in the video is a TV set, made to resemble a home kitchen. But they have minimized the risk as far as possible by not having anything above the cooking island. Commented 2 days ago
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    I do not think the chef is pouring the juice from the sauce pan to the stove. I do not see that in the video. He just tilts the pan enough to catch on fire. That would be a terrible idea to pour the juice deliberately, adding hard to clean splatter to the stove :( Commented yesterday

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It's called flambé.. Not dangerous if you know what you are doing. The brandy goes in the pan. It is tilted to ignite. The alcohol burns off.

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    "Not dangerous if you know what you are doing" Is this almost the same as 42? Commented 2 days ago
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    I don't know what 42 is. Commented 2 days ago
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    @crip659: No, it's more like "He's a highly trained professional!" Commented 2 days ago
  • 42 is a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference. Note that it is no more dangerous than deep frying in oil or baking. You can hurt yourself if you aren't careful. Don't try it if you haven't carefully understood the risks (beyond the scope of this answer). E.g. if you pour some of the liquid on yourself, stop and clean it off before proceeding. Do not put yourself above the pan (where the flame will be). Do watch videos or read books explaining this risk better than I can do in a comment. Maybe even take a class. Also, keep a fire extinguisher near in case something goes wrong. Commented 12 hours ago
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Liquid alcohol itself doesn't burn... it's the alcohol vapor that ignites.

By tipping the pan he's letting some of the vapor out to reach the flame and ignite, which will then heat the liquid faster, turning more of it into vapor and continuing to burn.

I could see this being a problem if you waited too long (giving you a lot of vapor to suddenly combust), or not tipping the pan so it reaches its flash point

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    Interesting, I guess this works since alcohol vapor is denser than air. Vapor collects in the pan as the alcohol is heated, and the pan tilt is invisibly pouring some vapor onto the flame. Commented 2 days ago
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The first time I did a flambe was very exciting as I wasn't intending to light it at all. I'd added brandy to a dish and was cooking when it went foom and scared the life out of me! Nearly singed my eyebrows too. This is because the alcohol vapor built up into a cloud until it reached a flame and ignited. The next time I cooked with strong alcohol I was ready and deliberately lit it early on, and it made me look like a cooking legend to my guests while being overall safe.

Cooking inherently has some risk, you have heat and flammable ingredients like oil involved. Flambe looks scary, and if it goes wrong it can cook more than the stuff on the pan, but oil fires are just as bad if not worse and they can happen in any kitchen - and you should already be prepared for these.

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