Mastering Knife Skills

An illustrated, practical guide to everything you need to know about using knives in the kitchen. As the number of gourmet home kitchens burgeons, so does the number of home cooks who want to become proficient users of the professional-caliber equipment they own. And of all kitchen skills, perhaps the most critical are those involving the proper use of knives. Norman Weinstein has been teaching his knife skills workshop at New York City’s Institute of Culinary Education for more than a decade—and his classes always sell out. That’s because Weinstein focuses so squarely on the needs of the nonprofessional cook, providing basic instruction in knife techniques that maximize efficiency while placing the least possible stress on the user’s arm. Now, Mastering Knife Skills brings Weinstein’s well-honed knowledge to home cooks everywhere. Whether you want to dice an onion with the speed and dexterity of a TV chef, carve a roast like an expert, bone a chicken quickly and neatly, or just learn how to hold a knife in the right way, Mastering Knife Skills will be your go-to manual. Each cutting, slicing, and chopping method is thoroughly explained—and illustrated with clear, step-by-step photographs. Extras include information on knife construction, knife makers and types, knife maintenance and safety, and cutting boards. “In the old days, when kitchens weren’t equipped with a lot of fancy gadgets, a skilled chef needed only one tool to ply his trade: a sharp knife. This book will introduce novice cooks to and reacquaint experienced chefs with everything they need to know about a good knife and the art of using it.” —Cecilia Chiang, James Beard Award–winning restaurateur and author of The Seventh Daughter “This beautifully illustrated book, written with passion and precision, minces no words in guiding the reader to choose, maintain, and use a knife. Indispensable for anyone who prepares food, it has taught me how to cut produce much more efficiently.” —David Karp, Fruit Detective

As the number of gourmet home kitchens burgeons, so does the number of home cooks who want to become proficient users of the professional-caliber equipment they own. And of all kitchen skills, perhaps the most critical are those involving the proper use of knives. Norman Weinstein has been teaching his knife skills workshop at New York City's Institute of Culinary Education for more than a decadeùand his classes always sell out. That's because Weinstein focuses so squarely on the needs of the nonprofessional cook, providing basic instruction in knife techniques that maximize efficiency while placing the least possible stress on the user's arm. Now, Mastering Knife Skills brings Weinstein's well-honed knowledge to home cooks everywhere. Whether you want to dice an onion with the speed and dexterity of a TV chef, carve a roast like an expert, bone a chicken quickly and neatly, or just learn how to hold a knife in the right way, Mastering Knife Skills will be your go-to manual. Each cutting, slicing, and chopping method is thoroughly explainedùand illustrated with clear, step-by-step photographs. Extras include information on knife construction, knife makers and types, knife maintenance and safety, and cutting boards.

Good knife skills can be the most important ingredient in preparing a dish. Mastering professional knife skills makes a cook not only faster but safer as well. Kitchen Knife Skills shows the home cook how to choose and care for knives, how to keep them sharp and how to make the best use of their most important features. This comprehensive guide details the standard professional techniques used by chefs the world over, allowing the home cook to work just like the professionals -- quickly, effectively and stylishly. Detailed, step-by-step photos and instructions show how to prepare anything in the kitchen, including: -Vegetables -Fruits -Herbs -Poultry and meat -Fish -Bread and cakes From filleting a fish to fanning a piece of fruit, every knife and knife skill is described in detail in this outstanding resource book. Using this guide, anyone can cook like a professional chef.

The proper use of a knife is very important in the culinary arts. Uniform cooking of dishes as well as the release of flavors require proper cutting of ingredients. Different cutting techniques include the chop, the dice, the slice and cut, chiffonade and julienne. Certain food preparations require specific techniques of cutting ingredients as well as specifically designed knives. This book, with its detailed data, will prove immensely beneficial to professionals and students involved in this area. The extensive contents of this book provide the readers with a thorough understanding of this craft.

Anyone who wants to cook-- either professionally or at home-- needs to know how to use a knife. Holding and using knives correctly will not only help you work more safely, but also enable you to work faster, making you much more efficient in the kitchen.

Describes skills needed for using a knife for both right- and left-handed people.

Why are most of us so woefully uninformed about our kitchen knives? We are intimidated by our knives when they are sharp, annoyed by them when they are dull, and quietly ashamed that we don't know how to use them with any competence. For a species that has been using knives for nearly as long as we have been walking upright, that's a serious problem. An Edge in the Kitchen is the solution, an intelligent and delightful debunking of the mysteries of kitchen knives once and for all. If you can stack blocks, you can cut restaurant-quality diced vegetables. If you can fold a paper airplane, you can sharpen your knives better than many professionals. Veteran cook Chad Ward provides an in-depth guide to the most important tool in the kitchen, including how to choose the best kitchen knives in your price range, practical tutorials on knife skills, a step-by-step section on sharpening, and more——all illustrated with beautiful photographs throughout. Along the way you will discover what a cow sword is, and why you might want one; why chefs are abandoning their heavy knives in droves; and why the Pinch and the Claw, strange as they may sound, are in fact the best way to make precision vegetable cuts with speed and style. An Edge in the Kitchen is the one and only guide to the most important tool in the kitchen.

From the owners of Berkeley's famed Kitchen on Fire! cooking school comes an illustrated, step-by-step guide to becoming an excellent home chef.