Basic Knife Skills Video

Chef Peter Hertzmann’s Guide to Holding & Cutting with Kitchen Knives

Lot’s of us own a butcher block full great knives but do we really know the most effective way to use them. I am very excited to bring you this video from Peter Hertzmann, the creator and illustrator of his own web site called à la carte and author of a new book on knife skills called Knife Skills Illustrated.

In this short but detailed video, Peter shows us the Three Aspects of Knife Skills critical to proper knife handling:

• How to hold a kitchen knife properly
• How to hold what you are cutting
• How to move the knife through the food you are cutting

After viewing this knife skills video, you should have a much better understanding and hopefully more confidence when it comes to handling your own knives. Peter’s video demonstrates these three aspects from your point of view making his descriptions much easier to understand. I don’t think you’ll find a better presentation on knife skills anywhere other than culinary school.

These videos are even better than I expected when Peter and I talked about how we could demonstrate to my visitors the most important basics to knife skills. Peter is working on a series of these videos that I will present to you here in the future.

Learning how to choose a chef’s knife and then how to handle it properly is critical when learning how to cook. No matter how many knives you own, your chef knife will be the most important one of all.

Check out my Chefs Knife page to learn more about deciding on what knife is right for you including type of blade, style, edge, length and balance. Keeping a knife sharp is critical so be sure to read about my favorite electric knife sharpener.

onlinesources: Chef’s Knives

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