Last summer Gecko, my co-blogger and very close friend and I met for the first time. In person that is. We've known each other for almost a decade, but its all been via the interwebs. We've seen pics of each other and we talk almost nightly via Ventrilo or Skype or something, but we had never met.
He arranged to come down to Arkansas and spend two weeks prior to July 4th with me and I have to say, we had a blast. Totally fun time! Naturally we did a lot of cooking and one thing that I noticed (ok, it cheesed me off!) was that he was a demon with the kitchen knife. Every time that he grabbed a blade and started to work he turned out the most amazingly precise produce that I was... yes, I can say it... I was jealous.
These past two weeks I have finally managed to get around to addressing this issue. After a bit of research on knife books and such I finally ordered Chad Ward's An Edge in the Kitchen from Amazon.
Protip: On Amazon's webpage, use the "What do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item" link to determine the actual popularity of the item in quesiton.
This book is quite bluntly, amazing. Chad has done such a good job in demystifying the whole world of professional-grade cutlery. The entire book is written to be the ultimate guide for foodies. Chad's point of view is entirely biased toward the enthusiast cook who just needs to know what they're talking about regarding the single most important tool in the kitchen. Let me give you an example...
The first section of the book centers around the actual knives themselves: what they are, the types, shapes and origins and how they're made. Throughout this section Mr. Ward talks about the major knife producers and their lines of equipment, but also talks about the value presented by the products. He straight up states that for the money the Global and MAC knives are amazing purchases at or near $100. If the book had been intended for professional chefs then purchase recomendations would have centered purely on performance regardless of cost. I have to admit, I sincerely appreciated the point of view, it was precisely what I needed.The second section is where he starts talking about what to do (and not do) with your new toy. Not only is there a large color-photo section showing you the holds and cuts, but he includes recipes that put your newfound skills to the test. And I will admit... those recipes are a great inclusion. I haven't made any yet, but in simply reading them I was able to visialize the cuts needed to turn out the food and that helped a ton.
Gecko: Giving you that knife is like giving Jar-Jar a lightsaber.
Finally Chad wraps up the book with an entire chapter on sharpening! Believe it or not, you can sharpen your own cooking knives. With very detailed explanations and sources for all the tools (a mousepad?!?!) that you might need this book will have you turning out sharper knives than you ever dreamed you could own. And yes, a sharper knife is safer than a dull one because you have to use less force to cut with.
Hmmmm... so now Sumo is all Knife-Master this and Knife-Master that... so what's a boy to do with all this new knowledge? Well, I go buy a knife, of course! Then I go home and turn out an amazing Ratatouille’s Ratatouille from the much-loved Smitten Kitchen website. My big test of the new knife, a shiney Shun 10" chef's knife, was the bell pepper slices. The recipe calls for removing the endcaps and coring the pepper, then slicing thin 'bell pepper rings' out of the remaining body. Needless to say, a cored and capped bell pepper is not the sturdiest structure known to man, but the Shun slid through it like Gecko can slide through a sixer of Natty Light.
I want to thank Chad Ward for preparing this book. It was an insight to read and I know so much more about knives than I did a week ago. I know what a rondelle and a chiffonade are and can actually execute them both. Now to go to Sam's and buy a pallet of carrots so I can start practicing. After all I'm going to be up in Portland over spring break and I have to be able to match Gecko's knife skills!
Who has the bandaids?
