Don’t sweat your lack of knife skills

Step into almost any restaurant kitchen and you will see chefs and cooks wielding knives in an impressive display of finesse and skill. I witnessed this firsthand years ago when I staged at a high-end restaurant in a small city. I was tasked with finely chopping parsley to be used as a sprinkled garnish (don’t laugh, everyone was doing that in the ’90s). The chef must have pitied me because he let me use one of his knives instead of the one I had brought. I thought my knife was darn sharp, but it seemed like a hammer compared with the finely honed instrument I was loaned. Nevertheless, it took me a long time to get the parsley fine enough, even though I was chopping as fast as I could.

I am certain I did not impress the chef with my knife skills, although he must have seen a glimmer of potential because he offered me a job at the end of the stage. It was not the right fit so I turned it down, and my knife wielding ability never approached that of rest of the crew at the restaurant. However, I need not apologize for my substandard (by restaurant measures) dexterity as I slice, dice, and chop well enough to make wonderful meals at home. Mark Bittman would agree, as he explains in a recent post in which he states that knife skills are bullsh*t.

“There’s nothing wrong with real efficiency, of course, but if a lack of elite ability discourages people from attacking a stir-fry, that’s ass-backward,” says Bittman. He admits that his own onion chopping skills are nowhere near that of an experienced chef: he is much slower and his cuts are not as precise. Bittman reassures us that getting the job done is the important part. He advises that if you want to practice your knife skills, feel free to do so but don’t let a lack of finesse be an impediment to stop you from cooking.

I would say the same thing about baking. While viewing gorgeous pies, cakes, and pastries on Instagram can be relaxing, it can also cause anxiety when making your own baked goods. Don’t worry if you can’t perfectly flute the edge of a pie crust or get your icing completely smooth. Shrug off the imperfections and enjoy your delicious, misshapen pie or slightly lopsided but tasty cake. As the old saying goes, ‘it’s what’s inside that counts.’

Note: Mark has another cookbook coming out in November Bittman Bread: No-Knead Whole-Grain Baking for Every Day which we are excited about. The chef/author has been very busy as his Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal was published in February of this year.