Practice makes perfect, especially when it comes to culinary knife skills. According to Andrew Zimmern, if you want to really hone those slicing, dicing, and chopping skills, you need to be utilizing them on a daily basis. This is why the “Bizarre Foods” host recommends picking up a few key items from the grocery store each week. During a 2014 appearance on the Tim Ferriss podcast, Zimmern said, “Buy big bags of carrots, onions, and celery, and every day, mince them, cut them into batons, dice them (when you’re sitting around listening to the radio for 10 minutes) and practice your knife skills.”
The celebrity chef further explained that this crawl before you run approach will help you see improvement in both your skill and speed within two weeks. In fact, he notes in a YouTube video that there are really only nine different cuts that you need to master, and even if you only learn four or five, it will be less of a chore and more enjoyable to cook. With a chef’s knife, Zimmern demonstrates how to cut a carrot into batons. He trims the ends off and then makes an incision, pushing the tip of his knife down into the cutting board, producing a clean cut and section of carrot that is ready to be cut into quarter-inch slices. Pushing the knife blade down as he cuts allows this essential kitchen tool to do the work as he strokes through the carrot, producing a uniform cut.
What to do with those practice vegggies
After Andrew Zimmern creates the perfect batons with his carrots, he transforms them into diced carrots. Taking two or three of the batons and placing them closely together, side by side, he demonstrates that you can do the “push method” or you could lay the tip of your knife down and rock it. The knife should never leave the cutting board, and when you are finished, you should have a quarter-inch diced carrot. The chef explains that when the knife is moving all over the place, that’s a recipe for needing to drag out the first aid kit.
He makes it look pretty effortless, but don’t get discouraged if that’s not your first or second experience putting his instructions into practice. It takes some intentional and consistent practice. But in no time at all, you will be able to chop, dice, and slice like a pro. Of course, you might be wondering what to do with all those cut veggies? If you don’t have any immediate plans to use them, Zimmern says to throw them into the freezer until it becomes overstuffed and make a hearty vegetable soup. Zimmern also has a free online knife skills course on his website that is worth checking out if you really want to perfect your cutting skills.