What’s A Gas Streak Doing In My Kitchen?

Cooking shows abound everywhere, and I must admit I watch a good share of them. Sometimes I watch with full attention, sometimes with half an ear tuned in to what is happening on the screen.  Either way I have picked up some useful information, some good ideas, and a few recipes worth jotting down for some distant, future use. However much attention I give to these cooking shows I am always amazed at the cooking ‘jargon’ going on behind the stove.  It doesn’t seem to matter if from a chef with a pedigree longer than a kitchen island or from a chef just starting out and a bit raw around the edges.  Sometimes I swear some the of food people use these terms to impress themselves more than anyone else. Food terminology is out there and everywhere.  It is rather intriguing to me.  Often I look up a term I heard someone throw out to an audience and think, “Oh, I knew that!”.  Sometimes I think, “What a complicated name for something so simple”. Recently when chopping up food for a fast soup I heard the term gas streak. Of course it means a streak of gas.  That got my attention as I could not imagine a use for a streak of gas in my kitchen.  Sounds dangerous, don’t you think? The chef was raving about his gas streak.  I began to wonder if perhaps he shouldn’t be a bit embarrassed by his gas streak. Once both my ears were listening and my brain working, I realized he was saying ‘gastrique’.  Why didn’t he just say an equal mix of sweet and sour? Just doesn’t sound sophisticated enough I guess!