I am a surgeon, supposed to be very skillful with the knife! I just want you to know that after trying many other videos on TH-cam you are the only instructor who showed me clearly why I was not performing as I wished cutting vegetables. You are just awesome. Since I watched you on this video I followed your advice and became a very proficient “vegetable surgeon, cook”. It did not take any time! Just patience and knowledge. Congratulations not only for this video. I have followed you for a couple of years You are just outstanding and practical. Your recipes always work and the proportions of the ingredients are always perfect. Thank you for your advice and for your incredible quality as a teacher. I will try to visit your cooking school after this pandemia. Sincerely and gratefully J A Fridman MD Miami, Fl
i seem to have reversed roles! i started cooking as a hobby about 6 months ago, and now i am considering surgery as a career! personally i use push cutting as opposed to rocking as i use a santoku, which has a dead flat blade
#realcomment: Look at me thinking I didn't need to see this video....when in fact I picked up several tips that I could improve upon. 1. I wasn't pushing the heel of the blade through the cut.....and yes, I was often left with "accordion vegetable slices". 2. Height of my cut was probably too high because i was using more of the tip. I like to teach youth basic knife skills and I never thought to start them off with softer veggies and will take that to heart as I get to immerse 15 youth into the kitchen experience next week. Timely and valuable video, thanks!
You’re an amazing teacher! Relatable, funny, practical, informative- I wish I had found your YT videos sooner than now. I’ve been in different roles within the food industry on and off for the past 18 years, and still learned new tips from you. 💜 Thank you.
I have been searching for your tutorials all my life! You, my friend are a spectacular instructor. My goodness beautiful, I’m 63 years old and for the first time in my life I GET IT! Thank you so much, to the moon and back.
Excellent video. I don't think you could improve on it at all. I have been cooking for years and own my own restaurant and still watched it and enjoyed your video. Thank you for producing these quality videos.
Hi Helen, Thank you for sharing your time and experience with us! What a wonderful video! I learned a lot more than I thought I would watching this! ❤️
Thank you for this video! I've been working on my cooking and proper cutting techniques have been probably the hardest part of taking my cooking to the next level. This video helped considerably!
I love your presentation. Like a quiet chat with a friend. So many channels get caught up in being ExTrEaMe! and loud they rapidly become nothing but annoying. This was just a calm talk from an expert with many good tips and analogies to make the points clear. Just subscribed :o)
Spent the a good deal of my afternoon watching your videos maybe a dozen and including your entire Knife Skills Playlist series. It was greatly worth the time spent in information and knowledge gained. I have a sharpening stone I bought a few months ago yet unused. I now know just how to use it properly. Enjoyed the link to Korin Knives channel as well which was masterly helpful in understanding more in-depth knife sharpening.
I used to work fast food, so I know what it’s like to cook, we used to chop ground hamburger patties to make the chili, Impressive chopping skills, me and Lana are going to chop!
You are a truly amazing instructor! I’ve been binging your videos and I have to admit, I’m hooked. Thank you for your contributions to this field and your MASTERFUL delivery of technique, advice, and demonstration. I will be recommending your channel to ALL of my friends, family, and coworkers who have even a remote interest in learning to cook or better their skills. I hope one day to attend a class of yours! In the meantime, I will practice your advice and recommendations and distribute this information to others! Thank you!!!
Thank you Helen you taught me so much in all of your videos. In the past if I wanted to know how to do something right I always sort out your videos so I won't mess things up and do things right. Again thank you so much.
#realcomment Intermittent shaved fingernails have been my past technique reminder. Now I can refer to your video instead! Really appreciate your last comment about knife sharpness. As soon as a start to feel the need to use a little more force to slide my knife through that onion, I grab my trusty honer. Thanks Helen!
Very good advice for novices; you need to master the pinch grip, the rocking motion, and the chef knife first. But as you get more comfortable, you will find that you can adjust your grip, change your cutting motion, and change your knife as needed.
I completely agree. There are some vegetables and some knives that require me to break a few principles I explained in this video. But I think it's always good to master the 90% scenario first. Maybe I should make another video on all the exceptions :)
practice suggestion. If you don't like waste and want to do something that gives you an excuse to cut up things. get a small stainless steel-Mason Jar home natural brine pickling kit. Than make yourself and your friends and family a bunch of different types of pickled relishes from cucumbers, celery, squash, zucchini , turnips, Radish and carrots.
Helen I came up with a knife tip that works well for me. The problem is that sometimes an item (like an onion) is a little unstable and can slip, resulting in a bad cut. Or even if it does not slip, there is the constant anxiety that it MIGHT slip. What I have always did for the first cut was a push cut starting from the middle of the blade What I now (non intuitively) do is a pull cut from the middle of the blade This starts the cut with a cut that is pulling the knife away from my fingers If there is a slip, it is much easier and more intuitive to just flip up the tip of the knife FWIW, this tip probably works best with a very sharp knife Since dull knives need the extra power of a push cut
Great advice about holding an onion to get the proper placement. I'm always looking for better ways to show this to my students. BTW, love my Misen knives. I've had them about 6 months now, and they are holding their edges very well.
Thank you so much for this, I really did need to have someone who knows what they're doing teach me how to do things safely. It's cool to learn things on your own, but it's always better to learn how to do things right.
Елена, давно хочу поблагодарить вас, хотел написать раньше но всё не решался. После коронавируса у нас умерла Мама, и я остался с Отцом 89 лет один, на мне в том числе вся готовка, и если бы не ваши уроки, я бы ничего не успевал и это было бы непреодолимой тяжестью для меня. Увидев этот ваш урок начал скромные попытки, купил шеф нож, начал пробовать вашу технику хвата ножа и удержание продуктов другой рукой. По началу было действительно и не привычно и не удобно, но я находил возможности тренироваться, даже ту же картошку резал на тонкие слайсы и по одной полоске резал, резал и резал. Потом купил второй шеф, сейчас уже заказал недорогой(еле нашел) шеф Mercer Culinary, длина 25,4 см., мне уже интересно, как будет ощущение работать ножом побольше. Скорость действительно приходит сама, если тренироваться каждый день минут по 20-30, но я не тороплюсь, она сама приходит и это радостно наблюдать. У меня дедушка был Латыш(бабушка с Украины), он был прекрасный повар и мне всегда хотелось тоже научиться. Спасибо вам большое за ваши видео, теперь мне готовить для престарелого отца стало быстро и одно удовольствие, я постоянно ловлю себя на мысли с желанием - что бы ещё сегодня порезать на кухне!) Ведь все понимаем, всегда надо что то порезать когда готовишь, а готовить надо каждый день. И хотел ещё заметить, я бы никогда не догадался что вы рождены в бывшем Союзе, пока не встретил ваше видео про "Сырники", вы там так чётко произнесли букву Р, после этого у меня сразу что то ёкнуло, и сразу догадался. Просто я сейчас в процессе изучения английского с носителями, и наоборот отучаю себя от своего произношения. Ещё раз вам спасибо, успехов вам с каналом, процветания ему, побольше в наше нелегкое время улыбок и успехов в семье и ждём новых видео!
I always use the claw grip, I came to this video as yesterday I somehow managed a clean slice through the skin of my knuckle... I don't think I didn't anything particularly wrong, just cutting too fast and lifted too high. The "push" against my guiding hand had it sitting squashed slightly into my skin leaving a nice chunk of flesh below the very sharp blade 🤦♂️ Always respect your knives, and be safe!
Good video. I don't get red veg any more, but still get thin finger-nail shavings. These I discover when eating the food, or when my nails get too flexible and split.
Helen I have an unusual suggestion if you will bear with me Basically I am advocating that the draw cut is under utilized and has some significant advantages IF YOU HAVE A SHARP KNIFE Why do people prefer a push cut? It is much more powerful... which is what you need with a less sharp knife What the problem with a push cut? If you have something unstable. Let’s say a bagel you are trying to cut in half It is very hard to keep it stable, it tends to roll The source of this problem can be illustrated if you hold up your left hand in a claw grip Now interlock the fingers on the right hand. (Interlocking claw grip) Now twist the right hand first clockwise, then counter clockwise You will see it is much harder for the left hand to resist rolling clockwise vs counter clockwise Basically, if you draw cut the bagel with a sharp knife, you will easily get an initial slash with no instability problems After that initial slash... the rest of the cutting can be easily done push or pull This technique works in many other situations where you have a challenging stability, You start with a slashing draw cut... then proceed normally BUT, this does require a sharp knife since the draw cut is much less powerful
#realcomment No big ouchy cuts in decades, but lots of little nicks on the backs of my fingers from brushing against my instruments. I usually find them with the help of lemon or onion juice. Oh, and the occasional shaved fingernail. In addition to The Claw grip, I like to shout, "hai-YAH!" when I chop. That way the family knows to stay out of the kitchen.
Wonderful Helen, thank you for this... I am in the Boston area, how do I find out more about your classes? I'd consider myself intermediate with a knife (aka home trained) but I am doing a culinary trip to Paris later this summer and think sharpening my knife skills (pun intended) by then would be wise
"It's not as awkward as a bleeding thumb" Can personally attest to this; just got back from the ER yesterday because I did bad claw-grip form and sliced the tip of my thumb off. CHEMICAL CAUTERISATION HURTS PEOPLE! Don't bugger this up like me D;
I am a surgeon, supposed to be very skillful with the knife! I just want you to know that after trying many other videos on TH-cam you are the only instructor who showed me clearly why I was not performing as I wished cutting vegetables. You are just awesome. Since I watched you on this video I followed your advice and became a very proficient “vegetable surgeon, cook”. It did not take any time! Just patience and knowledge.
Congratulations not only for this video.
I have followed you for a couple of years
You are just outstanding and practical. Your recipes always work and the proportions of the ingredients are always perfect. Thank you for your advice and for your incredible quality as a teacher.
I will try to visit your cooking school after this pandemia.
Sincerely and gratefully
J A Fridman MD
Miami, Fl
Ah -- I am blushing :) thank you so much for your kind words. Hope to cook with you in person some day
i seem to have reversed roles! i started cooking as a hobby about 6 months ago, and now i am considering surgery as a career! personally i use push cutting as opposed to rocking as i use a santoku, which has a dead flat blade
Hands down the best "knife skills video" I've seen in TH-cam yet. Awesome job!
I couldn't agree more. I'm glad your comment came up first.
"To keep the blood out of our vegetables." LOL!
#realcomment: Look at me thinking I didn't need to see this video....when in fact I picked up several tips that I could improve upon. 1. I wasn't pushing the heel of the blade through the cut.....and yes, I was often left with "accordion vegetable slices". 2. Height of my cut was probably too high because i was using more of the tip. I like to teach youth basic knife skills and I never thought to start them off with softer veggies and will take that to heart as I get to immerse 15 youth into the kitchen experience next week. Timely and valuable video, thanks!
This is the best knife instruction video I have seen - and I have watched MANY. Well done!!
You’re an amazing teacher! Relatable, funny, practical, informative- I wish I had found your YT videos sooner than now. I’ve been in different roles within the food industry on and off for the past 18 years, and still learned new tips from you. 💜 Thank you.
You’re like a Jedi of chopping. Great video!
Helen has the magic. I could listen to her voice all day long 🤔👍
This woman is lovely. This is the best knife skills video I've found. I can watch and listen to her all day!
You are a great teacher. Thank you for the helpful information.
I have been searching for your tutorials all my life! You, my friend are a spectacular instructor. My goodness beautiful, I’m 63 years old and for the first time in my life I GET IT! Thank you so much, to the moon and back.
I thought my knife skills were pretty good. I learned the rocking motion when I was 10. But as usual I have learned so much! Tha k you.
What a delightful person! I watch some of these even though I already have the skill being covered, just because she's so charming.
I feel dirty watching your videos for free. Your teaching skills are soooo effective!
Wow. I thought I felt dirty. I'm about to go look at Russian porn.
Excellent video. I don't think you could improve on it at all. I have been cooking for years and own my own restaurant and still watched it and enjoyed your video. Thank you for producing these quality videos.
Hi Helen,
Thank you for sharing your time and experience with us! What a wonderful video! I learned a lot more than I thought I would watching this! ❤️
Thank you for this video! I've been working on my cooking and proper cutting techniques have been probably the hardest part of taking my cooking to the next level. This video helped considerably!
I love the way you tell things, you are the perfect chef to teach for boom cooks. There is no bs in your way of teaching.
I love your presentation. Like a quiet chat with a friend.
So many channels get caught up in being ExTrEaMe! and loud they rapidly become nothing but annoying. This was just a calm talk from an expert with many good tips and analogies to make the points clear. Just subscribed :o)
Ma'am you are so calm and a great teacher.
Really clearly. I am so appreciative of you Helen Rennie. Thank you for sharing this
After discovering your videos today, I have watched at least 10 so far. They are all excellent. Thank you I have learned so much!
This is just such a great video! Extremely well explained but still concise. When I cut differently in the future, it goes back to this vid.
Great video, Helen! Thank you. Gotta admit, I hate the claw but the few times I've sliced myself tell me that I need to get better at it.
you are adorable, you are so clear and detailed but i love your passion and your compassion the most !!! love love love it Helen ;) Thanks so much
She makes me feel like I can do anything!
Best knife lesson ever.
You had me at ''not as awkward as a bleeding thumb''! :)
This video has really improved my knife skills..God bless you.
The best video about knife I have ever seen
You are a genius
You deserve more attention
I have learned so much can't thank you enough
By far the best videos about cooking.
Lovely video and lovely accent. Thank you!
As always, very informative, yet simply explained.
Spent the a good deal of my afternoon watching your videos maybe a dozen and including your entire Knife Skills Playlist series. It was greatly worth the time spent in information and knowledge gained. I have a sharpening stone I bought a few months ago yet unused. I now know just how to use it properly. Enjoyed the link to Korin Knives channel as well which was masterly helpful in understanding more in-depth knife sharpening.
The vegetables you cut were perfect!
This was a very helpful video, thanks a lot for uploading this.
You are an outstanding trainer.
One of the best claw videos I've seen. Thanks!
I have watched many videos on knife skills and you're the only one to explain how to move the claw grip in different ways. Thank you❤️
Fantastic! Amazing description and video demonstrations. I’m definitely going to be using these principles and practicing them!
The best channel on TH-cam
Such a thorough video!
This is a splendid video. Many thanks!
Thanks, Helen! You are a great teacher!
I used to work fast food, so I know what it’s like to cook, we used to chop ground hamburger patties to make the chili, Impressive chopping skills, me and Lana are going to chop!
Excellent video. You are a great teacher.
I am amazed by your way to teach.
You are a truly amazing instructor! I’ve been binging your videos and I have to admit, I’m hooked. Thank you for your contributions to this field and your MASTERFUL delivery of technique, advice, and demonstration. I will be recommending your channel to ALL of my friends, family, and coworkers who have even a remote interest in learning to cook or better their skills. I hope one day to attend a class of yours! In the meantime, I will practice your advice and recommendations and distribute this information to others! Thank you!!!
You are an amazing instructor Helen. Thank you!
Excellent. Thank you.
Thank you Helen you taught me so much in all of your videos. In the past if I wanted to know how to do something right I always sort out your videos so I won't mess things up and do things right. Again thank you so much.
Excellent teaching. Thanks 😊 ❤️
Really good teacher …. I still nick my guide knuckle but, practice will help me improve.
#realcomment Intermittent shaved fingernails have been my past technique reminder. Now I can refer to your video instead! Really appreciate your last comment about knife sharpness. As soon as a start to feel the need to use a little more force to slide my knife through that onion, I grab my trusty honer. Thanks Helen!
EXCELLENT common sense tips. VERY helpful! 🌺
Thank you! Great video
Great video, Helen! Thank you. Sent here by Adam Ragusea
Very good advice for novices; you need to master the pinch grip, the rocking motion, and the chef knife first. But as you get more comfortable, you will find that you can adjust your grip, change your cutting motion, and change your knife as needed.
I completely agree. There are some vegetables and some knives that require me to break a few principles I explained in this video. But I think it's always good to master the 90% scenario first. Maybe I should make another video on all the exceptions :)
Excellent advice for a rookie❤️👍
great lesson ! 😀👍
Very good teaching , and details , thank you ,you are funny and amusing
Ong this has to be the best video I've ever seen
practice suggestion. If you don't like waste and want to do something that gives you an excuse to cut up things. get a small stainless steel-Mason Jar home natural brine pickling kit. Than make yourself and your friends and family a bunch of different types of pickled relishes from cucumbers, celery, squash, zucchini , turnips, Radish and carrots.
Helen
I came up with a knife tip that works well for me.
The problem is that sometimes an item (like an onion) is a little unstable and can slip, resulting in a bad cut. Or even if it does not slip, there is the constant anxiety that it MIGHT slip.
What I have always did for the first cut was a push cut starting from the middle of the blade
What I now (non intuitively) do is a pull cut from the middle of the blade
This starts the cut with a cut that is pulling the knife away from my fingers
If there is a slip, it is much easier and more intuitive to just flip up the tip of the knife
FWIW, this tip probably works best with a very sharp knife
Since dull knives need the extra power of a push cut
Man. Even better than your original vid. This is great, cheers.
Nice and detailed explanation!!!
Very helpful video ! Thanks!
Great advice about holding an onion to get the proper placement. I'm always looking for better ways to show this to my students. BTW, love my Misen knives. I've had them about 6 months now, and they are holding their edges very well.
Thank you so much for this, I really did need to have someone who knows what they're doing teach me how to do things safely. It's cool to learn things on your own, but it's always better to learn how to do things right.
I love your tutorials! I do!
Great video - thanks so much. Learned a confirmed a few things I picked up on my own.
Very nice video, thank you! I practice my knife skills by cooking lots of borshch
Thank you! You make it look so easy.
i love that movie and'even more so the actress .....i will i think,oh, ...i enjoy your sensible considerate postings - confidently- thank,you
Amazing explanation!
Thank you for a great informative video. I have a lot of celery that is going bad so it looks like egg salad time.
Sooooooo well explained!
Great video-thank you!
Елена, давно хочу поблагодарить вас, хотел написать раньше но всё не решался. После коронавируса у нас умерла Мама, и я остался с Отцом 89 лет один, на мне в том числе вся готовка, и если бы не ваши уроки, я бы ничего не успевал и это было бы непреодолимой тяжестью для меня. Увидев этот ваш урок начал скромные попытки, купил шеф нож, начал пробовать вашу технику хвата ножа и удержание продуктов другой рукой. По началу было действительно и не привычно и не удобно, но я находил возможности тренироваться, даже ту же картошку резал на тонкие слайсы и по одной полоске резал, резал и резал. Потом купил второй шеф, сейчас уже заказал недорогой(еле нашел) шеф Mercer Culinary, длина 25,4 см., мне уже интересно, как будет ощущение работать ножом побольше. Скорость действительно приходит сама, если тренироваться каждый день минут по 20-30, но я не тороплюсь, она сама приходит и это радостно наблюдать. У меня дедушка был Латыш(бабушка с Украины), он был прекрасный повар и мне всегда хотелось тоже научиться. Спасибо вам большое за ваши видео, теперь мне готовить для престарелого отца стало быстро и одно удовольствие, я постоянно ловлю себя на мысли с желанием - что бы ещё сегодня порезать на кухне!) Ведь все понимаем, всегда надо что то порезать когда готовишь, а готовить надо каждый день. И хотел ещё заметить, я бы никогда не догадался что вы рождены в бывшем Союзе, пока не встретил ваше видео про "Сырники", вы там так чётко произнесли букву Р, после этого у меня сразу что то ёкнуло, и сразу догадался. Просто я сейчас в процессе изучения английского с носителями, и наоборот отучаю себя от своего произношения. Ещё раз вам спасибо, успехов вам с каналом, процветания ему, побольше в наше нелегкое время улыбок и успехов в семье и ждём новых видео!
This is great, thankyou so much.😊
That was really helpful and now I am confident to keep the blood out of my vegetables :)
I love your videos!
Excellent explained. Now I understand how to cut safely. Just need to get my knife more sharpen...or buy a new. one
Great instruction. I’ve subscribed. Off to see your cooking videos.
I always use the claw grip, I came to this video as yesterday I somehow managed a clean slice through the skin of my knuckle... I don't think I didn't anything particularly wrong, just cutting too fast and lifted too high. The "push" against my guiding hand had it sitting squashed slightly into my skin leaving a nice chunk of flesh below the very sharp blade 🤦♂️
Always respect your knives, and be safe!
Good video. I don't get red veg any more, but still get thin finger-nail shavings. These I discover when eating the food, or when my nails get too flexible and split.
Really good advice :D
Julia Child. is an inspiration who will echo throughout human history
Awesome tutorial! TY!
Thanks very much! 👍
#realcomment I have never felt so encouraged and empowered by a video on knife skills! I'm off to the shop to buy zucchini!
I play Drums. I noticed I got really good with my Knife skills in like an hour. It felt like holding drum sticks. I got it easily.
Helen I have an unusual suggestion if you will bear with me
Basically I am advocating that the draw cut is under utilized and has some significant advantages IF YOU HAVE A SHARP KNIFE
Why do people prefer a push cut? It is much more powerful... which is what you need with a less sharp knife
What the problem with a push cut?
If you have something unstable.
Let’s say a bagel you are trying to cut in half
It is very hard to keep it stable, it tends to roll
The source of this problem can be illustrated if you hold up your left hand in a claw grip
Now interlock the fingers on the right hand. (Interlocking claw grip)
Now twist the right hand first clockwise, then counter clockwise
You will see it is much harder for the left hand to resist rolling clockwise vs counter clockwise
Basically, if you draw cut the bagel with a sharp knife, you will easily get an initial slash with no instability problems
After that initial slash... the rest of the cutting can be easily done push or pull
This technique works in many other situations where you have a challenging stability,
You start with a slashing draw cut... then proceed normally
BUT, this does require a sharp knife since the draw cut is much less powerful
I have misen knife too, they are economical and awesome
What a great tutorial! Thank you so much!
Great video! And I see I need a bigger knife.
wow, thanks 😄
#realcomment No big ouchy cuts in decades, but lots of little nicks on the backs of my fingers from brushing against my instruments. I usually find them with the help of lemon or onion juice. Oh, and the occasional shaved fingernail. In addition to The Claw grip, I like to shout, "hai-YAH!" when I chop. That way the family knows to stay out of the kitchen.
Wonderful Helen, thank you for this... I am in the Boston area, how do I find out more about your classes? I'd consider myself intermediate with a knife (aka home trained) but I am doing a culinary trip to Paris later this summer and think sharpening my knife skills (pun intended) by then would be wise
Here is my teaching website: www.helenrennie.com/kitchen/classes.php
"It's not as awkward as a bleeding thumb"
Can personally attest to this; just got back from the ER yesterday because I did bad claw-grip form and sliced the tip of my thumb off. CHEMICAL CAUTERISATION HURTS PEOPLE! Don't bugger this up like me D;