Learning to wield a knife correctly proved to be a two-edged
sword. Would my cooking live up to the new skills I was now so proud of? My
world and attitude were turned upside-down as onions took a pole shift from
latitudal cutting to longitudal.
Layers became easier to control. Onion slices
and dices became more uniform and more attractive to the eye – and palate. You
are what you eat, and others will eat what you slice, if it looks appetizing
and not haphazard. Soon, my onion cubes made my pico de gallo stand taller with
personality, and my sautéed onion slices added lavish luxury to my omelettes.
In the learning process, my knives became sharper along with
heretofore dull skills. Who knew there was a difference between a sharpening
stone and a sharpening steel? I certainly didn’t. Along with overeating,
over-sharpening with a stone can be too much of a good thing. And along with no
one seeming to drink enough water these days, it also seems that cooks don’t
use a steel on knives nearly enough to keep those edges under control. Now I
rely on both stone and steel, each in their designated times and
frequencies.
(images courtesy of Food and Wine magazine)
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How Knife Skills Changed My Life
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