
There's the Wrong Way and Jacques Pépin's Way (2011) - Tomte
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/dining/jacques-pepin-demonstrates-cooking-techniques.html?_r=0
======
surement
_He simply grabbed a sharpening steel and demonstrated how to run a knife
blade along the wand, which he did without flicking his wrist. “Like a
conductor,” he said. “You have to keep the angle constant.”

That angle needs to be about 20 or 30 degrees in relation to the steel._

It's not a sharpening steel, it's a honing steel. It doesn't sharpen knives,
it aligns the sharp end from \\\ or // to /|\ (you're looking at the blade
from the heel with the tip pointing away from you). Also, 20-30 degrees is
very wrong, Japanese-style blades are usually at about 15 degrees, others
around 22.

~~~
ubercore
Sharpening steels do exist, but they indeed operate differently than honing
steels: [https://www.amazon.com/W%C3%BCsthof-4473-Wusthof-10-Inch-
Sha...](https://www.amazon.com/W%C3%BCsthof-4473-Wusthof-10-Inch-
Sharpening/dp/B00009WDT8)

I don't think we can be sure which he used, and I'd be willing to bet the
NYTimes reporter understood the difference.

EDIT: I messed up and linked to a mislabelled honing steel. Replied with a
diamond steel that would be more considered a "sharpening steel"

~~~
MustardTiger
You just linked to a honing steel that is incorrectly labelled on amazon as a
"sharpening steel" (which no, does not exist) by the random vendor who knows
nothing about the products they sell. Read the actual item description from
wusthof:

"When that time comes that you need to touch up the sharp edge of your Wusthof
knife the 10" steel is a good option. The Wusthof 10" inch steel can realign
your knife edge quickly and easily. Honing steels are often confused as
sharpeners. Your honing steel will realaign your knife edge but will not put a
new edge on it. In trying to explain what a honing steel does try to imaging
your sharpening steel and your toothbrush. It is a maintaince tool that you
use everyday. In the case of your knife this would be maintaining the knifes
edge. Now eventually you would need to see your dentist. That would be a
sharpener. This would be a more detailed and agressive action and they would
actually remove metal from the edge of the knife. Much like a dentist would do
to your teeth. Now to maintain healthy teeth you brush everyday. To maintain a
sharp knife you should steel your knife everyday. And remember only go to the
Dentist(sharpener) once or twice a year."

~~~
zck
From wusthof.com ([http://www.wusthof.com/care-and-sharpening/using-a-
steel](http://www.wusthof.com/care-and-sharpening/using-a-steel)):

> The difference between honing and sharpening your knife depends on whether
> your knife needs regular maintenance or if you need to reset a dull edge. A
> honing steel will re-align the microscopic teeth and can be used frequently-
> even after each use. A sharpening steel will actually take a small amount of
> steel off the blade, creating a new edge.

So although the previously-linked one might not be a sharpening steel, they do
actually exist. Further down the page:

> The difference between a diamond steel or ceramic steel and honing steel, is
> that a diamond steel and ceramic steel will actually grind away material
> from the knife, allowing it to reset the edge.

~~~
Ntrails
So I've had a diamond steel for years and always thought it "sharpened" \- so
after reading this discussion I'm reassured by that quote :)

------
agentgt
Speaking of sharp knives... there not just for the cooks but the diners as
well. You know you are at a good restaurant if they give you a sharp non
serrated knife for meat dishes (which they will do at high end french
restaurants).

One of the few snobby pet peeves I have is paying ridiculous price at a US
steak house (which I luckily don't normally go to anyway) and getting gigantic
awkward serrated junk that tears the meat up and shoots juice everywhere.

~~~
chadgeidel
If your steak is "shooting juice everywhere" it hasn't been properly rested. I
wouldn't go back to a "steakhouse" that can't be bothered to rest my steak for
5 or 10 minutes.

~~~
agentgt
I was speaking more or less about sauces or additional butter.

That being said in my experience rested meat actually spills/explodes more
juice on initial cut as it is like a balloon. Unrested and already cut meat
have the juice in the plate where the sawing motion of a serrated knife has
little impact.

Besides really good meat aka aged fatty pieces actually have very little
juice. It is the sauce on top.

------
vdnkh
Twitch's 24/7 food stream (twitch.tv/food) runs a lot of vintage Jacques
(Jacques and Julia, Fast Food My Way). As someone whose been cooking for about
a decade now I've learned a lot, even from listening to him in the background.

------
tptacek
There is no better cooking video on the Internet than Pepin's chicken deboning
video. I can debone a chicken in under a minute because of it. It changed my
life.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku5p1CcGn70](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku5p1CcGn70)

~~~
korethr
I consider myself a competent cook, though an untrained one that's learned
through trial and error (and a lot of error at that!). But when I see
professional cooks doing things like this, it's humbling. And it seems like it
frequently comes down to technique. The professional chef's technique turns
out to be far more efficient than whatever naive brute-force technique I
devised on my own. And often it's a "Why didn't I think of that?" kind of
obvious-in-hindsight thing, too.

I still have a _lot_ to learn about cooking.

~~~
kasey_junk
A couple of basic technique cooking classes I've taken were far and away the
most bang for your buck learning experiences I've had.

A simple knife skills course for instance taught me some techniques in a
couple of minutes that I hadn't figured out on my own in years that
dramatically improved my efficiency.

------
JackFr
> “There’s nothing wrong with that,” he said kindly. “Sometimes I’m in the
> mood for that type of omelet.”

Brutal

~~~
tptacek
He's being serious! He's making french omelets, and the author is making
country omelets. Every time Pepin talks about omelets he says the same thing:
there's nothing wrong with other kinds of omelets, this is just a french
omelet. Also: there's a video of him making country omelets somewhere.

~~~
robotmlg
Here he is making both styles of omelet:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s10etP1p2bU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s10etP1p2bU)

------
debacle
The author really doesn't do Jacques Pepin justice. If you have the time,
watch some of his videos on YouTube. His mastery of even the most basic of
techniques is inspiring, and he cooks in a way that is very different from
modern cooking shows.

Also, this page is just shy of 10mb. The UI is daunting and unreadable. Wait,
scratch that. After scrolling a bit there was another massive amount of
requests on the page. The page now sits at over 700 HTTP requests and 13mb.

Simply scrolling the page creates 20 http requests. What is the utility there?
Honestly.

~~~
robotmlg
My favorite Jacques Pepin video: Deboning a chicken
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfY0lrdXar8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfY0lrdXar8)

~~~
dorfsmay
For me it's his making omelettes, because everybody thinks all omelettes are
equals and easy to make until watching his videos ; very humbling.

~~~
throw7
Love watching this dude make an omelette:

[https://youtu.be/Uu5zGHjRaMo?t=72](https://youtu.be/Uu5zGHjRaMo?t=72)

------
sailfast
He's a food and drink editor and has never sharpened the knives in his
Kitchen? Seems odd. Maybe it's the boy scout in me, but sharp knives are
critical for all the reasons he discusses.

I've been on a Food Lab kick recently that has been quite successful but
Pépin's cookbook seems awesome as well and I've been looking to brush up on my
technique. Great article and thanks for posting.

~~~
aidenn0
I don't feel safe when I use kitchen knives that are dull; it seems like an
accident waiting to happen.

~~~
bambax
Exactly! Dull knives are not simply bad for cooking, they are very dangerous,
because they force you to press like a madman to do the cut you want.

------
edejong
Sometimes when I visit friends and see the sorry state of their knives, I just
want to fetch our wetstone and fix it in ten minutes. But I don't want to
appear too snobbish, so I never mention it.

~~~
Tenhundfeld
I hear ya. I think it can be done without appearing too snobbish. Most people
have some type of honing rod/steel. They just don't use it, because they don't
realize how dull their knives actually are.

I often get enlisted into the cooking effort when I visit a friend for big
party or over the holidays or whatevs. It's a low-key way for me to take some
of the stress off the host, and it's an easy way to start conversations with
other guests, which I like as an introvert.

Anyway, when I'm helping in the kitchen, I usually ask the host if I can
"sharpen" (really hone but that distinction isn't important to them) their
knives. The usual response is "PLEASE DO." I agree it can come off as judgy,
but if you're helping them cook, they take it in the positive spirit it's
meant.

Just make sure you tell the host. I once honed some knives, got them nice and
sharp, and the host immediately cut herself. I asked if it was okay, but I
guess she was so used to the dull knives, didn't have good technique, etc.

My other pet peeve is dry and cracked cutting boards. So I also often offer to
oil their cutting board if I can find their spoonwax/mineral oil in the back
of the pantry.

~~~
xiaodown
Oh god, my mom has a glass (pyrex?) cutting board. It's SO BAD for knives, and
all of her nice knives are so dull, I can barely stand to cook in her house.

~~~
Tenhundfeld
Haha, yeah, glass cutting boards are the _worst_!

------
ceautery
His use of a metal fork in the non-stick omelette pan really bugged me.

~~~
skummetmaelk
It's anodized aluminium and does not scratch the way teflon does.

~~~
tombrossman
Seconded, buy a decent non-stick pan and you can use and abuse it without
worry. I have some Woll Nowo pans that see daily use with metal utensils and
nested stacking with other metal pans. Never a scratch, no food sticking at
all. Here's an example but shop around as many other brands offer similar
construction: [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Woll-Nowo-Saute-Detachable-
Handle/d...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Woll-Nowo-Saute-Detachable-
Handle/dp/B002A02IYY/) I like the detachable handle because it stays cool, and
I don't lose track of which pan just came out of the oven and accidentally
grab its handle bare-handed.

When buying pans, look for commercial stuff (or at least make sure the box
does not have a photo of a famous TV chef on it). They should be 2x-4x more
expensive than the cheap stuff, usually cost less than the really high-end
pans, but will last forever and produce great results.

------
wahern
I've been shaving with a straight razor for almost 20 years. I've been using
Japanese chef knives for over 10 years.

Using a straight razor, I know what sharp is and what sharp means. But I've
learned over the years that I suck at sharpening and maintaining a blade, not
least because I'm too lazy. When it's an implement you use on your face
several times a week it's nigh impossible to fool yourself. I still own a high
quality leather and canvas strop and an expensive Japanese water stone, but in
retrospect those were aspirational purchases.

Some pro tips for people who want the performance but don't want to or cannot
invest the necessary time and effort.

Pro tip #1: For a straight razor, buy disposable blades. They're actually
_too_ sharp, making razor burn more likely. But a dull or deformed blade will
cut you up like nothing else and becomes discouraging very quickly. It's the
rare person who will make it 20 years using a straight razor if they have to
strop it every day and sharpen it every few weeks, so just use a disposable
blade. I've been using Feather razor and blades for years. It's the best of
both worlds, just keep a light touch when shaving to avoid razor burn,
especially the first couple of shaves out of the box.

Pro tip #2: Buy a high quality chef's knife. It doesn't need to be super
expensive, just have a very hard cutting edge. I prefer the Japanese kind with
a very hard (high 50s, low 60s on the Rockwell scale), carbon steel core
sandwiched in softer stainless steel. Hard steel sharpens more easily and,
most importantly, holds an edge better. However, it's much more prone to
microscopic breaks and cracks. Stainless steel is softer but more resilient--
it deforms rather than breaks. It follows that you should never "steel" a
hard, carbon steel edge; don't buy a knife that is normally used with a honing
steel, no matter how expensive or fancy.

Because we're lazy and know we're never going to sharpen it properly, if ever,
the trick is remembering that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Use a cutting board made of _soft_ wood. (Or plastic, but I can't speak to
that.) There's a reason the old-school hardwood boards were constructed with
the end grain oriented up, but those are rare and quite expensive. Most
hardwood boards will kill your knife in short-order, especially those tropical
ones with embedded silica particles. I got one as a gift and only pretend to
use it when they're visiting. For a long time I've been using a cheap wooden
board I bought from Giant supermarket. The glue is failing but it treats my
knife kindly.

Use a clever or a cheap knife for deboning.

Never let anybody else touch it, ever. They won't respect it like you do. They
won't understand.

Never toss it, or even it gently lie it down, in the sink or anywhere else the
edge might accidentally so much as touch a hard surface. For obvious reasons,
never put it in a drawer.

I've only gone through about 3 chef knives (2, really) in over 15 years,
without ever so much as honing one, and they've always been sharper than
anything I've ever used in any other household or kitchen. Including Redneck
households where the sharpening stone is kept next to the easy chair.

My first one was a $50 special from an online store. It was incredibly sharp,
and I used it for years. I was convinced it was magical, and for the first
couple of years actually lamented I had no reason to use my sharpening
implements. I traveled overseas with it. I made a dish at a party one time and
made the mistake of leaving it lying around while I brought the dish to the
table. Satan disguised as an innocent young lady used it to cut her brownies,
which were in a glass baking dish. Not only did it destroy the knife, but
there was a visible deep nick in the blade. No amount of sharpening would have
restored it, as given the depth of the nick it likely would have required
removing too much metal to be able to restore the original angle (Japanese
knifes are like that). And in any event I certainly wouldn't have had the
skill, and few "professional" sharpeners would have the skill, either. My
other knives were never as good as that one, but they're still better than
anything else I've seen.

Note that I'm not a professional chef. If I were a professional I don't think
there'd be any way to avoid learning and exercising proper maintenance. But I
do cook regularly, and use my knife for almost every aspect of preparation.
I'm one of those people who avoids fancy kitchen gadgets, which is actually an
easy preference to adopt when your knife works well.

