Hello, my name’s names chef Marcus burek thanks for joining me today we’re going to discuss how to use a chef’s knife?
The biggest thing I always see when I go into people’s house is they’re scared to death their chef’s knife, usually, I’ll grab them and they’ll be dull is anything which is the most dangerous thing you could have,
please go to our segment on how to sharpen a chef’s knife the sharper the blade the safer it.
Believes me I know it’s intimidating and scary but that’s why we’re having this segment of how to use this chef’s knife?
There are many different ways to do it there are different chops there’s the rolling technique the pivot technique
The slicing as you can see here I have three different knives I have a utility knife a boning knife and a chef’s knife now with this boning knife of course I’m going to be filleting things my finger probably like this so I have a little bit more control I don’t have to worry about that my utility knife is going to be for small little objects I’ll probably be using the tip a lot usually with knives right here is the sweet spot and that’s where you’re going to be using a lot of the knife when you’re beginning and that’s called the rolling technique and that’s what I’m going to show you right now of what you want to do okay you can use the rolling technique which could use some celery I like to use celery to start off with it’s just easy you can see where your cuts are and it actually has kind of a cool sound what you want to do is roll your knife you want to go down and through down and through so you want to go like this how easy is that now as you can see my knife is razor sharp it slides right through this now as a beginner biggest thing I always see is people putting their hands here and what’s exposed is your fingertips now I have scars all over my hands because I was a beginner once too and I had my fair share of going to the hospital and getting stitches I have a really nice stitch right there Oh hit it right there but anyway what you want to do with your hands take your hand here pull it a little bit away from the end of whatever cutting and roll your fingers up you want to put your fingertips back behind your knuckle here so when your knife is touching all it’s touching is this knuckle that gives you a little leeway now I’m not saying you’re not going to get your fingertips if all of a sudden you slip and come this way you might get a fingertip but this way ten times more safe and it’s going to be just like you’re walking backwards with your finger maybe a backwards crab or something I don’t know but you’re just going to walk your fingers backwards so what you want to do and you could practice this anywhere people might think you’re a little weird if you’re doing this in public but what you could do is just take your fingers take this back and just pull your fingers back and I’ll show you how it’s done here so you want to start doing the rolling technique as a beginner stop right here take your fingers move it back just a little bit don’t move it back here because then you lose control at the end so you want to just move it back just a little bit slice stop move your fingers back back now of course I’ve been doing this for many many years and I’ve gotten accustomed to doing this and you’ll get accustomed to it too then you’ll learn different techniques of I’m so cool of using the front of your knife and doing that as well but those are the things you want to learn now a little technique that you could do is you can take a little bit of flour put the flour out just spread it out a little bit and you can see where this knife is cutting and if you’re doing a good job at that now there also is things called a bench cleaner basically what that is is a piece of wood has metal what a pastry chef usually does is take the dough and scrape that you could use that as well because that’s not sharp you could use anything and just practice that rolling technique but what you want to do you just go through the flour and just practice that have some people over haven’t whined just do it you know I mean and you could tell them I believe me they’ll think it’s kind of cool that you’re doing that but as you can see is how uniform are your cuts you know then you can just smooth that over a little bit now your cuts like this when they are then you know you have a little bit of work to do so just smooth it out and just keep on practicing in roll roll roll roll roll roll roll roll roll roll you can see how uniform each cut is that that’s going to be important in your cutting when you get further along in your cooking when you become a little bit more advanced you’re going to want those precise cuts in your food so your plating looks beautiful your vegetables look beautiful your vegetables are cut cooked evenly it’s all going to make a big difference so this is the most important skill you’re going to want to learn with your knife and how to cut so what you are going to have is different things to cut you’re not going to always be able to stay on the board such as let’s say we have a little bit of fresh herbs here some basil you can see I’m staying on the board with that so that’s not always going to happen you’re going to have larger things such as cabbage which you’re going to have to come off the board but your hand technique is important so here I can’t do a rolling technique or I’ll be just way too high and that’s just dangerous you don’t want to come up that high and always have to keep that point you want to be comfortable now to be comfortable you’re going to have to get a good grip a good grip is like having a good grip on a pair of golf clubs for you ladies out there you’re like I don’t play golf what does that mean what it means is I want to have a good grip you can hold the knife like this if you want I as a chef I like to hold it right here at the base of the knife it gives me really good control everything is very well balanced some people hold it way back here I feel that the knife could do that a little bit when I’m up here I feel like I have very very good control if you feel a little uncomfortable holding it like that like this I do not recommend having your knife like this one it’s very very wobbly two finger falls off and boom you got a chop finger so be very very careful notes when things are very very difficult take all safety precautions necessary I had a very very nasty cut cutting a wheel of Parmesan cheese it was very very hard put my hand down like this the cheese rolled over my fingers came down first and my knife went right on top of my fingers and cut all my finger tips I’ve seen other people cut very very hard things without using a rag that happens and you’re cutting through something make it slip right down that point and slice I’ve seen so many people cut right through their hands so always if you’re cutting something hard cutting something like that cover it with a cloth double it up a lot because a sharp knife will go right through a cloth put it on top of your cloth put your fingers back and then cut through something if you have to push it down if it is a big block of cheese they make a cheese knife it has two handles on each side you can work it down but for examples sake if I have to come up this off the board to the Apple as you can see I’m just automatically an instinct I’ve already rolled my fingers forward to cut that Apple and come down on it you could still use the rolling technique I’m starting from the front of my knife and I’m going to the back to where the sweet spot is so as you can see to do that now on my other segments you can see to be safe smart thing would have been cut off the end of this you can see where this is all wobbly cut it it’s flat it’s stable now now I can cut this Apple and it’s not going to wobble like that I did cut it without that because I do have a little bit more experience but there’s a little teeny things like that and techniques to make things stable you’re cutting butternut squash anything like that cut the bottom off of it put it flat on the cutting board then continue to butcher it so with this Apple now that it’s cut now it’s smaller now again I could use the rolling technique and once you’re done with the rolling technique you can go into the next technique of chopping just using your tip don’t try to be speedy I see so many people thinking it’s so cool seeing a chef on TV and they’re just flying through it means as you can see I can go very very fast but I’ve been doing it for over 20 years now so please take your time learn the proper techniques find what’s comfortable for you in the kitchen and with a sharp knife always use a sharp knife again that’s another point but just feel comfortable with your knife before you start getting speedy and I’m going to show you more and more segments of maybe how to flip something in a saute pan I know people think that’s pretty cool when they see chefs doing that but it takes time with all that and watching these segments on Marco Spiricom you’re going to start learning more and more of these and you’re going to become a home chef so please stay tuned for more segments and we’ll see you soon
