How to use a kitchen knife ?

To cook, you need good knives that are sharp, well balanced and comfortable to use.

Why choose good knives ?

Buying cooking knives is an investment. It is therefore important to buy professional quality knives: 100% forged knives made in France.

You will keep these knives for a very long time and if you sharpen them regularly.

You can first buy a knife that will be an all-purpose knife for you: it can be a 20 cm kitchen knife. It will be used to slice, cut, mince and make other cuts.

In the second step, you will have to buy other knives. Indeed, there is no perfect knife for making all cuts, to be able to peel vegetables and cut poultry.

To cook well, you will need a minimum of knives and accessories:

• a paring knife
• a 20 cm kitchen knife
• a 20 cm slicing knife
• a sharpening steel

 

The legendary paring knife.
These small knives are widely used in cooking, at the table, for dessert to peel an orange, an apple.

They have several forms: the straight paring knife. It is actually a small chef's knife whose blade is 7 to 12 cm.

They are used to peel, cut into pieces vegetables, fruits.

Its small handle allows you to have it in hand. When you peel a vegetable or fruit, your hand will be very close to the blade. When you go to cut, the knife will be held like a kitchen knife.

 

Why a kitchen knife or a chef's knife ?
 

Kitchen knives have wide blades from 15 cm to 35 cm in blade.

The essential knife is the kitchen knife with 20 or 25 cm blade.

It allows you to chop, mince, slice, dice fruits, vegetables or meats.

Kitchen knives are also called chef knives because it is THE knife that is most used by chefs around the world.

It can be made of several materials: stainless steel the easiest to use, carbon steel which is very efficient but requires special maintenance, ceramic but this material is very brittle which makes it dangerous to use.

 

Serrated knives

 
Knives that have serrated blades are usually knives for slicing various loaves of bread.

Do not use serrated knives to cut or slice your bread. To avoid crushing the bread when you are going to slice it, use a bread knife with large teeth.

There are also small knives with teeth like the tomato knives. Prefer knives with large teeth, rather than knives with micro-toothed blade.

 

A kitchen knife must be well balanced
A kitchen knife should be heavy enough and well balanced. The size of its handle, which depends on the size of the knife, should be very comfortable. Generally, the handles are made of black plastic so that professionals can use them in their kitchen.

For individuals, the handles of the knives can be in other materials such as natural wood, such as olive or juniper, compressed wood. There are also knives with steel handles.

For greater safety, the knife must be 100% forged. The knife is thus not manufactured in several parts, then welded to each other. Thus the blade, the bolster (steel part between the blade and the handle), the tang and the handle are perfectly balanced and allow to have a very comfortable knife.

 

How to hold a knife correctly 

To use a kitchen knife to slice, cut or mince, your hand must be in the correct position.

The handle will be put in the palm of your hand. The first 3 fingers hold the handle, the index finger will be positioned on the miter of the knife and the tip of the finger is on the flat of the blade. The thumb will be on the opposite side to allow better support.

The fingers are close to the blade.