Hey there. This is an odd post that is not a recipe, but more an experiment in knife skills. On my most recent Summer Spoon post, I talk about the importance that The Chefs place on knife skills at The Restaurant. Like Chef M said to me on Friday, It is the difference between having good tasting food that looks mediocre and sloppy, or having good tasting food that looks stunning, therefore making it taste even better.
I locked myself in my kitchen yesterday for two hours and tweeted my progression as I minced shallots, finely diced fennel, and did a brunoise of carrots and rhubarb. I need to practice, because my skills are fine for a “home cook”, but in The Restaurant, where ever aspect of a dish has to be perfection, the produce I chop is apparent. Sometimes, it is thrown out, or snacked on because it is not suitable for a customer. But, all I can do it continue to practice with sharp knives, OCD, and pure will power.
My shallots are improving, although still not stackable in one long, even tower.
The brunoise of the carrot was not as difficult as I thought it would be, but I did Google a method.
The fennel was a disaster, and each piece, as you can see, is a different size and shape. The Sous chopped fennel the other day, and it looked so easy so I thought I would give it a try. Again, a humbling experiment.
The rhubarb was actually not as difficult to brunoise, either, because it is so hard in texture. I am going to make pickled rhubarb with it an put it on some sashimi grade fish.
This melon? Well, HUGE improvement for me. It was all about squaring off the pieces. Well, and getting to snack on the shapes that just couldn’t become a dice. The perks of a cook.
And, this stupid onion was also a nightmare. Pieces kept coming out as I swooshed my Chef’s knife into the bulb. It was frustrating, and there were onion scraps covering my cutting board. I will have to ask The Chefs what I am doing wrong. Also, not stackable like a tower. This is the goal.
What do you guys think about knife skills? Important for a home cook? Or just a snotty restaurant technique? And, what kind of knives do you guys use to chop your vegetables?
July 21, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Great mise en place. They all look great to me.
My suggestion is just to really use an amazingly sharp knife, and to keep it sharp the best thing is a ceramic honing rod, not a traditional steel.
My knife skills are OK at best, certainly not close to restaurant standard, but I just take my time, and try not to rush through this part of prep. Sometimes accurate dice is really needed, other times it isn’t.
Having uniform shapes helps things cook more evenly, which is a good thing. I also like to really work on uniform cutting when the final result is really visible in a dish, otherwise I am a little more slack.
I honestly think too many home cooks get tied up in trying to chop like the pro’s, and feel like they cannot start cooking more adventurous things till they can slice an onion in 1 second. Rubbish to that.
July 21, 2009 at 9:54 pm
I am a decent home cook and work on all different skills - knife, creativity, recipe development, etc. I don’t ever expect to become a professional chef, so PERFECTING my knife skills is not a goal, but improving is. Compare this to when I learned how to tap dance — that’s when the OCD kicked in — I practiced new steps every day for 4 hours and progressed from beginner to advanced in one summer and made it into a tap company that performed all over Washington DC. I have never learned so much in a single summer. Sounds like what you’re learning. But, as a home chef, I’m pretty happy with where my knife skills — they get me as far as I want: good, sometimes great food.
July 22, 2009 at 7:45 am
Well I, for one, am totally impressed with your brunoise! I keep telling myself I need to improve my knife skills just for personal satisfaction, but that gets difficult when I’m cooking with a partner who wants to help and wants to chop things! I have a hard time saying no to him
I use a wusthof 5 inch santoku for small amounts of chopping or small vegetables, and I have a shun 8 inch chef’s knife for bigger chopping projects. I lust after ceramic knives for tomato chopping.
July 30, 2009 at 4:07 pm
You did an amazing job. That’s a lot of work and your pieces look so uniform. I use a 7″ Furi santuko knife that I try to keep razor sharp with a Shun wetstone. I’ve certainly gotten better over the years, but not as good as you!
July 30, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Looks pretty darn good to me. I LOVE our Henckels and two small paring knives we got years ago on clearance at a Dansk Outlet. Problem after reading this… (only in that I Should be doing Other Things, LOL)… now you have me thinking, “Hmmmmm, pickled rhubarb….mmmm”
August 1, 2009 at 11:02 pm
Good job! I think knife skills are VERY important. In fact, I was just telling my husband that I’d really like to take a knife skills class while we’re here. Do you know of any in town?
August 5, 2009 at 1:43 pm
I think they’re important, but for a home cook the tolerances are much more lax. When needed, though, I like to think I can do a decent job (though nowhere near as fast as a pro). My favorite all-purpose knife is a Hattori Santoku.
August 11, 2009 at 4:11 am
I took a professional cooking class in Italy a couple of years ago. All the other students were pros. The only real problem I had was knife skills. Those guys were light years ahead of me! But they helped me out when I needed it. I still have trouble turning ROUND things into SQUARES. Great job.