K...is for Knife.

Week one was all about the knives. We got a SERIOUS set of knives on the first day of school. The "don't mess with me in a dark alley" kind of knives. They even come in a briefcase...very official. We then spent the majority of the week learning how to use them.

Little did I know, I've been holding a knife wrong my entire life. And wow, it is so much better the correct way. Not to say I don't have a nasty blister from so much chopping/cutting! A knife should be held with your pinky, ring finger, and middle finger on the handle of the blade. Your pointer should should cross the top of the knife at your hand/finger joint (the place of my dreaded blister!) and wrap around the bottom of the knife and your thumb should rest on the blade. I used to put all my fingers on the handle. Or some people extend the pointer on the spine of the knife. Tsk, tsk!
Your left hand (or non-dominant hand) should make a "monkey's paw" to avoid chopping off a fingers. And so far I haven't even cut myself once yet!

With my knives I can now do uniform and accurate julienne, fine julienne, batonnet, brunoise, fine brunoise, small, medium, and large dices, rondelle, oblique, bias, and tourne' cuts. And probably some others I forgot. It is much harder than it sounds.

"Chef "(that's what we call our teachers) says that the true measure of a chef is by how good their knife skills are, and how well they can make sauces. He then told me I had by far the best knife skills in the class. Who knew?! I was doing this for fun, and apparently I'm kinda good at it! Or everyone else really sucks.

Either way, don't mess with me. I've got knives.