🔪 Block 1–2: Knife Skills & Kitchen Setup
"Learn to hold a knife properly and half the battle is won."
Quick Reference: → Block 1–2 Recipe Quick Ref
Food safety: This block handles raw shrimp (Session 3), raw pork (Session 5), and a whole chicken (Session 7). Use a separate board for raw proteins. Full details in Food Safety Fundamentals below.
Before You Start Block 1
Read these first — they'll make every session click:
- 📖 How to Hold a Chef's Knife — the pinch grip vs. handle grip, with photos
- 📖 The 4 Knife Cuts Every Cook Should Know — the slice, chop, back-slice, and rock chop
Rule for the week: Hone your knife before every session. Non-negotiable.
Block 1 — Your Knife Is a Liar (And Your Hands Don't Know It Yet)
- Session 1: The Pinch Grip
- Session 2: The Claw
- Session 3: Rock Chop vs. Push Cut
- Session 4: Mise en Place
- ⏰ Service 1: French Onion Soup
Block 2 — Cuts Have Names. Learn Them.
The grip is feeling more natural. Now we add vocabulary and intentionality to the cuts themselves.
- Session 5: The Julienne
- Session 6: The Dice (Small, Medium, Large)
- Session 7: Breaking Down a Whole Chicken
- Session 8: Speed Benchmark
- ⏰ Service 2: Provençal Vegetable Tian
Optional: Go Deeper
These aren't required reading — but if something from this block sparked a question, here's where to go.
Food Safety Fundamentals
This block handles raw shrimp (Session 3), raw pork (Session 5), and a whole raw chicken (Session 7). Before you get there, it's worth having these down:
- Cross-contamination: Use a separate cutting board for raw proteins, or wash and dry thoroughly between uses. Raw chicken juice on a board you then use for vegetables is a genuine hazard.
- Safe temperatures: Chicken must reach 165°F internal. Pork shoulder: 145°F minimum. Shrimp: cook until just pink and opaque throughout — no thermometer needed, but don't guess on poultry or pork.
- Refrigerator shelf life: Raw shrimp: 1–2 days. Chicken: 1–2 days. Pork shoulder: 3–5 days. Buy the whole chicken for Session 7 the day before you plan to break it down.
- 📖 USDA Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart — print it and stick it on the fridge.
Watching a Pro Do It
- 📺 Jacques Pépin — Proper Knife Skills for Cutting, Chopping and Slicing (KQED) — The grip, the motion, the board control — all visible at real speed from someone who's done it ten thousand times. Watch this once at the start of the block and again at the end to see how much you've absorbed.
Buying & Maintaining Your Knife
- 📖 The Best Chef's Knives — Serious Eats' tested roundup. Short answer: an 8" German-style knife (Wüsthof or Victorinox) to start.
- 📖 German vs. Japanese Chef's Knives — What's the Difference? — harder steel, thinner bevel on Japanese; softer, more robust, easier to maintain on German.
- 📖 How to Store Your Knives — magnetic strip vs. block vs. in-drawer protectors. The dishwasher is the enemy.
The Broader Concept: Mise en Place
- 📖 How to Set Up a Prep Station Like a Pro Cook — Session 4 introduces the habit; this shows you what it looks like fully applied in a professional kitchen.
A Book Worth Having
- 📚 The Food Lab by J. Kenji López-Alt — The first chapter covers knife skills and mise en place with the same scientific rigour as everything else in the book. If you're going to own one reference book for this program, this is it.