French Dip — a Sudoku with thermometers and sandwiches, and a secret solution word to extract! My friend's first published Sudoku.

I typically get stuck around this point. I begin with penciling in which numbers pinky have two options per 3x3. If that dries up, I will try looking for numbers that can only go in one spot per row/column and squares that only allow 1 number.

Are there powerful techniques I'm skipping?

Not sure where to go from here. I'm still relatively new to suduko so are there any techniques I could use here?

Any hints appreciated

I am stuck on this puzzle. Any suggestions for how to move forward? Thank you.