Technique Tuesdays - Knife skills: Slicing and Dicing

My knife technique is one skill that I constantly wish to improve upon. Given that using a knife is one of the most fundamental aspects of cooking, it is a good idea to have at the minimum a general idea of how to hold one. It's better to have a good idea of how to use one to cut vegetables. I decided to start with slicing and dicing, particularly on the elusive onion.

I've been using larger, chefs knives since I was a child, probably to the behest of my mother. And despite having at least 10 years of knife-using experience, I still felt as though I hadn't develop the most effective way of serving my cutting needs. I wanted some video tutorials, and so I searched in the iTunes store and found a bunch of podcasts and video tutorials, many of which I will be utilizing in this blog in the future (with the proper attributions of course). The videos I most enjoy are Basics of Culinary by the Art Institutes, under iTunes U. 

The videos I've provided below are from kitchendaily.com, featuring chefs from the Culinary Institute of America, one of the foremost culinary institutions in the world. I've also provided a YouTube video featuring Chef and Owner of Lento restaurant. Hopefully, after a weekend in the kitchen (or in front of the TV as I like to do) with a 10 lb bag of onions, you'll be slicing and dicing like a boss.

How to Dice an Onion.

http://www.kitchendaily.com/5minvideo/308338011

Note: this video leaves out a step that I always do, which is after slicing vertically, I make 2-3 horizontal cuts in the onion (like in this video, though this person makes about 10), then proceed to the slicing cut, which I believe produces a finer dice (a brunoise, if you would)

How to Slice an Onion

http://www.kitchendaily.com/2010/03/15/slicing-an-onion-kitchen-basics/

Research Other Knife Cuts and feel free to search for more videos on youtube, as there are tons of resources available.

A Picture Guide of My Attempts:

vertical cut

horizonal cut

final slice

diced

sliced