Full Description
A new approach to the CIA's Professional Chef's Knife Kit, In the Hands of a Chef reveals how professional chefs use their revered kitchen tools in restaurants and at home. This book identifies the types of tools necessary in the kitchen, such as knives, mixing tools, gadgets, and measuring tools. The book teaches a tool's most popular--yet often highly specialized--uses, the history of a tool, types of materials used in making it, and advances in technology that have improved a tool. The book gives readers a personal look at chefs' methods for using these tools and a sense of the personal attachment and even respect they have for them. Readers will also learn the parts of kitchen tools, characteristics of a good knife, and what to look for when purchasing knives and other kitchen tools. In the Hands of a Chef features 112 new black and white photographs that convey the proper way to hold the tool or how it appears when in the hands of a chef.
Contents
Acknowledgments vi
Preface 1
Introduction 3
1 Knives and Cutting Tools 5
A Brief History of Cutting Tools
The Parts of a Knife
Types of Knives
Sharpening and Honing Tools
Additional Hand Tools
Large Cutting Tools
2 Knife Skills 39
Knife Selection
Handling and Maintaining Knives
Setting Up Your Work Area
Holding the Knife
Trimming, Peeling, and Squaring Off
Chopping and Mincing Foods
Shredding and Grating
Slicing Cuts: Plain and Decorative
Precision and Portioning Cuts
Decorative and Special Cutting Techniques
3 Cutting Techniques for Vegetables and Fruits 75
Vegetables
Fruits
4 Cutting Techniques for Meat and Poultry 99
Meat Fabrication Techniques
Poultry
Rabbit
Carving Roasted Meats and Poultry
5 Cutting Techniques for Fish and Shellfi sh 117
Round Fish
Lobster
Shrimp
Soft-Shelled Crabs
Clams and Oysters
6 Hand Tools for Measuring, Mixing, and Baking 127
Tools for Measuring
Measures and Conversions
Tools for Mixing and Baking
Summary
Glossary 147
Appendix 149
Index 163
Photography Credits 170
