Last weekend I took a knife skills class at a cool cooking school called ArtEpicure, located in the historic Brickbottom Artists Building in Somerville, MA. The event was sponsored by the Massachusetts Dietetic Association, so during the day, I enjoyed the company of nine other knife-wielding registered dietitians. We practiced proper technique for slicing, dicing and knife sharpening, discovered the difference between a brunoise and a chiffonade, and most importantly, learned how not to slice off the tips of our fingers! Liz and I dish all about my day as a ninja on this week’s Cooking with the Moms podcast.

The oh-so eclectic Kitchen Studio at ArtEpicure Cooking School in Somerville, MA (for our complete lineup of my photos, visit our Flickr page).

Janice (upper left) is joined by foodie dietitians from the Massachusetts Dietetic Association.

Chef Josh Velazquez shows us the best way to chop an onion.

Notice the curled fingers behind the knife blade; it keeps fingers safe and intact!

Check out my chiffonade of bok choy. Chef Josh will use it later (along with lots of other veggies) for a delicious stir fry.

Chef Josh shows my friend Janel (from the blog, Eat Well with Janel) the best way to sharpen her knife on a honing steel.

After a long morning hovering over our cutting boards, the chef prepared a three-course lunch of salad with soft chunks of tofu, stir-fried vegetables, and apple cake. It was the perfect meal for this veggie-loving crowd.

Now for news on our latest GIVEAWAY! One lucky winner (U.S. and Canada only) will be selected to win a copy of  The Zwilling J.A. Henckels Complete Book of Knife Skills: The Essential Guide to Use, Techniques and Care by Jeffrey Elliot and James P. DeWan (Adams Media, $34.95).

To enter …

> Post a comment on this blog post telling us about your biggest knife blunder and/or the new knife skill you’d like to learn. We will enter you into the giveaway a second, third, and/or fourth time if you …

* Subscribe to our RSS feed
* Tweet about the giveaway with a link back to this post
* Share the giveaway news with your Facebook fans and friends with a link back to the post

Please be sure to leave us a new comment every time you do something extra …. and GOOD LUCK!  The giveaway ends on March 4th at noon, and as always we’ll use random.org to pick our winner.

NEWS FLASH … AND SHAMELESS PLUG!!
Circle of Moms has included us in their new lineup of Top 25 Foodie Mom bloggers. We’re thrilled. If you like our blog (and we sure hope you do), please take a moment to visit Circle of Moms and vote for us as one of your faves. We appreciate your support. Click here for the link!

Meanwhile, for tips on buying, sharpening, and caring for knives, we thought you might enjoy the following videos:

> Chef Bobby Flay tackles red bell peppers and garlic to demonstrate basic knife skills
> Our friend, Tyler Florence (we call him our friend because he was on Cooking with the Moms last summer, and we think he’s the bees knees) explains the basics of buying knives
> The glamorous Giada De Laurentiis tells you everything you need to know about knives
> Check out this About.com video if you want to learn a technique for efficiently chopping an onion

29 Responses to “Knife Skills for Dummies and a Giveaway for a Knife Skills Book (Podcast #135)”

1. Miranda on February 19th, 2011
2. Miranda on February 19th, 2011

   I would Like to learn how to chop herbs.

3. Janel on February 20th, 2011

   Love the podcast Liz and Janice! Makes me feel like I was in the class with you (and I was, but you know what I mean!) I keep catching myself using the wrong cutting methods – have to remember everything Josh taught us!

4. Amy on February 20th, 2011

   My biggest knife blunder was when I was try to take the pit out of an avocado. I tried to hit the pit with a knife, like I see on TV, well, I clearly have poor aim, because the knife glanced off the pit sliced through the flesh of the avocado, straight through to my thumb. Thankfully the knife had lost enough momentum and it only made a temporary “dent” in my skin and did not cut–what a scare!

5. Amy on February 20th, 2011

   I subscribe to the RSS feed

6. Amy on February 20th, 2011

   Tweeted with a link back

7. Amy on February 20th, 2011

   Shared and linked back on facebook

8. Jenna on February 20th, 2011

   I’d like to learn how to get a rhythm going while chopping. I think that helps make pieces that are a consistent size.

9. Jenna on February 20th, 2011

   I subscribe by RSS feed.

10. Mary on February 20th, 2011

    I guess my biggest blunders are not cutting veges the same size so they cook evenly. I really try — but somehow it just doesn’t happen. If I could cut perfect Julienne slices and not take all day at it….

    I subscribe by RSS feed, too.

11. lauramich on February 21st, 2011

    Thank you for this episode and giveaway! I have been struggling for years to improve my knife skills. I even enrolled in a course at the local career center, but it didn’t really stick. I’m slow and clumsy with a knife. As in, it can take me five minutes to chop a single onion or bell pepper. Given that veggies are such a central part of healthy eating, getting more efficient at prepping them would free up tons of my time.

    Biggest blunder: Last New Year’s Day, I made a giant pot of chicken noodle soup, which I load up with yummy veg–onions, carrots, celery, and cabbage. While chopping the cabbage, I managed to whack off the tip of my thumb! My husband came running, helped me bandage the thumb, and picked up where I’d left off chopping the vegetables. He was perfectly sympathetic and solicitous … until he found the tip of my thumb on the cutting board. Since then, he has accused me of trying to turn him into a cannibal!

12. lauramich on February 21st, 2011

    Also, I subscribe by RSS feed!

13. Rachel on February 21st, 2011

    Janice, I wanted to attend the MDA knife skills workshop! Thank you for the recap; sounds like a fun and informative session. Wow, great giveaway. Biggest knife blunder: almost cutting my finger and bending my Ikea knife while trying to cut open Kabocha, Japanese squash. After this I bought a Wustoff Santoku, and am happily cutting squash ever since. Thank you.

14. Rachel on February 21st, 2011

    tweeted with a linkback! thank you.

15. Tweets that mention Knife Skills for Dummies and a Giveaway for a Knife Skills Book (Podcast #135) | Meal Makeover Moms’ Kitchen — Topsy.com on February 21st, 2011

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Janice Bissex, R.D., NCBA and Rachel Perez, Alltop Food. Alltop Food said: Knife Skills for Dummies and a Giveaway for a Knife Skills Book (Podcast #135) bit.ly/hMjbYy [...]

16. Ashley Estrada on February 21st, 2011

    I’d love to learn how to chop, chop, chop away like a pro. Right now I’m still trying to remember to keep my fingers tucked back but that’s still a bit awkward for me. It’s kind like learning how to write with your opposite hand. I think this is a great giveaway. Thank you for doing this!

17. Lindsey on February 21st, 2011

    i would say my biggest nice blunder is putting my knives in the dishwasher! ahhh it’s unforgivable (i know) but as you can see not only do i need help with my actual knife cutting skills, but also my knife care skills

18. Margot on February 22nd, 2011

    Trying to cut frozen fish with a 7 in santoku. *sigh* The knife did not live to see another day and we had to order pizza for dinner.

19. Margot on February 22nd, 2011

    I subscribe via the RSS feed.

20. Chris M. on February 22nd, 2011

    Yeah…I’ve cut off a small part of the side of my thumb while cutting up an apple. And boy do those things bleed….

21. Wendy on February 24th, 2011

    I have searched for a knife skills class near me for years… without finding any. I really want to increase my speed and safety. I have watched people peel and chop an apple in seconds… I would love to be able to do that!

22. Sandra on February 24th, 2011

    my knife skills include all the ‘mistakes’ most commonly made on your podcast!! lol. i aspire to have cubed and diced veggies that are all the same size, not just randomly cut up in chunks!

23. Missy on February 24th, 2011

    My biggest knife blunder would be using a large kitchen knife where a paring knife would have been appropriate. I am pretty lucky not to have sliced a thumb off!! I need to invest in some good paring knives.

24. Brooke on February 24th, 2011

    I’d love to learn chop an onion the right way!!

25. Amy on February 24th, 2011

    Thanks for the giveaway! I’d like to learn how to properly sharpen my knives. I have 2 sharpeners and am afraid to use them for fear I will ruin my knives!

26. Bethany O’Neill on February 24th, 2011

    my dad tried to using my paring knife as a screwdriver and the tip broke off. I still use the knife because I can’t part with it’s perfect size (regardless of a missing tip)

27. Bethany O’Neill on February 24th, 2011
28. Kelly Keller on February 24th, 2011

    Great show, and great giveaway! The biggest reason I want the book is because I have a 5-year-old daughter who LOVES to cook with me. Her favorite thing to do is chop–onions, garlic, potatoes, whatever I will let her do. I really want to foster her love of cooking healthy food, and I want to be able to teach her safe and correct ways to do that.

29. Bridget De Yager on February 26th, 2011

    I always seem to end up cutting my fingernails, yikes! I need some help with knife skills.

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Rick (Ricky) Giordano is a food lovers. He likes to prepare at home delicious meals in his spare time, and in his restaurant in Charlotte, … Needless to say, the use of high-quality kitchen knife can make a big difference when preparing a meal. So, what you should look for when is the best kitchen knives? The main aspects of evaluation chopper including construction, design and feel. Buy the best knife is more complicated is when you know your cooking needs. In a perfect world, you want to get knives will last a lifetime. There are three key knife knife set. Out a number of knife, chef knife, is a key than any other. The size of this knife is usually 8-10 inches, with a huge blade, is responsible shredding, crushing, grinding, slicing, and carving. What can do about it, really how valuable account of these tools can be a wide range of varieties, so they can be expensive. Chef can be fully utilized, while reducing large as chef knife blade, and cutting boards are easy, because of its curvature. A paring knife blade is about 3-4 inches, so it is much higher than a chef knife small. The design of a paring knife tasks, such as precision and because the chef knife blade is not small enough. Another important tool is a bread knife. In order to rapidly crusts and bread, the most bread knives’ blades serrated. Free to use bread slices fruit knife also includes pineapple and tomatoes. The santoku knife knife more and more common recently. This is a chef knife alternatives. Blade of the santoku knife is usually 5-8 inches long, with distinction from the chef knife. 1 santoku edge profile of the 15-18 degree angle, and a chef knife angle range of 20-22 degrees. Because of this difference, a plus precision santoku knife blade. santoku knife strong as tempered steel is used to produce them. Japan uses more powerful than other countries of steel, so santoku completed investment in Japan is the best way to go.

The best thing you can do to keep your knives sharp and to avoid wear and tear on the blade’s edge is to make sure to use it on the proper cutting surface. Using a cutting board made of glass, stone, stainless steel or ceramic will quickly dull your knife. For this reason, it’s advisable to avoid using your good kitchen knives to cut food directly on ceramic or porcelain dinnerware or on granite or marble countertops. The better option is using cutting boards made of wood, bamboo, plastic or synthetic because they won’t dull your blades.

It’s also important to keep your knives clean. Ask any professional chef how to wash a good knife and I would wager that 99 times out of 100 you will get the same answer and a stern one at that: A kitchen knife should always be washed by hand after each use using a mild liquid detergent and then dried thoroughly with a towel. And, then that same chef will tell you, and with great emphasis, that a good knife should NEVER be washed in a dishwasher because the heat and steam will ruin wood handles and the knife can be easily nicked by being tossed around in the dishwasher.

All this being said, I have to admit (and I realize that I may be about to incur the disdain of many amazing chefs by doing so), that I sometimes wash my knives in the dishwasher, because, due to safety reasons, I don’t like handling a sharp blade with wet hands. For this reason, I only buy plastic-or composite-handled knives because wooden handled knives really shouldn’t go into the dishwasher. And I’ve never had a problem with my knives getting nicked in there, although I’m very careful about how I load them.

If you choose to wash your knives in the dishwasher, make sure to place them securely in the top shelf of your dishwasher so that they won’t move around during the washing cycle and don’t use the heated dry cycle. For safety sake, be careful unloading the dishwasher. And, remove the knives from the dishwasher immediately after the washing cycle is complete.

In addition to keeping your knives clean, it’s a good idea to keep them sharpened and in alignment. A honing steel is an essential piece of equipment if you want to keep your knives in tip-top shape. The honing steel is not a sharpener, but is used to re-align and straighten the blade’s edge. By pulling the knife’s edge along the length of the honing steel, the blade can be brought back to the correct angle. Manufacturers recommend using a honing steel every time you work with your knives.

As far as sharpening your knives, there are a number of home knife sharpeners on the market today and many of them do a good job at returning a reasonably sharp edge to your blades. The manual sharpeners are significantly less expensive than their electric counterparts, but just don’t seem to be able to manage a blade that is pretty dull. If you keep up with your knives and the blades are only modestly dull, the manual knife sharpener is probably fine for you. Otherwise, you’ll probably want to invest in an electric sharpener. When shopping for an electric knife sharpener, you may want to consider getting one that includes a non-motorized slot that can be used like a honing steel. This will save you having to buy the steel in addition to the sharpener. In addition, the honing mechanism on the electric sharpeners is much easier to use than the traditional honing steel.

The other option for sharpening your knives is to take them to a professional knife sharpener. This choice is certainly less convenient than running the blade through a sharpener at home, but nothing can give your blades a sharper edge than an experienced professional can. In fact, many professional chefs say that having your knives sharpened by a professional knife sharpener is the only way to go.

If you’re interested, most good kitchenware shops can direct you to a qualified person. Or, you can also look under ‘Sharpening Services’ in your local Yellow Pages.