Chef: The first thing I am going to show you our some cuts and this is just with potatoes. We can do many different cuts with potatoes but I am going to come over here with Morissa, though I have already washed them but what I am going to do is I am going to cut off these skins, one, two, three, what shape is it turning into? Kind of a square, exactly. These I can save and we can make mash potatoes out of them. We don't need to throw away items like this because they can be used, so I want to keep those.
Now, I am going to try to make this into as square as possible. The reason being when you cut, you are going to be cutting off slices. So the big point in trying to cut vegetables to consistent sizes meaning the same or at least close is for it looks pretty. That makes sense because if you have a soup, you want them all to look pretty, also they cook evenly and that's really important when you are making soups or stooze or really any cooking method. They want to cook evenly.
So, just a very simple cut, I even left some peel on there. I am not worried about that right now, I am trying to look to make sure that I have four smooth sides and then, I am going to do some slices. Now, when you are holding your knife, hold that for me, Asher. You have a couple of options, go ahead, Kelly, pick up your too, you are a lefty? Okay, when you are holding your knife, finger, that's a bad bad thing. You want to clinch down here, you see I am holding all the way around. You can hold down here at the bottom, you can choke up a little bit which means just bringing your thumb up little bit higher or you can even hold it like this and that's called fully choking up.
So if you move your thumb up here, it will be just like the thumb right up there, that's called choking up. You see how much further you are closer to the knife, your thumb is actually on it and that's if you are like the knife is too long for you and you need a little extra help trying to get through something, it's called choking up to give you a little bit more strength if you don't have it. So exactly, you are holding it like this. Now where do you think I want my other fingers? Probably as far away from that blade as I can, right.
So, you can see when I am holding this, I am going to take my left hand and I am going to curve my fingers, you see that, how there fully curve so the knife is actually only coming in contact with my knuckles. That way, no finger tips gone, I still have all my fingers and that's because I do that, you curve it under just a little bit and that makes sure that you are safe. When I am cutting, you see again I have, I am choked up, I do not put my finger here. If you think about it, it doesn't allow you any more stability or balance by putting your fingers out there, it's actually worse, try putting your finger up there and pushing it side to side. Oh, it's all wobbly, now try it here, it's not going to wobble because you are holding it. So that's the way to cut.
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