"The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry"

Image from SEA Municipal Archives The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry is the title of Kathleen Flinn’s memoir of studying at Le Cordon Bleu. And it’s also a true statement in my experience.

When I worked at Cook’s World, some newbie home chefs would be a little intimidated by the seemingly lethally sharp knives used in the shop and by the professional chefs, commenting their modest, slightly dull ones at home were probably safer for their speed.

But I could tell them from my own slightly gory experience that working with a good sharp knife is much much MUCH safer.  Safer than a dull one that hits the fibrous outer covering of an onion, bounces off, slides down and regains its ability to slice and dice right when it hits your soft defenseless flesh.

A knife skills class at Cook's World was, in fact, the very first cooking class I ever took. It was also in many ways a start to my Seattle culinary journey. First off, it gave me the skills to improve my efficiency in the kitchen.

Then several months later, I got an email from the Cook's World mailing list looking for a part-time evening/weekend hostess for the cooking classes. I wanted to learn more about cooking and could use the extra cash to supplement my day job, so I sent in my resume. I got the gig and worked there for about a year and a half. It was rough juggling my day job, the writing gig I had with BuddyTV and nights/weekends at the school. But the exposure to all of the teachers, cuisine and cooking instruction there was an immeasurable help in my continued efforts to move from kitchen novice to more confident home chef.

And yet: I’ve had this site since December of last year, and was doing food events listings on Three-Bowls since November of ’07. Despite that class being a turning point, almost two years and I’d never thought to write about or highlight knife skills classes.

I guess that just goes to show how fundamental knife skills are; once I’d absorbed the information, it became such an essential part of my time in the kitchen, I didn’t even notice it anymore.

But then some comments on Twitter from Kari, author of Anticiplate and Summer Spoon (a very interesting record of her experiences interning at Anchovies and Olives this summer), around her own knife skills reminded me that this might be an area that other people would like to explore further, so here are some of the upcoming knife skills classes around town.

EVENTS

Sidebar Knife Skills picture by Ellie Van Houtte.

Comments

[Karen @ Fickle Feast]

Thank you for posting this. I splurged on a Shun knife a couple months ago and I love it, but it would be even better if I actually knew what I was doing. I've been half-heartedly watching for knife skills classes, but now I can stop searching and just go!