The Professional Chef's Knife Kit
by Culinary Institute of America
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Book Reviews of The Professional Chef's Knife Kit
Book Review: A very good beginner's book
Summary: 4 Stars
Let's be honest. Learning WHAT to do with a knife takes very little time. One can read; one can watch, one can even be told without demonstration. Most of it is common sense; some of it is obsolete tradition; more than a little is flashing-blade-ego.
The hard part is HOW to do it. Skills. Mad Skilz as my younger colleagues might say. And these do not come from a book. They come from piles and piles of onions and carrots and fruits and you-fill-in. No one should expect to read this or any knife manual and think they're going to walk into the kitchen and perform like a pro.
This is a good book to give the beginner a great deal of information about how to care for knives (about which most are utterly clueless) and a sound start on technique-building. Alas, the sad fact is that few are going to perfect those techniques with months and years of practice.
It will also be useful for those pretentious amateurs who like to talk the talk. Wait until the next time one of them takes a rude snipe at Rachel Ray and then toss them some veggies and tell them to do as well. The results will be revealing, I promise you.
I suppose it doesn't make all that much difference in the long run. So long as you are not in a production environment, flashing speed isn't really that critical. Look at Sara Moulton. She's a duffer with a knife yet she has made a very nice living out of food and cooking. That's because she doesn't have to pump it out in a commercial kitchen every day. And that is perfectly OK.
Good luck, new choppers. May you lose fewer fingernails than I did as you climb the learning curve. :)
Book Review: A little book for a lotta money
Summary: 2 Stars
This is a book of technique. Eighty of its pages have photos and brief descriptions of knifework, including preliminary cuts, chopping, mincing, shredding and grating, plain and decorative slicing cuts and other decorative cuts; also some particulars about handling onions, scallions, garlic, leeks, mushrooms, tomatoes, avocadoes, peppers, plantains, zucchini, apples, citrus fruit, melons, pineapples and mangos; together with knife techniques for tenderloin, cutting chops, boning a leg of lamb, disjointing a rabbit or poultry, carving roasted meats and turkey, and salmon, lobster, shrimp, clams and oysters. That's it.
Almost all the photographs of knife technique show use of a large French- not German-style chef's knife. A small number picture a boning knife, turning knife or mandolin; all other knives are given very short shrift indeed.
Most of this information can be found elsewhere, in comprehensive cookbooks and manuals of technique, and on the web for free. This presentation is decent, but not really worth more than five bucks on its own. Which is far less than it in fact costs.
Notice that the sixty pages of elementary information about knives and their care which precede the section on technique add little to the value of the volume. A characteristic sample reads, "Slicers ... The type of edge on the blade is selected to make a particular food easier to slice." The passionless prose of a nameless textbook writer provides nary a word about what types of edges are available on slicers, much less about which of those edges might suit which purposes.
Book Review: Excellent book about knife skills for the serious cook
Summary: 5 Stars
A serious home cook that has spent the last 25 years polishing her cooking skills writes this review. I purchased this book as a supplement to "The Professional Chef: 7th edition" and I very glad that I did not listen to the spotlight review that said it was a duplicate. This book is clearly NOT a duplicate of the information in "The Professional Chef".
This book gives an extraordinary amount of detail about all things related to and involving knifes and knife work. With the knowledge in this book it will be much easier to purchase knifes that are right for you, not someone else. The book discusses knife balance and the feel of the knife in the hand and well as knife construction.
The section on fruits and vegetables was extremely thorough. The book even managed to discuss a couple of cuts that I was unfamiliar with, which in my mind is quite impressive since I am one of those people that eats 10 fruits and vegetables a day. I thought I knew everything about prepping fruits and vegetables, but I was wrong. I particularly liked the spiral cut on the whole pineapple.
The section dedicated to meat and poultry is fabulous. I thought the cartoon drawings of the specific animals underlying skeletal structure were particularly helpful. The book was worth buying for those very drawings alone. I might just have to buy a leg of veal this weekend just to practice boning.
If you are a serious cook, and want to improve your knife work this is an excellent book to buy. I highly recommend this book.
Book Review: Absolutely essential.
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not sure which version of "The Professional Chef" Mr. Garvin was reading, but in my copy (7th Edition), there were only a total of 9 pages dedicated solely to proper knife usage and technique. 9 pages of 1036...by my math that doesn't get anywhere close to "90-95%" it's more like < 1%.I made the mistake of believing his review and purchased "The Professional Chef" instead of buying "The Professional Chef's Knife Kit," and boy did I regret it. I now have a 1000+ page paperweight that cost $50. :-( Not that it's a horrible book, but it's hardly a reference for someone looking for a knife course study. The book is interesting, but it's not what I had hoped it would be.
I went back and bought the Chef's Knife Kit book and it's wonderful. Loaded with information, pictures, and helpful hints, it's a must for anyone who's serious about improving their knife skills. Save your money and avoid "The Professional Chef: 7th Edition," unless you're looking for a book that addresses the entire scope of a professional kitchen.
Book Review: Useful information, but a few minor nits
Summary: 4 Stars
This book covers, quite well and with clear black and white photographs, the basics of using kitchen knives. The chapters are Basics, Care, Cuts, Vegetables & Fruits, Meat & Poultry, Fish & Shellfish, Summary, Glossary, and Index. The "food" chapters are broken into sections, each section shows how to cut a particular type of vegetable, fruit, meat, etc. I'm not wild about the font selection, it is tiring to read for extended passages, however, because most of the book consists of
fairly short paragraphs and enumerated steps, it is acceptable.
The section on sharpening is too short, you will want to go elsewhere if you need to learn how to achieve and maintain a really sharp edge. The part on using a steel is, in my opinion, questionable. Edges are commonly damaged by their use. Don't consider using a coarse or regular cut steel on a good knife. If you must steel, use a light touch with a smooth or fine cut.
French names are given for most of the various cutting techniques. It would be useful to include a pronunciation guide.