Bonjour!
Want to wield your knife like a butcher rather than be intimidated by prep work? Then you HAVE to check out Chef Janon’s Knife Skills class. She covers the essentials of knife handling from the time you take it off the wall – to how to sharpen and maintain. The best part is that when class is over, there’s so many beautifully carved veggies to cook with! For those wanting to expand their knife knowledge, this is THE class to watch out for an opening. There’s really no other one we have like it in that it focuses more heavily on technique and learning rather than cooking.
We start by introducing everyone to the different knives and their purposes. Now, there would be wayyy too much for me to summarize here so it really is one of those “take it and see situations”. What I can say though is even I didn’t know all the different uses for the knives and have picked up a few skills. And this is from watching in the background no less so with one-on-one instruction I can really see this being an experience that sticks with you.
And that’s just a small smattering of what we start with! Once we go over the basics of knife handling and cut types, we get into prepping the food for dicing and slicing. Lots of carrots and potatoes to be peeled so good thing it’s a team effort. Just look at all of them peeling away..
Chef Janon even has some great handouts for this class that go over hand positions, cut types and their required sizes. Who knew there were so many standardizations to chopping correctly! But it’s true that each cut serves a different purpose and Chef is here to impart her knowledge onto you. Having worked for 2 years as a butcher, it’s no surprise that she’s a total knife nerd full of information. Come nerd out with us and cut some veg!
Look at these knives so lovingly sharpened by our students at a 45 degree angle. We went through the various knives; chef’s, Santoku, paring, etc and explained the method to achieve a nice smooth edge for each one. After everybody gets a few turns of each technique, it’s time to assemble your craftwork into a delicious dish! This is when Chef and I have the most fun helping students decide what to cook. There’s a mystery protein for each class (ohhhh) and the spice cabinets are free reign. Combine this with the many veggies you’ve cut up and there’s some great options we’ve seen pop up. Should you get stuck though, no need to worry because the teaching doesn’t stop with knives in this class. Once we get cooking, Chef is there to offer advice on flavor profiles and cooking techniques so you can make a great snack to go home with.
And how lovely does this look. Sunny side up eggs anyone? Not to mention that all those diced potatoes and bell peppers are so uniform. It’s almost like they took a class for it or something 😉
If you missed out on this round of knife skills classes it could be a while until we see another added to the calendar, but fret not! Chef Janon has a couple of expert classes that scratch the surface of knife skills. Beef Expert has some great meat carving techniques included while in the Chicken Expert class we show you step by step how to break down a chicken into it’s individual pieces. Definitely lots of knife work involved in that one! Take a look at the calendar and see which would work best for you. If you really have your eye on a class that isn’t being offered soon though, we’re getting our Private Classes going again. You can choose the class, date that works for you and even some extras to add on for you and your closest to come have an evening at TFK. Sounds fun to me!
What do you want to see in a class? Feel free to leave us a comment below as we’re always wanting to hear what the TFK family wants.
Au revoir for now folks!