Knife Skills

The main focus of our last two days of class have been knife skills. After spending an hour chopping mirepoix, which is a combination of onions, carrots, and celery that goes into every stock, we learned how to hone our knives on a steel to keep them super sharp. We learned how to blanch and peel tomatoes, cut a chiffonade, and mince parsley for a garnish. Next came the medium dice potato.

“The medium dice potato is going to drive you crazy” – Chef Chris

A medium dice is ½ an inch by a ½ an inch by a ½ an inch. And it has to be perfect. Practicing for half an hour made me realize just how difficult this is. Four potatoes later, I was still producing rectangles of various sizes and shapes. Luckily no one in my class was doing any better so I didn’t feel too bad. Knowing what I need to do but not being able to control my hand with enough precision is incredibly frustrating. I was sent home with two potatoes to medium dice, a bell better to small dice, and two cloves a garlic to mince. I guess practice makes perfect.

I also came home with all of the potatoes I attempted to medium dice in class and about 2 pounds of cheese. I made potato leek soup for dinner and ate some of the cheese with a bottle of Rioja I picked up from a wine shop down the street. The reason I have so much cheese in my fridge is because yesterday we also had a lesson on cheese. Each student was assigned a cheese and asked to present it in front of the class. Of the twenty or so cheeses that we tried, my favorites were chèvre, mozzarella di bufala, explorateur, pont leveque, taleggio, pecorino romano, gorgonzola, and roquefort.

Other than eating massive amounts of cheese and attempting to avoid chopping my fingers off while I learn to use my new 10” chef’s knife, I also attended a cooking demonstration with Chef Marcus Samuelsson. I didn’t know anything about him when I showed up on Thursday night, but it turns out he is pretty famous. He received three stars from the NY Times at the age of 24 while he was working at Aquavit and he is currently in the process of opening a new restaurant in Harlem called the Red Rooster. He also won the second season of Top Chef Masters and cooked in the White House for President Obama’s first state dinner. It was really interesting to hear him talk about his thought process in the kitchen and his sources of inspiration for the Red Rooster. We watched him make Fois Gras Ganache with Quince Chutney and Fried Chicken with Spicy Ketchup and then tasted everything. It was delicious!