The Professional Chef's Knife Kit | 
|  | | | Title: | The Professional Chef's Knife Kit | | Author: | Culinary Institute of America | | Publisher: | Wiley [Website] | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 05 November, 1999 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0471349976 / 9780471349976 | | List Price: | $34.95 | | Amazon Price: | $37.98 (via Amazon marketplace seller) | | | |
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Product Description
When you watch a professional magic act, you may find yourself awed by the trick. You are a willing believer in the illusion created by the magician. If, however, you are a magician, you are no longer in awe of the trick itself. You are astonished by the skill and finesse of the magician–the ease, the apparent effortlessness of motion. Chefs are a great deal like magicians. To the novice, the transformation of a carrot to a pile of perfectly even julienne is almost miraculous. To the seasoned chef, the miracle is the skill, the coordination, and rhythm of the right tool in an accomplished hand. Founded in 1946, THE CULINARY INSTITUTE OF AMERICA is an independent, not-for-profit college offering bachelors and associate degrees in culinary arts and baking and pastry arts. Courses for foodservice professionals are offered at the colleges main campus in Hyde Park, New York, and at its additional campus for continuing education, The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, in St. Helena, California.
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Customer Reviews:
• Informative 29 October, 2006
I just wanted to comment based on the previous reviewer. I'd say about 90-95% of the information in this book is in The Professional Chef 8th Edition, so if you own it, it's not worth purchasing this book. The P.C. 8th Edition explains all these cuts based on the chapter you're reading. It's not all located in one section. Perhaps the reviewer "Absolutely Essential" has not completely read P.C. yet.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2AX0JS3TS62UZ
• A Little Book For A Lotta Money 13 February, 2007
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.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AKPIDEDJAKKL8
• Good First Start 16 August, 2007
book does a good job of inititating the user to knife techniques for a someone not attending formal training. Descriptions define the technique quite well, I would have liked to have included more information about the errors students encounter.
Overall a worthwhile book.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A366BP8HL601M8
• Good Book To Learn Basic Knife Techniques 27 November, 2006
70% of this book is fairly useless if you lack any sort of common sense in the kitchen.
If you're learning how to cook from zero it should be a good resource.
This book shows all of the basic cuts and briefly covers sharpening which is good but not great. I expected more from a professional textbook.
It should spend more time discussing sharpening techniques (so very important if you want to use a cooks knife effectively) and less time showing how to flay a mango (something most chef's will rarely encounter).
If you have a lot of money, go ahead and buy it. If you don't or would like a better way to get knife skills, you'll need to befriend a local cook at a fancy restaurant. Just go in after service is over and hang out at the bar. If you have any social skills at all and are willing to buy a few drinks, you should find any chef willing to show you the way.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1ZENFXKKIQRZA
• A Very Good Beginner's Book 11 August, 2007
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. :)
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2SQGC708613E4
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