This site will give you the confidence to choose and use the knives and other nonelectric sharp tools in your kitchen. It’s also a reference site that you can use as you improve your skills and acquire the tools that will make you a better cook!

Slip sliding away

The most important thing I learned on my first day in cooking school was to put a damp cloth underneath my cutting board. This keeps your board from slipping and sliding on the counter. A damp piece of paper towel also works well. This is crucial because it’s a safety issue: if your cutting board is moving, even a little bit, then your knife will move too. And if your knife, food, and cutting surface are all moving, then you’ve greatly increased your chance of cutting yourself. This little step will help.

Some boards have small suction cups or rubber feet on one side, which also help keep the board from sliding. I don’t like these as much because this means that you can only use one side of the board. If you have a board that’s smooth on both sides, then you have twice as much cutting board as the other ones. And if the board starts to warp, then you can turn it over to help it flatten out again.

Cleaning

How many and what size?

Fools and knives require good handling.

The bigger the smile, the sharper the knife.

The tongue like a sharp knife...Kills without drawing blood.

Margaret Witter Fuller

Genius will live and thrive without training, but it does not the less reward the watering pot and pruning knife.

Stephen King

Obession is dangerous. It’s like a knife in the mind. In some cases... the knife can turn savagely upon the person wielding it... You use the knife carefully, because you know it doesn’t care who it cuts.

Knife Skills —

a kitchen guide to using the right knife the right way

Slip sliding away

Margaret Witter Fuller

Stephen King