As far as I k now, the tradition of tearing, not cutting lettuce, is an old one that came about before the development of stainless steel knives. Carbon steel woll chemically interact with many fruits and vegetables and give them...

set of knives that I didn’t need but wanted for culinary school; a 12" chefs, large boning, two paring and a large bread. All Victorinox with gorgeous redwood handles. Still waiting for the Le Creuset I ask for every year......

Garlic presses are not perfect, but I argue that they give you a fast running start , if you are an anal mis en place cook. I press, scrape out the goop with a paring knife on to a saucer, then finish dicing with a flurry with...

i have a gorgeous long marble rolling pin, no handles, works wonderfully. a btw, whats so hard about peeling garlic without squishing it? i can do it just fine with a paring knife and my hands. never tried a garlic peeler.

in the course of cooking a travel meal. A sturdy paring knife and a small poly resin cutting board (easy to clean and sanitize) pretty much completes my kit. For the cooler I find I prefer gel packs to ice because I don’t...

And one other thing I can’t believe I forgot: fresh horseradish! It’s dead simple, just pare the brown outside off the root, rinse it clean, cut it into chunks, and throw it in the processor. Puree it as fine as you...

For the culinary arts for the professional classes you need the full uniform (checkered pants, chef’s jacket, chef’s hat, apron, towels, neck tie), a good chef’s knife, paring knife, basic utensils like peelers,...

a very pared down approach to cuisine which is refreshing (think Donna Hays). Other cookbooks rely too much on advertisement and glossy pix. Plus, they seem to have crossed over to the realm of entertainment, travel and wine....

Steel your knives frequently- like everytime you pull them out of the block and at least every 5# of veggies or meat- Steeling a sharp knife really keeps it in prime cutting condition for a longer time than just swiping it at the...

That was the recipe I was thinking to do. Just a touch of brandy though! I’ll pick up one of those channel knives. These are clients...so I hope they don’t get too rambunctious! Wouldn’t be pretty!

it necessary to have 4 different chef’s knives and heaven forbid if they actually came across my paring knife collection. I actually tried to have a conversation the other day about the merits of California garlic versus...

't care for cooking it (it spits at me!) carving any sort of beast- this could change if f I had better knives picking meat off the carcass (almost as bad as washing the bird) deep frying – so I leave it to the pros emptying...

with frequency are wooden cooking utensils. Not just spoons, but also tongs, spatulas, salt and pepper servers, knives and spreaders, and even whisks! Finally, I have a collection of tail shakers (in the shape of a fire...

I ate here the same day, and at Bar Charlie as well, which has 8 and 15 course kaiseki-style service. All my photos/comments are at www.fire-and-knives.blogspot.com

and a set of Henkel knives. I later discover that cooking for me as an adult is a form of therapy and allows me to express my self, similar to what painting and pastels were for me as a child. Today, I could not live without the...