Knives

1Watch

Two cuts

One of these is how most kitchen cuts happen. It is not the second one.

2The idea

Taught, not banned

Banning knives does not work. You would use one anyway, badly, when nobody was looking. So instead: taught. Three rules. Cut on a board, not in your hand. Fingers curled back. A knife that is sharp.

A blunt knife slips more than a sharp one. You push harder, it skids off the skin of the tomato, and it goes wherever the push was going. A sharp knife needs less push and goes where you point it.

3The idea

The grip

Holding hand: fingertips curled under, knuckles forward, like a claw. The flat of the blade rests against your knuckles. It cannot reach fingertips that are not there. Knife hand: handle in the fist, first finger and thumb pinching the blade where it meets the handle.

Cut down and away, slowly. Board on a flat surface, with a damp cloth under it so it does not skate. Round things get cut in half first and go flat side down, so they cannot roll. Speed is what a cook gets after a thousand carrots. You are on carrot one.

4The idea

Leo and the cucumber

Board out, damp cloth under it. He cuts the cucumber in half lengthways and puts the flat side down. Claw hand. Knuckles guide the blade. Slow slices, and he stops to move his claw along every few cuts.

When he is done, the knife goes straight onto the rack, blade down. Never into a sink full of water, where a hand finds it before an eye does. Board wiped, cloth rinsed. Cucumber on a plate. Nobody bled.

5Decide

Three grips. Pick the one that keeps fingers.

6Say it

Three words before every cut

You will say it out loud for a week, then in your head for a year, then never again, because your hands will do it.

7Find them

Which of these make a cut go wrong?

Tap the ones that count.

8Do it

Before you leave this page