by Zach Bigalke

Created on: March 24, 2007   Last Updated: May 04, 2007

I started my first job as a diswasher at fourteen. I watched the cooks, bedecked in checked pants and white jackets in various stages of purity. Their hands would fly across onions, melons, buffalo, bread...and then the product in question would be perfectly, meticulously sliced. My mind spun as the cooks continued to prep food for the evening, chatting idly with one another about the previous evening's debauchery and hunkering down in the trenches for the onslaught of customers soon to pass into the Mural Room. I had many opportunities to watch the different cooks hone their skills on untold pounds of food that summer. But how did they do it? How do professional cooks julienne, chiffonade, brunoise, tournee and paysanne food so quickly and effortlessly?

As a chef in the industry now for the past six years, I can say with confidence that learning how to efficiently use a chef's knife is a simple and valuable skill to acquire. There are four important parts to the equation of gaining proficiency with knives in the kitchen: the food being chopped, the knife to use, the preparation of the knife and workspace, and the technique.

First, one must evaluate the food being cut. One, for obvious reasons, would dare not use the same knife for slicing strawberries that he might use for carving prime rib. What are you cutting? For most home use, the technique is often more important than the knife. So buy some vegetable to train with: a bag of potatoes and a bag of onions. They are cheap and plentiful, and you will be able to learn the two most important cuts between the two: julienne and dicing.

Next, you will need a knife. As I said before, technique is more important than the knife. But without at least one good knife, all the technique in the world will fail to keep the food from looking like a mangled mess. For those potatoes and onions (and basically every other vegetable you might ever think to cut at home) and any other food, a standard ten-inch chef's knife should take care of anything that needs to be smaller. Choose a knife with some weight to assist in cutting, but make sure it is not too heavy to comfortably sit in your hand for long periods of time. Get a knife made with stainless steel (preferably ice-forged for improved strength) to prevent rusting. Avoid any serrations or odd design; the classic knife will do everything you need and last longer than any Ginsu!

Third, knife preparation is crucial. The biggest reason that a professional cook cuts fast and you

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