My 14-week KitchenonFire cooking school has begun! There are 20 students who self-identified as…”a disaster in the kitchen, a natural foods writer who doesn’t cook, a reckless cook, a mom, her son & daughter taking the class together, and a gal who’s family always went out when she grew up.”  I feel right at home!

My instructor, Chef Olive, a French chef who’s cooking family goes back to the 1750′s is vibrant, talkative and focused.  His goal is to get people cooking healthy meals at home. The first class positioned us for putting a good meal on the table fast; in order to do this we have to be organized and be able to chop/slice/dice all the ingredients to the correct size so that it all cooks evenly and is ready at the same time.

What you need to know before picking up a knife and starting the cooking process:

• Get everything in place, called Mis en Place–all your ingredients, your pans, spoons, bowls, etc. (An ah-hah moment…I should select a few possible wine pairings before I start cooking. Then after I taste what I’ve cooked I can make the final selection.)
• Have a bowl nearby to throw the discards without moving from your cutting board.
• Get a food scrapper or use the back of the knife so as not to dull the blade.
• Have a wet towel to clean your fingers.
• Dried herbs should be less than 3 weeks old.
• Feel your veggies to determine how fast they will cook. The heat has to get to the middle, a carrot is more dense than celery. If you want to make carrot soup fast, grate your carrots.
• When fruit smells, it’s telling you, I’m ready to be eaten.
• Fresh veggie’s shouldn’t smell.
• Chilled onions cause less tears because the gas is denser thus not wafting up your nose so easily.
• Make sure your oven thermostat actually works. (I have a hanging one in my retro oven because while the oven is huge, the internal thermostat is inaccurate and no longer made.)
• When your cooking starts to smell yummy, it’s probably done.

Now that you’re ready…

• Learn how to cut properly so you can cut fast thus saving lots of time; the cooking part is usually the least amount of work.
• Make your holding hand like a claw and tuck your little thumb in. Imagine your knuckles are pushing the knife away and you’ll never get cut.
• To buy a knife, you must feel it in your hand and ideally use it.
• A filet knife (for de-boning fish) can bend almost 45°.
• You need one favorite chef knife that fits you–it may be heavier or lighter than what works for someone else.
• My old knife with the sharp blade that rusts was the créme de la créme of knives in my grandma’s day and is made of carbon.  The best knives today are a combination of stainless steel & carbon to insure durability and a sharp blade that you must hone, but not sharpen.
• If you want a ceramic knife that is all the rage in some circles, be aware that when you drop it (which you will), it will chip and break. Ouch!
• A cake knife and a bread knife look similar (serrated) but a cake knife is wider and longer.
• When slicing something that rolls (like an apple or bell pepper), slice a piece from the bottom to make it stay in place first.
• Why does minced garlic burn? You’ve cut it too small or put it in the pan too soon.
• Pull parsley leaves from the stems with the back of your knife.
• Shave and saw herbs, don’t crush them.  They should be dry when you are done, not blown-up bits on the cutting board.

Extra Credit…

• Stir Fry (Asian) and sauté (French) means the same thing–to cook at high heat and quick.
• Why should you put fresh parsley on your food? Because it’s a cheap & easy way to get Vitamin C.
• Cilantro’s flavor comes from the bottom up , so go ahead and use the stems.
• Don’t have a roasting rack? Make a bed of large oddly chopped veggies to prop up your meat so air will circulate. Voilà! You have a roasting rack that you can eat too.

If you can’t take classes in Berkeley, KitchenonFire has a downloadable knife class on-demand.

Tags: Berkeley, Cooking school, KitchenonFire, knife skills