Food
Highlights
James
CREATOR
3 months ago
Project Update: 830% FUNDED! Thank you to everyone!
We can't wait to get the ball rolling with production, updates, and more. Be on the lookout for the survey to confirm your shipping address and the option to add additional items to your pledge.
James
CREATOR
3 months ago
Project Update: APRON UNLOCKED!!
Design is not final but we'll be posting WIP updates!
Backerkit exclusive add on price of $49, normally $69. Add yours now!
TimJZheng - Vite Founder
CREATOR
3 months ago
Project Update: Why Your Knives SUCK - The VKS Design Video
I'm about to pass out.
My hands hurt from marathon editing and filming sessions, I'm on 2.5 hours of sleep, and we're quickly approaching the end.
There's been so much to do. Over the last month, I wanted to be able to do more, but unlucky circumstances meant that our focus had to be turned towards other things. A lot of people got sick, some even hospitalized, and it's been tough.
But here we are.
Almost at the finish line. Just a few steps away.
This video took a ton of work, a lot of editing, and a lot of passion. It's both the explanation of how the VKS was designed, but also has... some interesting quirks about it, let's say.
There's a puzzle to solve, a link to find, and the story of VKS has already started.
Good luck.
ALSO:
Livestream will be on August 28th, 2PM PST at https://twitch.tv/vitekitchens! Don't miss it!
James
CREATOR
3 months ago
Project Update: Tim is LIVE on Twitch!
Go check out the stream as Tim cooks up some delicious food and maybe even hear ‘NO HAMMER GRIPPY!!’ live. Tim will also be talking about the project and dropping hints about hidden clues from the latest video! (here if you haven't seen it)!
👉 Tune in here!
Tim's on stream Ingredients List:
Meats / Fish
Beef Brisket
Chicken Thighs
Frog Legs
Cooked Periwinkle Meat (molluscs)
Chinese Sausasage (Lap Xuong)
Narutomaki (Steamed Fish Cake)
Frozen Broiled Eel
Beef Bone Marrow
Beef Chuck Eye Steak
Fish Ball with Roe
Sea Scallops
Bay Scallops
Boiled Baby Clam Meat
Chicken
Beef Ox Tails
Fish Ball with Roe
Bangus (Deboned Premium Belly Milk Fish)
Dried Phillippine Herring (Tunsoy)
Shrimp
Ground Pork (Lean)
Ground Pork (Fatty)
Chicken Soup
Lobster Tails
Chashu
Vegetables/Fruits
Oyster Mushroom
King Oyster Mushroom
Black Cremini Mushroom
Whole White Mushroom
Enoki Mushroom
Portobella Mushroom
Bok Choy
Celery
Broccoli
Edamame
Egg plant (Japanese)
Bell Pepper
Red Pearl Onion
Cucumber
Red Radish
Spinach
Japanese Radish
Chinese Radish
Fukujinzuke (Pickled Radish)
Grated Purple Yam
Yellow Onion
Bittermelon
Winter Melon
Shredded Young Coconut (Pandan Flavored)
Leek
Green Onion
Cilantro
Lemon Grass
Lotus Root
Zucchini
Perilla - Green (Tai to)
Pandan Leaves
Horseradish Leaves
Pepper Leaves (Dahon Ng Sili)
Dried salted Threadfin Bream (Bisugo)
Grated Cassava (Maniocrâpe)
Bamboo Shoot
Nectarines
Yellow Dragon Fruit
Whole Steamed Saba Bananas
Other
Yakisoba Noodle
Sesame Sweet Rice Balls
Beer
Fermented Bean Curd
Egg
Garlic (Whole)
Pandan Leaf
Dalangal
Beansprouts
Miso
Red Miso
White Miso
Firm Tofu
Soft Tofu
Fermented Bean Curd (Chunk) In Dressing
Coconut Milk (Canned)
Calamansi Lime Juice
TimJZheng - Vite Founder
CREATOR
4 months ago
Project Update: Surprise! FREE practice knives for all tier 3+ kits!
Whew, we’re getting into the last week, and we’re just around $60,000 raised so far. Just $15,000 to go and we’ll reach the next stretch goal: The Apron!
We’re going to be giving FREE practice knives to ALL Tier 3+ kits now!
More details in the video below, which also shows off the rest of the items.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uaxyx25uAdk
More details in the video below, which also shows off the rest of the items.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uaxyx25uAdk
We’re also releasing a full video tomorrow that dives much deeper into the knife design, so stay tuned!
TimJZheng - Vite Founder
CREATOR
4 months ago
Project Update: FINALLY REVEALED: THE PROTOTYPES
I AM SO EXCITED.
This was originally meant to arrive before the BackerKit launch, but there was some extra work we wanted to do to make it look like how we envisioned the knife, so it got delayed. But now...
HERE IT IS.
Behold: The prototype VKS, VKP, and QR Cutting Board!
The VKS is an 8” chef knife, and the VKS is a 3.5” paring knife, for size reference.
I’ll be able to answer any questions anyone has on BackerKit as well as in our Discord!
I CAN'T WAIT TO USE IT AND SHOW YOU GUYS MORE!
I CAN'T WAIT TO USE IT AND SHOW YOU GUYS MORE!
Bronze Tier
This user contributed to this community!
Do Tier 3 and up get the upgraded honing rod? Or should I add it to my order if I want to get the one that matches the knife handles?
CREATOR
Wow, we can't thank everyone enough for helping make this project a reality! We've already hit one stretch goal and we're close to the second!
TimJZheng - Vite Founder
CREATOR
4 months ago
Project Update: Achievements 1 & 2 unlocked, stretch goals completed!
We got funded in under a minute, and stretch goals 1 and 2 have been achieved!
That means FREE peelers will be going out to all Tier 3+ backers, and we'll be upgrading the honing rod to have a colorful resin handle as well!
We also just ended the 5 hour long stream, and then found out we forgot to turn on the VOD feature. Whoops!
I have the recording though, so we'll be able to upload that, at least, but that might take a bit.
Thank you for your support everyone!
That means FREE peelers will be going out to all Tier 3+ backers, and we'll be upgrading the honing rod to have a colorful resin handle as well!
We also just ended the 5 hour long stream, and then found out we forgot to turn on the VOD feature. Whoops!
I have the recording though, so we'll be able to upload that, at least, but that might take a bit.
Thank you for your support everyone!
Get a FREE Peeler in all Tiers!
Goal: $15,000 reached! — We did it! This project reached this goal!
100%
Access to an upgraded version AND free addition to all Tier 3 and up!
Goal: $25,000 reached! — We did it! This project reached this goal!
100%
CREATOR
Question 1:
There’s been another argument in the kitchen since the last visit from the corpos. Vivian’s been fuming the entire day, lips pursed and irritation painted clearly in her narrowed, darting eyes. Everyone’s kept their head down, bracing for the worst news from chef-- after all, last time this happened, everyone had to count exactly how many fava beans they were peeling. As she walks down the line, each feedtek is spoken to apologetically by Vivian and handed a sheet, and the shocked expression on each face makes you nervous.
There’s been another argument in the kitchen since the last visit from the corpos. Vivian’s been fuming the entire day, lips pursed and irritation painted clearly in her narrowed, darting eyes. Everyone’s kept their head down, bracing for the worst news from chef-- after all, last time this happened, everyone had to count exactly how many fava beans they were peeling. As she walks down the line, each feedtek is spoken to apologetically by Vivian and handed a sheet, and the shocked expression on each face makes you nervous.
You’re next, and handed a recipe card with an alarmingly indulgent title at the top: “A5 Wagyu Steak Tartare For Cornelius The 3rd(Poodle)”. You can see the pain on Vivian’s face as she looks at you, wordlessly depositing a large steak of legendary quality on your cutting board... and then she simply shakes her head and walks away, trusting you with this ludicrous request. Which tool will work the best for this?
- High powered food processor
- Heavy Meat Cleaver
- Bread Knife
- Chinese Cai Dao
ANSWER: Chinese Cai Dao. The broad, yet thin and surprisingly nimble blade allows you to finely dice this steak into tiny bite size pieces fit even for a poodle. Cornelius The 2nd, before its untimely demise, was similarly picky about food size, and this corporate executive’s new clone pet seems to have similar tastes. A5 Wagyu steak would become a schmear of a paste if you attempted to grind it up in a food processor, and the heavy meat cleaver would do a similarly poor job, with the thick edge crushing and wedging the very expensive wagyu apart instead, and a bread knife’s serrations make any kind of dicing work difficult. After all, Cornelius The 3rd should be considered just as good as royalty.
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Question 2:
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Question 2:
You hear a snap and some loud, yet somehow refined cursing from behind you, followed by a soft, defeated sigh. Within moments, you hear the Maître d', Charles “Char” Xu sidle up beside you, not-so elegantly plonking down a bottle of wine next to you. You can see the shining of a snapped corkscrew poking out of the top of the cork... and a matching half sticking out of the cybernetic parts of Char’s hand. You can also see he’s trying hard not to wince at the thought of how expensive that cyberkit will be to replace.
“Could you do me a favor, love, and pry out the cork for me please?” he asks, laying on a completely unnecessary amount of charm.
“Could you do me a favor, love, and pry out the cork for me please?” he asks, laying on a completely unnecessary amount of charm.
What’s the best knife for this situation?
- Paring Knife
- Tourne Knife
- Bread Knife
- Knives aren’t meant to be used this way and sounds like a him problem, not yours
ANSWER: Sounds like a him problem, not yours-- after all, knives are cutting tools, not prying tools! Even if a paring knife COULD technically do the job, the chance of the knife snapping from all the twisting and prying is very high, and one of the other servers lost an eye doing so. OmniMedTech refused to cover the claim for cyberkit to replace the lost eye, citing “preventable occurrence, human error.”
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Question 3:
The lights are flashing and the bass sends deep thumps straight into your bones with every beat. You’re still not sure of the circumstances that led you to subbing in for a hibachi chef and cramming MemStates to learn the techniques necessary to work at this live hibachi rave atop SpecT tower, but the drone and holo shows almost make it worth it.
...Almost. Vivian owes you for this one.
You brought your entire knife roll just in case, and it’s about time for you to start cooking for the guests, half who look at you expectantly, and the other half looking just about ready to pass out. You’ll have to be performing and cutting food on this live steel griddle that vibrates with the rhythm of the songs playing. Which knife do you choose to show off your skills?
- 8” Rare Japanese Mizu-Honyaki Gyuto
- Plasma-enhanced Ceramic Santoku
- Old, cheap 6” utility knife
- Bread Knife
ANSWER: Old, cheap 6” utility knife. Hibachi performances are flashy, just as much entertainment as food. The knife you use needs to be able to cut on the hot metal griddle without damaging the griddle itself, while still being able to cut through the food you’re preparing. The old, cheap 6” utility knife’s lower Rockwell hardness(HRC) means that it won’t damage the griddle when you cut, and can quickly and easily be touched up with a diamond or ceramic rod even during the performance, adding to the hibachi entertainment flair! The Mizu-Honayki Gyuto, while a beautifully elegant knife, demands respect and care that you’d be unable to provide during a hibachi rooftop rave, and its high hardness would leave scratches on the griddle even while the heat of the griddle might damage the blade itself! A bread knife’s serrations would make it hard to get clean, fast cuts during the performance, and a plasma-enhanced ceramic santoku should ONLY be used against a plasma-resistant cutting surface, and would end up cutting through and getting stuck in the griddle, leading to angry, disappointed clientele who will refuse to wipe the debt from the books!
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Question 4:
Katalina “Katlass” Mercado looks around surreptitiously, a devilish grin on her face as she ensures that chefs aren’t around. She beckons towards you quickly, ushering you into one of the prep rooms. You notice there’s some tire marks on a package on the ground, and whatever meat is on the table looks a little... flat... and has a few bones poking out of it. As Kat enthusiastically puts on her elbow length gloves, a twinkle in her eyes, she tells you to promise not to scan what you’re about to do. You have a sinking feeling in your stomach, but you’re still going to need to debone and portion this out with her. What knife is most suitable for this job?
- Bread Knife
- Honesuki
- Meat Cleaver
- 10” German Chef Knife
ANSWER: Honesuki. The thick spine of the honesuki makes it excellent at tougher tasks involving bones, but still maintains a keen enough edge and point with its distal taper. Especially since this mystery meat was picked off the side of the road with damage from a rare vehicle that still used tires(owned by a very rich corpo who loves antiques, you’re guessing), you’ll likely need to cut around both intact bone AND bone shards that need to be cleaned out, making the versatile honesuki perfect for this task! A meat cleaver isn’t precise enough to be used to take out bone shards, a bread knife is too long and gets stuck in bone, and a 10” German Chef Knife would also be too long and clumsy for this kind of work.
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Question 5:
You’ve had a long day, and have been prepping with a 8” K-tip chef knife. So far, you’ve diced tomatoes, onions, cut mushrooms and cabbage, and minced garlic, and have been using your knife to scrape the ingredients into prep containers, keeping the knife nice and upright, with the edge aligned in a perfect 90 degree perpendicular to the cutting board. Halfway through your next task, prepping eggplant, you notice the knife isn’t as sharp anymore, and has more trouble getting through things than you expected. What caused your knife to go dull so quickly?
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Question 5:
You’ve had a long day, and have been prepping with a 8” K-tip chef knife. So far, you’ve diced tomatoes, onions, cut mushrooms and cabbage, and minced garlic, and have been using your knife to scrape the ingredients into prep containers, keeping the knife nice and upright, with the edge aligned in a perfect 90 degree perpendicular to the cutting board. Halfway through your next task, prepping eggplant, you notice the knife isn’t as sharp anymore, and has more trouble getting through things than you expected. What caused your knife to go dull so quickly?
- Tomatoes, because of their acidity reacting with the steel
- Cabbage, because of the higher silica content in the plant cells
- Scraping the cutting board with a perfect 90 degree edge alignment
- Keeping the knife too vertically upright which causes too much pressure on the edge
- Bread Knife
ANSWER: Scraping the cutting board with a perfect 90 degree edge alignment. Using a knife to scoop up food by sliding the blade beneath the food is acceptable when you know what you’re doing, but scraping across the board will damage knives! Better steel can be better at cutting, but be more susceptible to damage from misuse. Edge chipping and damage is, 99.9999% of the time caused by mishandling the knife by putting lateral force on it, by misaligning the blade when cutting, scraping with the blade, or trying to pry with the blade!
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Question 6:
Joe, in his infinite wisdom, managed to SOMEHOW mess up the tops of every single cupcake that’d been cooling in the baking racks. From the distinctive burn marks on them, you suspect he was trying to justify the purchase of his latest laser-based cyberkit again, and from the little bits of smoke and acrid smell all over the rest of the prep area, you also suspect that he didn’t read the manual on how to turn it off for quite a while. The towering figure of Marcus, VK-24601, is already bent over the rows of sheet pans, doing his best to fix the cupcakes. His usual kind, gentle smile is laced with a forced, pained expression as he asks for you to help cut the tops off the cupcakes and frost them in an effort to salvage the situation. What is the best tool for this situation?
- 7” Deba
- Bread Knife
- Offset Palette Knife
- 11” Sujihiki
ANSWER: The rare offset palette knife that actually acts as a knife! Extremely uncommon, this version of the offset palette knife is made with a hardened steel that can take a keen edge. This makes it good for more specialized tasks that involve a lot of cutting and frosting in one go, saving time by not needing to change tools in the workflow. The Deba is too thick to work with delicate cupcakes well, the bread knife could be used in a pinch but serrations make frosting difficult, and the sujihiki would be too long and unwieldy for something like cupcakes. While batch processes are the most efficient normally, if orders are coming in and you need to be cutting and frosting cupcakes damaged by Joe on the fly, then every second saved counts!
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Question 7:
You’ve finally finished assisting with the cupcakes, when bartender Ryder bursts into the prep area, holding a distinctively smoking birthday cake, the top of which is littered with incinerated candles and scorch marks on the frosting. It’s not entirely out of the question that the frosting itself had somehow caught fire at some point either. Ryder’s about to say something, but pauses when he sees the state of the cupcakes, and instead nods solemnly at Marcus, who just sighs deeply. He waves at you to cut the top off the birthday cake so that he can do his best to repair it. What is the best tool for this situation?
- Plasma-heated monowire
- Bread knife.
- Meat Cleaver
- 8” German Chef Knife
ANSWER: Bread Knife. Looks like Joe tried to help again. Don’t make his mistake and choose the wrong tool for the wrong job-- A plasma-heated monowire is far too powerful, and while it will make a clean cut, it will instantly char whatever it’s touching! The meat cleaver is too thick, and the 8” German Chef Knife has a poor blade geometry for cutting off the top of cakes. If they’re out of bread for the bread knife to cut, then let the bread knife cut cake!
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Hope everyone had fun with these little quizzes, and learned something from them! We'll be announcing who won prizes during the launch stream, so make sure you're there for that to claim your prizes!
-Tim