[VIDEO] Sharpen Your Knife Skills: Tips to Improve Safety, Precision and Efficiency
From grip and positioning to posture and follow-through, mastering knife skills is fundamental to culinary training.
One of the first techniques culinary students study is knife skills — and for good reason.
“Knife skills have a lot to do with your end result,” says Chef Chris Arturo.
With strong cutting technique, ingredients will be uniform (translating to even cooking and professional presentation) — and chefs can work faster, more safely and in a style that minimizes physical discomfort. Mastering knife skills is equally important for restaurant chefs and those with careers outside the kitchen.
In the video below, Chef Chris demonstrates essential principles that can help you build confidence with a knife.
He splits this into five lessons:
- Knife Grip & Body Positioning: How to hold a knife and position your body so the blade stays parallel to the cutting board
- Elbow & Hand Positioning: How to stabilize the food item while protecting your fingers
- Longer Knives & Follow Through: How to achieve what Chef Chris calls, “joyful herbs,” using a forward-and-backward swing (versus an up-and-down chop)
- Posture: The proper stance for control, comfort and efficiency
- Combining Skills: How to julienne a carrot using the correct grip, stance, stabilization and knife movement.
Each lessons plays an important role — together, they can help to yield beautifully cut, evenly cooked food and safety in the kitchen.
Practice your knife skills in ICE’s hands-on training programs in Culinary Arts, Health-Centered Culinary Arts or Pastry & Baking Arts. Request more information about the different courses here.
