Knife Lessons

 

The knife, I know, is a most important and essential kitchen tool. I’ve learned a bit about knives (ie. mine are terrible, inadequate) chopping veggies for years and years. A few months ago finally bought a good bread knife and two nice santoku knives. Wow! This made a huge difference in efficiency and eye appeal (no more tearing at the vegetables…). Still, I am really just an amateur, so I decided to sign up for the Knife Skills class at my local Williams Sonoma this past weekend. What a blast! I went with my mother-in-law, Karen.

Chef Brian taught the class, first introducing us to the knife, its parts and how to hold it properly. (I’ve been holding my knife wrong all these years! I never knew you were supposed to put your finger on the blade.)

Chef Brian explains hand placement

He also demonstrated the proper guiding hand position, curling your fingers and letting your knuckles touch the blade.

perfect pepper slices

 

Then he whipped out a paring knife and made some garnishes: tomato rose, cherry tomato flower, strawberry fan, green onion curls.

 

 

A few carefully places slices of the paring knife = easy garnishes (well, he makes it look easy!). Needless to say, I thought it would be fun to practice my knife skills at home. So I was thrilled when Karen surprised me with a beautiful new paring knife! What a wonderful and thoughtful gift for a foodie! And what a thrill this was, cutting into a tomato, a pepper. Look at how clean the cuts are and how precise you can be with a good knife: 90 degree angles! It’s just beautiful to feel and look at. Needless to say, I’ll enjoy practicing on all my veggies now, and I’ll think of Karen while I’m chopping away.

beautiful knife, beautiful cuts

 Chopping hint #1: lay your pepper sideways on the cutting board (stem parallel to the counter). Slice off the entire top, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch from the base of the stem. Once the pepper is open, you can just pull out the entire seed mass, and you’ll have a nice, whole, hollow pepper.

Chopping hint #2: only use wood or plastic cutting boards. Glass boards are bad for your good knives.

Advertisement