Knife Skills class...

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Zwiefel

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I teach some Cooking Demo classes for a local organization....I was asked tonight to start teaching the hands-on knife skills class. I get two hours...and whatever knives the students show up with.

Any ideas on what to teach them?

4 ideas so far:
Guacamole
Raita (yogurt dip)
veg for veg soup (take home + cook)
fruit salad
 
I took a beginning skills course at SLT a while back just to make sure I had the basics down. A lot of discussion around different cuts, making sure you cut a flat surface on the vegetables, cutting tricks, etc.
 
basic sharpening, steeling/rodding, stropping including the back of a mug trick
basic knife care (mostly what NOT to do with your knife), how to deal with carbon steel
julienne, dice and mince onion
dicing bell pepper
peel orange (Theory did a cool vid on supremes.), peel pineapple (asian style), peeling anything is cool, actually...
cutting even slices of soft things like cheese and meat
removing silverskin
cutting bunches of things like scallions, etc.
breaking down a chicken
breaking down a fish
dicing up a hard squash
 
I think most (I did) get stumped on how to safely break down great big lumps of vegetable. It's probably the most dangerous one too. Slip off the top of a pumpkin in to your hand and you'll know all about it. I'd say vegetable soup.
 
Different grips, advantages and disadvantages.
 
basic sharpening, steeling/rodding, stropping including the back of a mug trick
basic knife care (mostly what NOT to do with your knife), how to deal with carbon steel
julienne, dice and mince onion
dicing bell pepper
peel orange (Theory did a cool vid on supremes.), peel pineapple (asian style), peeling anything is cool, actually...
cutting even slices of soft things like cheese and meat
removing silverskin
cutting bunches of things like scallions, etc.
breaking down a chicken
breaking down a fish
dicing up a hard squash

hard to go wrong with that!
 
basic sharpening, steeling/rodding, stropping including the back of a mug trick
basic knife care (mostly what NOT to do with your knife), how to deal with carbon steel
julienne, dice and mince onion
dicing bell pepper
peel orange (Theory did a cool vid on supremes.), peel pineapple (asian style), peeling anything is cool, actually...
cutting even slices of soft things like cheese and meat
removing silverskin
cutting bunches of things like scallions, etc.
breaking down a chicken
breaking down a fish
dicing up a hard squash

Very comprehensive. But in two hours?
 
You start at the top and see how far down you get. Although I think that silverskin can be well down the list......
 
any video on the "back of the mug trick?" I've not seen it before...I can show newspaper though.
 
I assist in 2 levels of knife skills classes a couple times a month. Mix of 25% lecture and 75% hands on for level 1. Approx 2.5 hr. Its amazing what people don't know.

Don't know what your food cost constraints are but assume they are part of the equation. We do vegetables and fruit only; carrot, onion, potato, garlic celery, apple, lemon. End of class products are grilled cheese/apple pannini and veg soup or grilled veg sandwich, apple slaw (use mandolin in level 2) and a leek/potato soup thats actually not bad. Have looked at including some proteins but can't make the math work.

Be glad to send you outlines, handouts, etc. Adopt at will.

Regards,

Dave
 
I assist in 2 levels of knife skills classes a couple times a month. Mix of 25% lecture and 75% hands on for level 1. Approx 2.5 hr. Its amazing what people don't know.

Don't know what your food cost constraints are but assume they are part of the equation. We do vegetables and fruit only; carrot, onion, potato, garlic celery, apple, lemon. End of class products are grilled cheese/apple pannini and veg soup or grilled veg sandwich, apple slaw (use mandolin in level 2) and a leek/potato soup thats actually not bad. Have looked at including some proteins but can't make the math work.

Be glad to send you outlines, handouts, etc. Adopt at will.

Regards,

Dave

I would LOVE the outlines/handouts...that would be awesome...and would mean I owe you 2X now!
 
you guys have any thoughts on how much discussion around geometry, profile, steels? I'm thinking I might take my knives and let the students use them to see how much different they are (and what a proper...ok, decent..edge is).
 
you guys have any thoughts on how much discussion around geometry, profile, steels? I'm thinking I might take my knives and let the students use them to see how much different they are (and what a proper...ok, decent..edge is).

Really depends who you are teaching. If you are teaching culinary students, I would. If you are teaching at a community organization who are trying to get people to cook healthy at home....just stick to teaching how to be efficient and safe.
 
Really depends who you are teaching. If you are teaching culinary students, I would. If you are teaching at a community organization who are trying to get people to cook healthy at home....just stick to teaching how to be efficient and safe.

This is definitely moderately interested home cooks...I wouldn't expect them to absorb much of the material, but rather just to get an idea of how much there is to it, and how little of it is discussed at WilliamsSonoma.
 
A brief overview of knife types and uses followed by safe and more safe techniques including common mistakes and danger situations.
 
I teach knife skills classes to the public every month. After a short lecture on knives, knife safety, sharpening, how to use a steel, and basic maintenance and cleaning, we teach them how to dice and julienne onion, dice and batonet potato, dice tomato, supreme two kinds of citrus, chiffonade basil, peel, mince, and make paste of garlic cloves, and peel and dice pineapple. Including the time for them to eat the meal we create with what they cut up, it's a two and a half hour class.

We provide knives, but encourage people to bring their knives from home. It's an interesting mix of cutlery to say the least. Occasionally, you see someone who picked up the sexiest knives SLT or WS had to offer, but mostly, it's a mix of very basic stuff with a decent representation of Wusthof and Henckels and almost every class there's someone who shows up with something from Cutco.
 
any video on the "back of the mug trick?" I've not seen it before...I can show newspaper though.

I saw this on a Carter video. Used back of dishes and mugs until I bought some stones.
 
I can say from experience, avoid scaring them. Most people are frightened by a really sharp knife. I made the mistake of passing one of mine around, I could see the fear in their faces as they imagined lobbing off a finger.

Otherwise keep it simple and basic.
 
That's a good observation Salty, thanks!

I see two possible formats for a class like this:

Each student prepares the same thing
Have groups, and each group prepares something different

The first approach is nice b/c each student gets a crack at the entire repertoire
The second increase the repertoire, and makes the question of what to do with the product afterwards a bit more difficult. It also makes repeating the class more sensible.

Any thoughts?
 
I took one of the knife classes a while back. In my case, the provided knives were death traps. Dull, clunky viking brand. So glad I brought my own. The teacher hit up all the basic cuts, knife care, a little info on using stones and hones and rods. 2hours flies
Of the 2 choices u listed, I think it is easier to teach everyone the same cuts on the same items. Plus then everyone feels equal and less questions for you to deal with and slow down the class/learning.
As far as what to cut, if u do carrots, celery, onions, chicken and the like, well u have a great base for a soup or a number of other options.
 
+1 on teaching everyone the same thing. That way you don't have someone so busy watching someone else that they chop off a finger.
 
It always seems when a class does different things it's the other table that gets to to what you really, really wanted to try!
 
Don't try to do too many things,you will not have time.My first knife sharpening class,I had a blackboard for edge diagrams,talked some about Japan Gyuto's & steel.I was losing some of them.I asked for a show of hands to see how many knew what a burr is.No one raised their hand.Culanary Students,Most just wanted to have their knives sharpened.

I have streamlined my class quite a bit.Just sharpening,let them feel the burr,watch the technique.I teach as I go.If they buy a stone, I come back & do hands on one on one.A few at a time are becoming freehand sharpeners.

Cover Knife skills,let them cut food with my sharp knives,no cuts yet,I do keep a box of bandaids in my knife bag.

Peel pineapple,slice tomatos,green onions.Fruits & vegitables.Teach peeling,draw slice cut,forward push cut,chop,rock.

Last but not least Knife care-- NO EXCUSE FOR KNIFE ABUSE--,and safety.
 
OK, here's a first draft of the handout for the class. this just serves to structure the discussion and remind me to talk about certain things, it doesn't capture the detail of all of that. I like to leave a lot of room to respond to questions, gauge the students, etc.

any feedback is appreciated, my skin is very thick, I promise :)

Also, huge thanks to daveb for providing the skeleton for a lot of this!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iLNuSZCcL0Q9IEi5lNtUzSG9Ugo19oxu5pAmVCoj-o4/edit
 
Hi Zwiefel,My class is diff. fr. yours since my main goal is to teach freehand to culinary students.My first class I wasted way too much time talking about knives,types,steels the stuff knife nerds like,but 99% of the masses could care less about.

Knife care & Safety are important & can be covered rather quickly.You are doing quite a few things including preping some food.My suggestion is to cut way back on your knife types,Japanese Stainless Gyuto,Petty,Santoku,maybe breadknife I would leave that out as well.

Esp. since this is general public,leave out mono vs. laminate,Usuba,Deba,Ceramic,the single bevels because they will never use them,Ceramic they cannot sharpen.They will want to know what a good knife to buy is.Keep it short & simple.
 
Thanks Keith...that's a good bit to think about.
 
Looking through your handout, you are covering a lot of ground. Since most of the students -- if not all -- are really, really hoping for a lot of hands-on knife skills training, I would gloss over the knife types, etc., spend a few minutes talking about basic grips and safety, and the lions share of the time on the demonstrations/ doing part of things. Like a couple others here, I attended a SLT knife-skills class, and frankly you can burn 1/2 hour just on dicing an onion or carrot because there will be a couple people in there who really need you to hold their hand.


The handout will go a long way towards providing them with additional knife information, so you will still be educating them about all things knife-related, just not necessarily during the class.
 
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