Knife Skills 101 - Foodie Flicks

by Monika Bartyzel, Posted Aug 21st 2009 @ 11:00AM

It's easy to get lost in the plethora of kitchen tools available for the home gourmand, but as "Everyday Exotic" Chef Roger Mooking reminds us, "Your hands are your most powerful tools in the kitchen."

Yep. Not that lemon squeezer, not that electric chopper and not even that beautiful cast-iron pan. Rather than spend an arm and a leg on every latest gadget, spend some time on your knife skills -- and keep every one of those precious digits intact.

In this video, Mooking does a super-quick primer on important knife basics: Make sure your knife is sharp (using the tried-and-true fingernail test -- it works!) and then use your knuckles, with fingertips safely curled under, as a flat "guide" for the blade. With these two rules and a little practice, we'll all be handling steel like a pro -- and won't ever have to dive for the Band-Aids again.

[Via YouTube]

Filed under: Foodie Flicks
Tags: Chef Roger Mooking, ChefRogerMooking, Everyday Exotic, EverydayExotic, foodie-flicks, knife, knife skills, knife skills 101, knife tips, KnifeSkills, KnifeSkills101, KnifeTips

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

8-21-2009 @12:41PM Colleen said... What exactly is he doing with the knife against his fingernail? Is he tapping it, dragging it across, or what?
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8-21-2009 @12:48PM Monika said... Colleen-
He's just lightly pressing the blade against his nail, at an acute angle. (less than 90 degrees) If the blade catches, it's good and sharp, if it doesn't and slides, the blade is dull.
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8-21-2009 @1:27PM CookingSchoolConfidential.com said... He seems like a lovely man, but if any of our chef's at school saw us holding a knife like that, there would be hell to pay.

Never hold the knife with your finger pointing out. Instead, pinch the back of the knife (the part near the handle) for good control.

And I don't know about using the knife edge against your nail to test for sharpness. Seems dangerous to me. There must be a safer way to do that.

Cheers!
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