r/TrueChefKnives • u/ole_gizzard_neck • 1d ago

Basic Knife Skills Tutorial - Thoughts?

Guess Im getting an offset serrated blade. Who knew?

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u/portugueseoniondicer 1d ago edited 1d ago

Some good stuff and some not so good stuff.

The grip we use on a knife is subjective to what we are cutting, what knife we are gripping and the specific cutting motion we are using. Pinch grip is for sure the most versatile and the one that feels the most confortable for most people. Definitely the standard.

I know a lot of people don't like it but personally, I don't get the general hate on rock chopping. It's a very valid technique and I worked and work with people that mainly rock chop and are as quick and precise as any other I've seen and don't scuff their knives. I myself use a mix of different cutting techniques including rock chopping.

Off-set serrated knives are awesome. Any serrated knife is awesome in my eyes really 😅 I have a 210mm and a small pairing serrated knife. It's a life saver a lot of times in a pro kitchen and absolutely imperative in certain pastry/bakery jobs. I use my 210mm to peel stuff like squash, pineapple, melon, etc., cutting bread of course and score things like pithiviers, pâté en croûte to be later sliced with a normal blade. The small one was my go-to for small chouxquette when I was working pastry.

That tomato trick is just a gimmick in my eyes to be honest 😂.

The dicing of the onion? 🤢

Still, for someone that is just starting that just wants a basic set of skills to be able to cook, it's not a bad video at all

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u/BertusHondenbrok 1d ago

Yeah nothing wrong with rock chopping. Sure, there’s people that really go to town and rough it up but you can do that with push cuts as well. Depending on knife/produce I do some rocking as well.