Day 4

More knife techniques today. The line at the wall-mounted first aid kit grew longer as the day wore on. Our class could have been a walking ad for BAND-AID adhesive bandages. It was nuts. 

Today's in-class assignment was to cut 4 different items in 7 different ways: 

#1 - Des = Literally to "dice", we used an onion although the term refers most often to tomatoes

#2 - Emincer = refers to thin slices of a fruit or vegetable, we used an onion

#3 - Ciseler = to "finely mince" usually onions or shallots, we used an onion and garlic

#4 - Hacher = to "chop" usually refers to herbs and other irregular shaped ingredients, we used garlic

#5 - Concasser = a coarse chop for any vegetable, we used a tomato 

#6 - Macedoine = 4-5 mm cubes, we used a carrot 

Here was my work:

Something to remember: take the time to cut your onions properly... always leave the root on your onion....never chop them by just rocking your knife back and forth while moving over the onion because it draws out the moisture and you will end up with horrible, soupy onions. 

Here is a short video entitled "How to Chop an Onion" featuring Gordon Ramsay (love him)....watch it and then practice practice practice ala Julia Child in the film Julie and Julia.