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What to Know About Using a Chef’s Knife

Once you have chosen the right knife from the variety of chef knives available you are ready to begin honing your skills. Choose something durable, sharp, and perfectly balanced — as all things should be — and soon you will begin slicing, dicing, chiffonading, and mincing like a pro.

Holding Your Knife

Before you begin swinging your blade around at hapless produce and other ingredients, you must learn to hold the tool properly. This will guarantee straight clean cuts and fewer accidents.

To properly grip the blade of a chef’s knife, wrap your three bottom fingers around the blade and pinch the top of the blade itself between the thumb and index finger. You will grip the chef’s knife as you would a hammer. But if you pinch the blade as described, you will find you have much more control over a very sharp blade.

Once you have a good grip on your chef’s blade in one hand, your other hand will be free to hold and guide the ingredients being chopped. Naturally, you may lay your hand flat on the board with fingers extended, but this leaves you open to a potential accident. Rather than extending your fingers, curl them under your hand like a claw. This keeps your knuckles raised from the board and touching the side of the blade — perfect chopping control and increased safety all in one.

Positioning Your Knife

Using a sharp-bladed instrument to reduce larger foods into manageable portions is a trick as old as time, you have probably been doing this for some time now. But it is a mistake to assume a chef’s knife is a butter knife or even a steak knife. There is a gentle rocking motion that makes the chef’s blade precise and safe during use. To do this place the tip of the blade on the board and simply rock it back and forth from side to side across the veggies you are cutting. The speed and motion of the knife will determine the dimensions of the cuts you are making.

Slicing

This is one of the most fundamental knife skills. To begin with, lay all the ingredients across the board and hold the blade perpendicular to the items you will cut. Use your non-dominant hand to carefully guide the ingredients toward the rocking blade. Remember to keep your fingers in a claw, and the tip of the blade on the board. Naturally, the width of what you are cutting will be different depending on the dish you are cooking, but make sure all the cuts made are nice and even.

Dicing

Dicing is the culinary skill of cutting ingredients into small evenly sized pieces. This is another fundamental chef knife skill you should be able to dominate. In case your ingredient doesn’t have a flat side to lay on the board, slice the produce in half and lay the flat side down. Cut the produce in thin slices from one side to another, then turn it 90° and cut across once more. Your produce will be reduced to small rectangular or square sections.

Once you have mastered this basic cut, you will be able to build your skills. Try cutting your chunk into smaller ¼-inch cubes (macedoine) or even smaller 1/8-inch cubes (brunoise). To make smaller-sized cubes, simply practice making thinner slices until you reach the size you are aiming for.

Chopping

Chopping is a freer form of cutting that is used to prepare ingredients that don’t need a clean or uniform cut, like dice or slice. To begin with, hold your knife and ingredients as mentioned above. Then begin moving your knife over the ingredients, rocking the knife back and forth beginning with the tip of the knife and down to as much blade as needed.

There is also a way to get the most flavor experience from your chopped herbs, which involves using an extra sharp knife. You can also take all the herbs and spices you will be preparing for the dish and chop them together using minimal cuts to preserve the flavors as well as possible.

Mincing

Here is a knife skill almost entirely dedicated to preparing garlic for a variety of dishes. While this is very similar to dicing, more rotations and cuts make a finer final product — because no one likes a giant chunk of cooked garlic in their food.

Begin by slicing the garlic, or whichever ingredient you are using all the way across in one direction. Then, just like in dicing, rotate the garlic to 90° and cut across once more. Now, gather what should resemble a pile of small cubes into a row, and slice it across once more. You can repeat rotating the ingredients until you reach the desired size of ingredients.

Julienning

Julienning involves reducing your choice of the ingredient into long thin strips each about the size and dimensions of a matchstick. Begin by cutting the ingredient, a carrot for example, into two-inch sections so that each “matchstick” is the same size. Lay the segments on the board,

parallel to the motion of the blade and begin slicing across at 1/8-inch segments, stack the slices and go over them once more until they are all 1/8” X1/8” and 2” long.

Chiffonading

Primarily used with leafy veggies, chiffonading is used to create long thin slices of herbs that are often used as garnishes on your plate. Begin by stacking the flat leafy veggies on your board and rolling them into the chunky cigar. Slice thinly perpendicular to the length of the cigar to achieve thin, ribbon-like segments.