everyday italian kitchen design
proper knife skills not only make cookingand food preparation easier and safer, but it can give you a lot more confidence in thekitchen. today i’m going to show you two basic cutting techniques using the classicchef’s knife. the chef's knife is the most useful knife in the kitchen and one that you will use for basic knife skills for more tips on choosing a knife check out our video before starting, make sure that your cutting board is stable and not moving around while you chop an unstable cutting board can be dangerous and you can cut yourself put a damp cloth underneath the cutting board to secure it in place
next make sure that the foods your using are not rolling around on the cutting board it might be easy to control small things like herbs, but larger items like onions, apples even carrots can roll around on the cutting board making it dangerous so to make it easier to cut this carrot, what i want to do is cut one side off just a small piece so that it has a flat end and you can see now it's not rolling around on the cutting board which is going to make it a lot safer to cut the first cutting technique i'm going to show you is the cross chop i'm going to start by using the pinch grip to hold the knife and then with the other hand place it right on top of the knife keeping the tip of the knife down we're going to rock back and forth using your other hand as more of a guide you don't want apply any weight
and cross over your ingredients like i'm doing here with the parsley and you can start off slow and then slowly speed up and chop over your ingredients what's great about this cutting technique is that it's very safe you're keeping your fingers out of the way its on top of the knife so this is a great cutting technique for any sort of rough chops perfect for herbs like this the other cutting technique i'm going to show you is the rock chop we're going to use a similar pinch grip to hold the knife and making sure again keep the tip of the knife down on the cutting board and we're going to rock with that knife hand. now with the other hand, what we want to do is hold the ingredient
we're going to use our fingertips to face the knife and then slowly curl them in and with that loose thumb we're going to tuck it in underneath your control hand should resemble a claw, much like this and with this claw grip we can actually slowly push the ingredient into the cutting motion of the knife now you want to make sure as you lift the knife that it rests up against your knuckles and never lifts higher that way you can avoid cutting yourself and so you're going to slowly move it into the knife, and that's it. perfect now the only way you're going to get better is by practicing those cutting techniques so make sure that your cutting board and ingredients are stable
and that your fingers and especially that thumb is tucked away from the blade or you may lost, i'm not joking, seriously by following these simple steps it's going to give you a lot more confidence in the kitchen and make cooking and food preparation a lot safer for more technique videos be sure to suscribe to our youtube channel.