In this video we're going to learn how
to properly use a chef's knife.
[music]
First let's start by reviewing the parts
of the knife.
We have our cutting edge,
our spine,
the tip, the bolster,
and the handle.
To properly use the knife, we first need to learn how to properly hold the knife.
[music]
Many people's first thought
when using the chef's knife is knives
are sharp and scary and I want my hand
as far away from the blade as possible.
So they choke back on the knife and hold
their hand down the handle as far as
possible
this is not really effective you can see
when I go to make my cuts my knife is
very wobbly and I don't have a lot of
control.
So if we're going after control people's
next thought is well maybe I'll put my
finger way up on the spine of the knife
and that'll really help anchor it down onto the board.
This certainly gives you
more control than chokin g down on the
end of the knife but it's not the way we
have the most control.
The way we have the most control is by holding the knife at the bolster.
So if you remember the bolsters this part of the knife right here
and you'll see our knife is weighted or balanced at the bolster and this is where we want to hold our knife
and we really want to hold our knife
with our thumb and our index finger in
kind of a pinching motion okay.
So just like this now you can see I can operate
my knife using just this thumb and index
finger but it's kind of awkward to have
these fingers sticking out so what I'm
gonna do is I'm just gonna wrap these
fingers around the handle of the knife
okay I'm not gripping the knife with
these fingers right I'm just wrapping
them around.
All of the power is gonna come down through my arm and into this index finger and this is what's going to give me the most control.
[music]
So now that we know how to hold the knife
we next need to know how to
operate the knife.
Okay. So when operating
the knife the tip of the knife is going
to stay in constant contact with the
board, while our hand makes a circular
motion
So you can see the circular
motion here that my hand is making while
the tip stays in contact with the board.
One really interesting way to think
about this
is to think about train so
[train sounds]                                                                         just like the piston of the train pushes forward and pulls back making a
circular motion, pushes forward and
pulls back making a circular motion, to
drive that train forward, so does the
motion that we use for our chopping and
slicing. Push forward and pull back
making a circular motion.
[music]
All right!
So now that we know how to hold and use the knife, the next question is what do I do
with my non-dominant hand? So we're going
to be holding the knife in our dominant
hand and using the knife, but we need to
do something with our other hand.
Generally, that hand is going to be
holding the food product for our
chopping and slicing motion, but we don't
want to cut ourself, okay. So we should
always ask ourselves "if I slip right now
can I cut myself?" and if the answer is
"yes", most of the time you're using that
knife incorrectly.
So to start... what we're
going to do is we're going to go ahead
and cut this piece of celery, and we'll
take this piece of celery and we'll cut
it in half. What I'll do is I'll make a
bridge with my fingers and pull the
knife through. Now to use my chopping and
slicing motion generally we're going to
use what's what I refer to as the claw
so instead of holding the food product
with my fingers out you see how easy it
would be to cut myself like that. One
slip and it's very easy to cut myself.
We're going to use the claw so we're
gonna bring those fingers in, so that the
backs of my knuckles are exposed here,
and the blade of my knife can stay in
contact with my fingers while I make my chopping motion.
So, let's put it all to use!
I'm gonna hold the knife correctly by
grasping the knife at the bolster. I'm
gonna use my circular motion with my tip
staying in contact with the board, and
I'm going to use the claw to hold the
food and guide my knife as I make my
chopping motion. Okay and you can see how effective this is, how difficult it would
be to cut myself, how easy it is to use
this knife. And that's our chopping and slicing motion!
[music]
We're going to do our
mincing motion, and the mincing motion is a little bit different.
Mincing is a much faster process it's
really going to quickly break food down
into really really small pieces so we're
gonna see mince is used a lot in things
like
garlic and herbs where we want there's
really really fine pieces to kind of
disperse through things. So I'm going to
demo this on parsley today but the same
mincing motion applies these principles
apply to whatever it is you want to
mince, different herbs, garlic, whatever it
may be. So the first thing I'm going to
do is I just want to break my product
down into slightly smaller pieces
okay so I'll make a little bit bundle a
little bit of a bundle here with my claw
use my chopping motion just to break it
down into smaller pieces from here I'm
gonna transition from my chopping
slicing motion to my mincing motion.
So, what I'm going to do is we're going to
keep the tip of my knife anchored on the
board and I'm gonna use my fingers here
to help anchor that tip of the knife
then instead of the circular motion of
the chopping and slicing I'm gonna do a
straight up and down motion and what
this does is it allows me to work much
quicker with my knife. You can see how
fast I can really work through the herbs.
So the other thing you'll notice as I'm
doing my mincing motion is I'm running
my knife through my pile of herbs, and
then occasionally I'm collecting the
herbs back into a pile.
What's important here with my mince is
that I'm gonna get all the pieces cut
down to the same size. What I don't want
is I don't want a big piece of herb and
then a really tiny piece, I want it all
to be about the same size. It doesn't
matter that it's the same shape, the
mince is not a precise cut, but what is
important is that it's all about the
same size.
All right.
So, I have my nice
minced herbs here and you can see those
pieces are all nice uniform sizes.
And that's our mincing motion.
[music]
Let's review!
[music]
Always ask myself the
question: "can I cut myself?" and if the
answer is yes, you're probably not using
the knife correctly.
Lastly, remember all cuts should be approximately the same size, depending on the cut we're doing
they may not be the same shape, but they
should be the same size to ensure even cooking.
[music]
