How To Sharpen Your Knife Skills With Jacques Pepin | Dear Test Kitchen

no Ellen welcome to the food 52 a video studio my name is Josh I'm the Test Kitchen director here I'm very lucky today because I'm here with Jacques Pepin one of the all-time great kitchen masters like who so today we're gonna learn about how to set up your cutting board how to hold your knife how to hold the hand that's not using knife which is sort of the most important part you don't cut yourself and a wide variety of different techniques yes and all of those international so it you don't have to do french cooking or italian or spanish any of those you will use this technique yeah regardless of what food you cook these techniques apply to everybody and make sure your knife is shown so the first thing that we do every day is set up our board right yes and you know you don't want the boat to move all over the place the first thing it has to be studied right there and usually we did piece of plastic you can buy to keep it underneath unless you have a very lost one heavy but otherwise you know a wet towel paper towel to is perfectly fine yeah another thing too that people don't realize especially on camera very often I know where I shoot people you know I took this way they say to use the knife here well very often you have to bring it here because if you use that knife this way it's okay but if you put it flat you have to clear up the table so you do a lot of work right here from this side so you bring the board very close to you yes usually yes so your towel is a little bit wetter than mine yeah it doesn't matter though what you use water a little bit of water I use wine from the way I use back all right so here and you can see now this just solid yes that's good so next how to hold the knife I know a lot of beginners will grip it sometimes just like this on the base and that's not the way that we hold our knife right generally I was taught though that like the center of the weight of your knife is around here so with your thumb and your front finger on the blade and your other three fingers here and that gives you more control of the knife oh yeah is that what you do no video maybe I do yeah some things to me okay so that's this hand I think more importantly is what you do with your other hand though yes actually that hand order everything yes so this is the hand this is just a dummy up and down with it right this is the smart hand right so where if you're cutting something first of all how do you this would never happen right no you need to keep your finger same yes and especially the stump you can leave the Salvi go right you know so always this way and you glue the knife to it okay you know and I tend to go a little more this way than this way we receive material yeah whatever the mistake is that people will do that often assume through very fast like that that doesn't do anything right still attached to the table you have to have the motion of down forward or down backward you have to be correct right you know so so that go down and wherever the hand goes doesn't pretty matter I do that I've now got the knife is glue if they don't go there very very good I keep the knife glued to it yes this is an eight inch chef's knife I use this for pretty much everything in a kitchen yeah we have a few other tools here do you want to ascribe what we have yeah the chef's knife cut indeed shopping and so forth paring knife all the work you do with your finger and I like one in between even slightly smaller than that a thin knife you know all-purpose knife any chance yeah so so usually three knife I probably have 300 at home so do you ever you realize rated to not very often though your knife is sharp enough yeah it can do most of the jobs of chemistry that's true now the reason the reason that the knife is curved a little bit is so that you can use the full blade right yeah that's a good point you have to be careful very often people use the knife old knife that you've use and you sharpen a lot and then there is it's not straight the relative space in the middle it doesn't touch so especially at the yarn here yeah sometimes you have a little bit left over here so you have to be sure to ground this another mistake also people don't realize that the curie edge of a knife is made of teeth from a so to ask Apple it's a teeth when you do that on the table the t's get out of whack yes so you use this to realign the teeth that's really does it doesn't reduce sharpen the knife right realign the teeth so you have to know how to use that to people we do that very fast doesn't do anything you have to go from here to there now covering the whole blade applying pressure and certainly more importantly don't move your wrist people do this they do that they scrape out all the teeth so you have to do this rafter a year to year there is no mortise you need a stone there either oil stone water stone flat and then you have to ground that knife cut about 15 20 minutes to create a new edge or send it out to someone who does it I do that very often because I go to house so we sharpen the knife you knew you were coming in astray which which side did you poke them you know a good knife and the point is that because people you exist and they sing get sharpen the knife know at some point it has to be sharpened with a still one right I think the most basic thing that we can show is slicing getting the whole knife right and not putting so much pressure straight up and down letting the knife do the work right so let's do some cucumbers yeah cucumber is ideal for that asked me wanted you try you try not to do it with something wrong so we're going to carry the first thing is that you peel that cucumber when you peel anything wrong like this first you cut the end of it a carrot or whatever to establish a platform here and you do one streak you know what one strict with that I mean you can do like many people do this this and then join a sound I cut the air but usually you do one streak you know of course the idea here is that you have to hold the carrot or whatever you're holding you have to hold it make it roll on your on your hand you know the time cannot be higher than that just to stir this play right so one platform then you cut it in half the kneesocks another mistake is you try to do it this way use the edge of the knife actually here one piece use the edge of the knife to go here turn around the edge on the other side to go here I started trying to win the Fanta it breaks so this is the base so that is good because it flat doesn't slide right I think a lot of beginning coz we'll try and work with something round and that's not an easy way to hurt yourself so you always want to give yourself something that won't slide yeah that's it it's likely put your head to look paler you know that you'll sing you're on top of it is a real dancer so you glue that here you go down a new cut that hand is a dummy this one does the whole world if that hand doesn't work nothing happened if that hadn't worked very so I go this way or this way if that hand goes very slowly and I got very very distance like quick go faster you know you hear the same sound but it's going to go from from this you know to this to this to this so how you get agree the same thing how you creep with your non knife hand determines how things exactly the way you move your hand right now your fingers it's gonna feel counterintuitive for new cooks but when your fingers are up against the blade it's actually the way to be safe is are you up kitchen also don't go if you touch the knife you won't cook your fill right if your fingers are tucked in and your knuckles are up against the blade there's no way you can hurt yourself and it's what allows professional cooks to look at the camera while they're cutting because they know that their fingers are safe yep so again this way or this way understood all right so it's not sort of secret you know it's purely a question of practice you practically anyone can do that you know often people get very impressed with the show but the question is practice we talked about the alien chef's knife how to hold it how to slice with it next we're gonna talk about the paring knife for a moment right I use the paring knife I sort of hold it up high and I'll use it for small little tasks like I can even peel an apple with this mm-hm how do you use a paring knife yeah there is two ways you know you have two knives let's say two knives like this depending on what you cut if you cut a tomato then you don't put your knife here because you have to so you know or this for example so you it's a difference so either you use it this way for something hard like a potato right and I think like this but the first thing that you do is put your thumb here you cut that yeah because you have to cut this now you have to be sure that your thumb is there your thumb is not there you're going to go right into your finger so first as I say your son here and you cut around we can keep that for decoration - okay right the same thing on the other side I'm bad I think I usually do it just like this blazing because if I slip yeah yeah but that's what you have to put your thumb right and go around and the technique that you use for other things that's it and then after you still like this and you stop killing I mean all of that you can do with a vegetable peeler but usually other chef masa do this so you move into small stroke like this you know to go around which is not the way you're going to do when you have something which is soft like a potato like so you do this you drive that in the oven then you make tea with this yes good for your kidney according to my grandmother okay so here you've done each side this and you could that is half and again same thing you're certainly is there and you're going to cut this in the center of it so in one stroke with one knife you do this I said now it's flat so you can slice it slice it with it usually on the top you know you're going to take the end of it like this and shove that costly hole of thing you put that on the door and this you go like at a deck of card we're on top I said I can't do it quite as fast as here it's alright we're gonna drink enough wine we have it tomato here right okay again you know take your knife the technique this way if you want to take the stem out of the same Apple again but there you have to cut it by moving it up and down why because the texture is different than the Apple right and the Apple so you remove this after that when you want to cut if you want to take the skin out of that tomato now you after you the jigsaw fashion you know so again this way like at the center of it now I start especially if I want to use that to do a flower so I will move my knife and I can object so fashion and I would do to strip okay so the first part here where you have the base you put that on this as we hold the baby and this one you do inside school and as you see moving it in a jigsaw fashion you get texture like this which is what you want and I think again as I said it's easier to do it into two strip like this rather than one it's an old-school garnish right there yeah and now let's say or if you want to peel the tomato you rub it in boiling water yes or you burn it onto the stove or you put it by hand then you cut it in half like it already gasps to expose the seed no press out the seat and then you have just the middle flesh so that tomato flesh that you use in a in a garnish you know - so they briefly - yeah or you can take you know piece of this pod like a Rhodes off you're a ripe tomato you take that in there and you can do your own cherry tomato any size you want you know especially if the trail is right that's it and then you you warm it up you won't meet up a dash of oil double a dash of salt you wound it up and you sell that other garnish little bowl of tomato like this like you play I would be garnished with this people will read those tomato and said best meal I ever had there's no skin no seed yeah I'll see what I have a front son be the seed from Italy because we don't have them in this country so again now if you do a tomato something soft like that there is no way you're going to use your life and do this on a tomato you have to take the handle and so to go around so you do for example this you're going to take the top part of it then you go this and again you are going to move in a jigsaw fashion here there is a 30 in no way that you could do with this poor knife would you ever do the same technique but sort of like this way around yeah though I like this one do haha now you go in between exist to remove the first one so four brand new cooks at home this is called soup Ram yes I got the first things they'll teach you in culinary school okay the second on the one you cut next to the thing and you twist your knife around to go next to the next membrane you see that's why it's better if you have knife slightly thinner than that sometimes it's very seen sometime bigger but basically what you do with an orange just what you do here of course there is a pepper do you go all around sometime I do a desert with a blood orange or whatever so you all around this way now you press that you can mix this with a little bit of orange marmalade or something like this leave that in there so we'll this is just the fiber that you have around and you around your your things around like this I do it some time as I said with blood orange and a little piece of bluish or whatever and you have just a wonderful the soldiers with this you don't need to put any maraschino cherry really the dash of the mint or wherever and that's the worst aroma that's it that's I get this all right what I'm just good your this here okay so next we have a baguette mmm I think for this we're showing not to press you don't need to press down too hard with your knife you can just use the blade to slice again you descend motion because people will go there and they apply pressure right you don't need to push straight down each of this has to be reflected with a little loop right no you go from here to there right you're right pressure if it's not enough you come back it's not enough you come back with you after that motion [Applause] would you ever just use this rate it instead yes good Luke right it's faster than this yeah with the serrated it's the same idea though where you don't need to press down while you're cutting you want to use the blade yeah back and forth yeah let the blade do the work sorry but here you have to apply a lot of pressure on you do this but again moving your knife right in one direction look at that yes nothing better than bread and butter yeah one of the building blocks of all cooking I think is dicing an onion right but the point is that you know it's not a question of removing a shell of the onions sometimes people remove a little bit of that night is still bronze and all that no you you do one layer two layer three layer if you have to until it's clean right but the point is I peel my onion first right you know then stir it in that because again you know you have something flat like that which is easier to work with than trying to get something which is wrong I usually would you that type of knife here when you cut it in half do you keep an eye for that root end here no it doesn't matter I was sort of taught that that root end is what holds the well some people leave the roots hand they have to hold it together here again another thing because of that you have to bring that closer to you again your finger is here again the motion is this we're not really cutting down this the motion of carrying so you have it in slides like this so now you move this way and the software you'll knife by the way the less you're going to cry because the onion really is a compound sulfuric acid this is what stain your eyes make you cry or get dark the sharper the less more is going to cut the less he's going to crush it so that's an important one too now I cut the onion like this and it will discolor after a while so if you want to use that with caviar aspect after whatever you put that in a sieve runs it under cold water that said that removed that common rhetoric I said that onion will stay white and fluffy for a couple of days with that end piece there yes to not waste it how would you slice it up no you know you continue like that - yeah now you see the top is like these are fun when you get to the end you cut it a little bit this way and after do you move your finger there now remember that I cut the root out of it sometimes people leave the root and if you have the root then you go up to the root for me I have the whole thing is there a difference when you slice it for a slice way right it will have a different look I think when you go along this way the onion is like stronger yes well the onion is in larger piece usually right this way so for an onion soup or something right you would do it probably this way to have a slightly larger than if you do it in the other direction but it's variable garlic first thing you remove those enough to clear up all around like this I did here so then you get it on the side like that and II did it on the side that's it well sorry separate the clove and the second thing with your garlic you cut the stem you know I go to the school I tell that to children not one out of dinner you have to cut that stab so that by the time you crack the garlic this release the skin and it will only release the skin if you have cut the out of it so you have to cut the end of it after before you peel it or after you peel it you must do it before and I said because you do it before and after that that's it the skin is going to slide out of it if you smell a head of garlic you don't really smell anything wrong now you take the garlic like this you slice it let's see to saute it with olive oil or whatever for pasta whatever it that's stronger by the time you crush it then you release two essential oil at that point see you have to come to that end of the right because you have to clear up your finger you cannot do it here here and it's down and forward down and forward so that release you can you can see it now it's gooey and elastic because you release that to a Sasha all which get together and all that soil this is what the tongue at that point this is stronger stronger stronger and by the time you shop it this way this is the strongest one one or two cloves of garlic is more we do a chicken who can goof die for the clove of garlic on the chicken with the whole clove of garlic you suck it you're not even though it's garlic here two clove of garlic like that is stronger especially if you don't cook it like an aioli you know you should have mayonnaise with garlic in it and that would be very strong the more you cook the garlic I think the less the less strong the flavor oh yeah if you do a big balcony wherever you put garlic I did it's very fun and dedicated the under if it's rope so here at that one remember we shop this way before the real it's already crushed so I can just rock it and then you clean up your knife on the table like this how many years Oh to start with I was 13 years old and it took a year to go to the stove a year appealing scaling plucking chicken you know all that type of work feeling the dark and all that so and then a year later the chef will tell you you don't he call me you until a year now he called me jack the day equal me Jack say Jack you started the stove tomorrow's sorry understood I don't know what - well I went to the stove and you ought to do it question of osmosis at the time when you're 13 14 years old that's how you learn the chef's tell you do that you will never see Y 2019 now I started 1949 so it's 70 years now ok so here is your garlic chopped garlic sliced garlic or garlic using different way with different density of taste each other a great deal yeah when I smash it sometimes I'll sort of slice it like this next and then like this move again yeah but again here get you push it too much on the own life don't push it to the hey I have not learned to do that yeah no that's different than what it was showing that just to chop you your garlic yeah I need to be back from that go ahead just rock it no rock it more of you okay another problem too is that your hand is too much this way ah just for this yep [Applause] yeah because the next time you come I'm gonna do it just like you you have your party like this of course you can remove all of the thing basically I would cut the pan and keep that stop-loss stuck so usually when I cook I have a big bullet part of me that goes in it the skin of the tomato you know pieces of carrot pieces of garlic did that too and I usually freeze that into a cardboard hopper gallon milk ah but I rents it out put those stuff in it because there is EB tell you use that for stock you do real Packer it cost you a fortune in plastic wrap and you have stalactite you know in your freezer you know you put all of that in that thing and freeze it and next time you do a stock you cut right through the cardboard with your and now I've got the whole block and wrap it in a stock pot I'll see the leg of one thing or another lasting certainly we cilantro and stuff I love the the stem like I freeze it and what here you gather that into a bowl and then again you use the same technique so you do that do that one or twice then after you shop and again as I say when you shop you don't do this it's work but not as well because you're not doing the cutting process so if you go with your knife first the front firm automatically the back one will have that motion of carrying you almost don't touch are you going up and down well ultimate you see when you go down the back will get down will give you that motion but there you don't apply any pressure you leave it very very light here I have to practice so we want to show one more technique called chiffonade for people at home how would you describe that it's different than some of the other things we've been showing so far what it is cool - that's why as a culture and you tell me because of the world she phone you know which is that material so it had that crinkly type of loot of c-4 so it's called chiffonade you do that with basil because you cannot shop if subhead in the workshop parsley it discolor it bleed a disco at all dark so the basil usually is going to be done in a chiffon that so you remove the leave like this you of course keep this I freeze I have a lot of em in stock - oh yeah yeah ok so you get your a bunch of leaves which you pile together and you roll it you go again down the motion of the rain so it does that crinkle look over she phone you know the material so we covered some basics now we're gonna get into the more technical cuts here no that's still very basic yeah you know often all I see people are going to take a carrot like that and put it this way and it this way and cut the end of it and cut it anything long like this you cut the end of it now the more quantity power goes here but it has to be this way so they can rotate on your finger without your finger being higher yeah and it's one streak now if you do it this way this way the result is the same except I'll do two case of carrot where you do one case so you know even peeling a potato you know use your thumbs and try not to get any I left on the potato again very often when you karuppa taro because of the wrong things so often you make a piece of it like that to put it flat if you slice your potatoes and you get a little more traction here right if you're a home cook and you're not worried about exactly how it looks you could always just cut it straight down the center to it yeah they depend what you're going to do with it right if you're in a professional kitchen and you need perfect dice yeah but it's less if you do pump souffle for example you Mon the whole slice yes there is slicing then there is black for French fry for example realistic this way this way three times C one two three and then you bass curate the potato every one two three so all of the potato that we add our chef coming to the kitchen we're like this this word was used for mashed potato soup I mean nothing was thrown away so there you do the potato this way let's say so that was the pump by the stroke potato this that side well the plumber we met the mastic potato classic in a French restaurant which are going to be about this way and this one here would be the pumpin of the Puna potato so the garnish you know pump by matchstick potato pump on the field in a kitchen if someone asked you to do a really fine brunoise can we show the people at home how you would take on that task right well it's the same thing than the potato and yeah but usually again I'm going to give you this way a flat air travel yeah so that would be pretty thin and again pile them up and that would be a julienne of carrot now you can do a very fine boils with this grant if you want usually that would be other garnish good your dice very small here so we saw a lot of different techniques today I learned some new things I have some things I'm in practice yeah for the home cooks out there I think it's important to start off slow you don't want to push yourself to go as fast as possible right away you want to internalize those techniques first and then incrementally go a little faster and faster as you learn yeah you can put the knife on the table with your finger without anything and yeah the feel empty cutting work basically yeah keep your mind open you already learned something whether you cook with you know chatter you have you done the window to do but you tell something so this video is gonna live on the food fifty-two website but it's also gonna live on the chocolate pen Foundation website we're gonna bring your son-in-law in to explain a little bit about the foundation good I did great if you come to these wine I know it yeah well this was great you guys did such a great job today Cheers but you know I I think you might have a little ways to go on these cuts yet but nothing but not saying that too bad well I did do twice as much as you did yes it's to be expected yeah so it's really exciting so a couple of years ago we started the Japan Foundation and our mission is to serve community kitchens that provide free culinary and life skills training to adults that have high barriers to employment so we take people who have been incarcerated or veterans who've been homeless who've suffered with substance abuse and teach them culinary skills so that they can get a job it's really it's really enriching and so satisfying plus we we serve eat them you need them yeah and we serve the industry that we love with there's six hundred and fifty thousand vacancies and food service right at the moment so these are jobs that are available to people who want to do the work so it's it's really exciting that's great and the videos that we shot today as well as a whole lot of other videos from jacque's several decades on television are available on our video library they're as educational techniques it's pretty awesome Cheers yes you if you enjoy videos like this make sure you click like and subscribe to see more [Music]

Channel: Food52

Views: 947,699

Rating: 4.9182677 out of 5

Keywords: Food52, food, cooking, recipe, chef, foodie, cook, home cooking videos, Dear Test Kitchen, jacques pepin, jacques pepin techniques, jacques pepin knife skills, knife skills, knife skills tutorial, knife skills cooking, how to cut an onion, cut an onion, basic knife skills, cooking knife skills, cooking knives explained, cooking knife techniques, cooking knives and their uses

Id: JMA2SqaDgG8

Length: 32min 44sec (1964 seconds)

Published: Thu May 23 2019