What is a knife skill class? Knife skill classes teach consumers how to cut, slice, dice, chop, julienne and mince food properly and safely. It will usually run to 2-3 hours and it will be led by a chef...
It will usually run to 2-3 hours and it will be led by a chef or an instructor who has been trained in knife skills. They will actually show you how to do different types of cutting including julienne. They will show you how to dice, how to mince properly, and how to handle and hold your knife. That's important because you typically grip the handle with three fingers and you rest your index finger flat against the blade.
You hold the thumb on the opposite side and that provides the nice edge control. In many knife skill classes, you will hear that the higher up on the knife you go, the better control with the knife you have. You'll also notice that many professional chefs move up on the knife to get that additional stability. They will show you how the difference between your cutting hand and your guiding hand- the other hand managing the item that you are cutting. You tuck your fingers under and you curl them away from the knife blade to keep them out of harms way. In that position, you can rest the blade against your knuckles when you are doing general cutting tasks. It gets you familiar with cutting so you don't cut yourself and you handle the different types of materials. You cut tomatoes, for example, which is kind of difficult because the material on the outside is hard and then the inside material is really soft. So you cut foods that you would normally use in food preparations and get comfortable and familiar with the knife. The chef would answer your questions about honing and sharpening and the maintenance of your knives.
Those are really important things to learn. The culinary professionals will follow the practice of arranging your work space and tools and ingredients and they will sometimes talk about that. They will just talk about the work area and handling sea food and vegetables, sanitizing your board when you are switching from one type of food to another. They will show you how to stand in a natural position so that you don't feel fatigued when you are doing things. You will learn all of these things and many fine specialty kitchen retailers offer these classes.
These classes usually reoccur throughout the year. You will often see them right before holiday times. People will be offering that because they know that you have made a good investment in your knife and you want to know how to properly care for such an investment. When you have the right knives and you know what to use them for, you will find it a lot more fun to go in to the kitchen: that extra confidence in pulling out the handle for the right knife for the right task and holding that handle securely and comfortably in your hand. One other thing I should mention to you when you are looking at a knife that has wooden handle is that you want to make sure there are at least three rivets in there. Kyocera knives have at least three and our classic series has four rivets. Make sure that you are going to have a good quality knife that is going to last you a long, long time.
