Knife Skills

When you become a regular cook in the kitchen, it's great to see when you're progressing with your knife skills, so check out some basics on how how to use a knife safely and confidently for when you're preparing home-cooked recipes. Watch my quick video, or have a read of the below.

1. First things first, make sure you keep a really good grip of the handle. The last thing you want is to lose control of a sharp knife. It’s easy to forget if you’re chopping something finely as you tend to use the knife a lot quicker.

2. Make sure you secure the food your chopping firmly with your other hand. Be aware that different foods can slide around when being chopped (skin sliding off an onion is a fine example) so always be sure to prepare your food before chopping, and ensure it’s not going to move whilst chopping.

3. Curl your fingers. The last thing you want to do is slice off your fingertips! So by curling them, if the knife blade gets too close to your fingers, it’ll more likely brush past them, than slice over them.

4. Finally, we all want to be able to chop like a pro, but take it slow to start with. It’s too easy to get carried away. If you perfect your knife skills slowly, you’re much less likely to suffer an injury.

It’s also worth considering if there’s any other utensil that can handle the job more safely for you. For example, a garlic press, or my favourite, a Mezzaluna.

Image courtesy of Clif Haley