learn how to cook like a chef? two words: knife skills | learn to …
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chef’s knife / French knife
In my last post I talked about why it is a good idea to have knife skills, and in this post I will talk about knife skills in more detail.
Grip
A good grip of a knife will help you to minimize accidents, have better control (making it easier to cut faster), and even help to reduce hand problems. The size, shape, task, and personal comfort all affect how you should grip the knife. However, never place you index finger on top of the blade. This can make it unpleasant, and can hurt your hand.
Pointer finger on side of knif above blade!
thumb on the side of the knife how ever may feel cumfy!
Do not place pointer finger on top of blade!
Control
Having control over the movement of the knife is very important because this is what makes knife handling safe, and it helps make the cuts uniform in size and style. Use one hand to push the food through blade and the other to guide the knife through the cut. One of the most important parts of handling a knife is to make sure that the knife is very sharp. Having a sharp knife at hand will not only make it safer to handle but makes the cuts more accurate. Let the knife do cutting; if you have to force the knife through the food then it is not sharp enough. Use the shape of the knife to your advantage.
Hold the food with one hand, tuck thumb behind the food! Using other fingers in front with tips of fingers slightly tucked away from the blade!
Knife cuts will make the food a uniform size and shape, which will make the food look more attractive and cook evenly.
Basics Peeling techniques
To enhance flavors, textures and appearance, peeling is very important. Before cutting many fruits and vegetables, you need to peel them. First rinse the fruits or vegetables before you peel them.
Vegetable peeler
Using a vegetable peeler is probably one of the easiest ways to peel smaller fruits and vegetables with thin skin. This is a tool with a swivel blade which is used for thin skinned fruits and vegetable like carrots, potatoes, parsnips, and asparagus, just to name a few.
Using a paring knife
Paring knives are small and can be used to peel the skin of a vegetable or fruit. To use a paring knife carefully hold the item with one hand and hold the knife in the other at 20* angle to the surface of the food. This method can be used to peel vegetables and fruits with thin skins or skins that are a little thicker.
Using a chef knife / French knife
A chef’s knife is best used for thick skinned vegetables and fruits like pineapple, squash, and grapefruits. This knife can be used to cut the ends of vegetables and fruits. First cut the ends of the item so that it will stand easily on its side. This keeps it from sliding, so you are less likely to cut yourself. Then you can cut the skin off.
There are many types of cuts that you will need to learn if you would like to cook like a chef. In this section I will explain some of these cuts. Just remember that it takes time to learn these cuts. They are difficult to archive but it just takes practice.
Coarse chopping
This is one of the easiest cuts of all and probably the most used among home cooks. In this method all the pieces of the item are cut in different shapes but should be relatively same size. This cut is not concerned with accuracy. With one hand hold the food item and feed it into the blade, and with the other hand grip the knife and guide it like I talked about above. Just cut to about the size you need. This is often used by chefs for more rustic looking plates, or to cut vegetables that will be taken out of the dish at the end.
Mincing
Mincing is when your cuts are very fine cuts. Start by coarse chopping as explained above, but next you grip the knife with one hand and one hand goes on top of the blade. While you keep the tip of the knife on the cutting board, you rock the knife cutting the food until you get the size you want. Mincing is used for fresh herbs and small vegetables like shallots and garlic. (chef’s Notes: sometimes recipes will say chopped – it is your job to make a judgment here, but most of the time people call mincing chopped.)
Standardized cuts
These cuts are the difficult ones but with practice you can do it. These cuts have to be perfect size and they have specific measurements. What are these cuts for? They are used mainly for presentation and also the uniform sizes will help in the cooking part to.
Batonnet
Dimensions : 1/4 x 1/4 x 2-2 ½ inches
Julienne / Alumette
Dimensions: 1/8 x 1/8 x 1 – 2 inches
Brunoise
Dimensions: 1/8 x 1/8 x 1/8 inches
Macedoine
Dimensions: 1/4 x 1/4 x 1/4 inches
Parmentier
Dimensions: 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2 inches
Carre
Dimensions: 3/4 x 3/4 x 3/4 inches
Rondelle
Dimensions: 1/8 – 1/2 thick primarily carrot cut
These are just a few of the different cuts that you should know if you want to learn to cook like a chef. In the future I will have some videos to help you learn your knife skills. If this post was helpful please let me know or if you have any questions I can answer them by leaving a comment below.

April 1, 2011 | Posted by
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