Knife technique and cutting skills
How to choose, maintain, and care for your most important tool
Introduction
The knife is the chef's most personal tool. A skilled gastronomer spends hours every day cutting butchering and fine-tuning and how you hold and use the knife determines both speed safety and the quality of the finished result. Good craftsmanship with the knife is not innate talent — it is a technique built up through thousands of repetitions.
The most important knife types in the kitchen
- 01Chef's knife — the all-rounder for most tasks: chopping cutting butchering vegetables.
- 02Boning knife — narrow and flexible blade to follow bone and tendons closely.
- 03Fillet knife — thin and flexible, used to remove fish fillets from skin and bone.
- 04Peeling knife — small knife for finer work, peeling and cutting of garnishes.
- 05Bread knife — serrated blade that cuts crust without squashing the crumb.
The grip — pincer grip and claw grip
The professional grip on the knife is called the pinch grip: thumb and index finger grip the blade just in front of the handle while the other fingers close around the handle. It gives far more control and precision than holding the entire hand around the handle. The hand holding the raw material uses the claw grip — the fingertips are bent in like claws so the knuckles point forward and function as a guide for the knife side. This means the blade never meets a fingertip even if the hand moves.
The classic cuts
| Average | Approximate size | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Brunoise | 2 × 2 × 2 mm cubes | Finely chopped garnish, consommé |
| Macédoine | 5 × 5 × 5 mm cubes | Vegetable mix, salads |
| Julienne | Thin rods, approx. 3 × 3 × 40 mm | Wok, garnish, salad |
| Paysanne | Thin, flat pieces | Soup the Farmer's Way |
| Chiffonade | Thin strips of leaves | Herb and leaf vegetables |
Keeping the knife sharp
A knife loses its sharpness gradually with use, because the edge bends microscopically to the side. A honing steel does not sharpen the knife by grinding steel off, but by straightening the edge back into line — this should be done regularly, preferably before each task. When the steel can no longer straighten the edge, the knife must be ground on a whetstone or with a grinder, typically at an angle of 15–20 degrees depending on knife type. Japanese knives are often ground at a sharper, more one-sided angle than European ones.
Storage and maintenance
- 01Wash the knife immediately after use and wipe it dry — never put it in a sink full of water where it is hidden from the next pair of hands.
- 02Store knives in a knife roll, magnetic stand or block — never loose in a drawer where the edge is damaged and hands can get pinched.
- 03Use a cutting board made of plastic or wood — never stone or glass, which dulls the blade within seconds.
- 04Separate private knives from shared kitchen ones, and maintain them personally.
“A sharp knife is not a luxury — it is safety equipment.”
— Kitchen master principle