Incase you missed it: Day 2: Go as fast as you can, but no faster.
+ Seven Tips for Knife Skills
Hello again. If you read last week’s Day 1 in a professional kitchen, then you know what this is all about. I’m continuing on my goal to write up all 100 Days of the Chef Stage in Spanish Michelin kitchens - and you are most welcome to join me! Just add your email below or sign up here and I’ll send you the episodes directly. Today things get sharp. And I learn how to retain all ten fingers and thumbs…
Day 2
I’m chopping fast. The knife is slicing through the soft beetroot. Purple juice is flowing and I’m pretty pleased with myself. Until Victor appears.
You’re going way too fast
“I’d prefer it if you went slower and did a good job,” Victor, the sous-chef tells me shaking his head.
I am on day 2 of a chef stage at El Monastrell - a one star Michelin restaurant in Spain. Yesterday, I got langoustine brains all over my whites.
Today, we are slicing the beetroot into perfect 2mm cubes. Later the tiny purple cubes will be mixed with equally perfect green asparagus cubes, quickly blanched, refreshed, and topped with a creamy egg yolk that has been cooked precisely at 63 degrees.
It is one of the starters on El Monastrell’s tasting menu, and it looks spectacular. Well, usually, it does.
In our attempt to copy Victor, we’ve gone way too fast for our skill level, and we’ve massacred the beetroot.
Earlier, Victor had demonstrated how he wanted it to look.
Too easy.
Effortlessly with a rolling chop, he’d julienned thin strips. Then turning the pieces through 90 degrees, he’d sliced again leaving a neat brunoise of tiny identical squares. He’d made it look easy.
Victor picks up our unalike and unequal chunks, lets them drop from his hand back to the board and shakes his head. Unimpressed.
He shows us again.
Perfect uniform strips emerge, as he guides the knife across the beetroot in a fast rolling chop. He is not even looking down at what he is doing, but talking to us as he slices.
What of course he doesn’t say is that it has taken 10 years of hard graft to get to this level.
Skill is often disguised in this manner. If someone makes something look easy, then you can bet that behind that proficiency is years of practice and repetition.
Yesterday, I had some time to observe the others as they worked in the kitchen.There’s a definite divide between the experienced and inexperienced chefs.
It’s in the subtleties. Like the way, Federico, the head chef with more than 20 years experience under his hat, instinctively curls the sauce spoon to catch the drip before it hits the plate.
Or how Victor switches off the pressure cooker, while he answers someone across the room simultaneously removing a boiling pan from the stove without missing a beat.
Unlike the rest of us, these chefs rarely change their pace, rarely do they speed up, and hardly ever do they come to a complete stop, as one job finishes they move fluidly into the next.
Whereas us inexperienced chefs repeat unnecessary movements. We waste trips to the fridge, reopen drawers to find ingredients, we speed up when we panic and come to complete standstill as we think out the next task.
There are no shortcuts to becoming skilled. You can’t just copy the end result. If you want knife skills, then you need to practice. Only when your skill improves, will be able to speed up safely.
“Go as fast as you can, but no faster. I’d prefer if you do it correctly and slowly like this until you get the technique right.”
Victor slows his action down. It’s the same easy, flowing rolling chop but now we can see each stage of the technique.
Becoming a chef is similar to training to become an Olympian, something I know a lot more about being an International judo competitor long before I entered a professional kitchen.
My sensei, would often tell us: “There are no shortcuts to getting to the top, so don’t bother looking for them.”
Rather like learning any judo technique – you need to learn the full movement, slowly and thoroughly.
The temptation when time or patience is short is to cut corners, but only time will tell you which of those corners you can safely cut.
Rush the process and you will only succeed in a botch job or poor technique.
And in a kitchen, with knives flashing around, it might not just be the corners you end up cutting.
“Never sacrifice technique,” Victor tells us, and then he stops, puts down the knife and shows us his thumb. The tip of the thumb is missing, a jagged scar runs all the way to the nail.
“Good job my nail was there, or I’d have taken the whole thumb off.”
As Victor walks off, we return to the task.
Checking our thumbs are well tucked in, we slow right down.
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Knife Skills - 7 Tips to Keep You Safe
It’s worth investing the time to practice your knife skills, not only for safety but also great knife skills will improve your cooking. In the end you will become faster and more efficient. Your end result will look more professional.
Here are seven tips to keep in mind as you chop:
Choose your knife wisely.
Different knives are best for different tasks in the kitchen - so choose the most suitable. You don’t need to start with many - so if you’re just starting off just make sure you have the essentials.
The essential:
A chef’s knife, a paring knife, a utility knife and a serrated knife.
The useful:
A filleting knife, a boning knife, a santoku knife, a carving knife.
The desired:
A cleaver, a turning knife, a nakiri knife, a mushroom knife.
Sharper is safer.
A sharp knife is safer than a blunt one. A honing steel will keep a sharp knife sharper. But if your blade has gone dull, then you’ll need to sharpen it useful using a wet stone or get it done by a professional.
Focus on what matters. Your fingers.
Ignore the noise. Forget yesterday. Don’t worry about tomorrow. Just focus on what matters and that is right now, this task in hand. And ultimately it’s your fingers and your thumb. Most cuts will happen, when you are distracted, tired or rushing. So, be wary of those red flags.
Grip Lightly.
Move your grip towards the heel/blade of the knife. You will gain greater control the closer your hand is to the blade. Before you begin, take the time to feel where the weight of the knife is. Balance the knife in your hand. Relax your grip.
Be Stable. Your board. Your food. You.
Place a piece of damp kitchen towel under your chopping board to stop it slipping. Whatever you are cutting, stabilise it. For example, slice carrots lengthways first, so they don’t roll around. Keep a good stable posture, from your feet upwards. Move until your are comfortable and turn what you are cutting so it is at a comfortable angle for you.
Knuckle out. Fingers tucked. Thumb in.
OK, now we’re getting into the serious stuff. Protect your fingers and thumbs by shaping your hand like a claw. Knuckle out and your fingers and thumb tucked back and under. Make it impossible for the knife to be able to touch your fingers. Especially be mindful of your thumb and little finger, which tend to stick out. Pull them right back in.
Go as fast as you can, but no faster.
Chefs make it look easy. It’s not. It’s taken them years of practice to chop like that, and you can’t shortcut the time it takes to learn. So go slow. Think about what you are doing and aim to correct your technique. Slow it right down.
Practice makes perfect. Or at least perfect stock.
Vegetables! They are great to practice on. Whenever you get the chance, even if you are chopping for stock, make it look good. Practice your knife skills at every opportunity. Perfectly dice that carrot for the stock. Beautifully slice the onion going in your casserole. Julienne your cucumber for the salad!
thank you!
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my favourite will be the nakiri knife
Do you have a favourite knife?