Nifty Knives

Today I went to a Hands on Knife Skills Class at La Cuisine in Old Town Alexandria. La Cuisine is the most amazing little gourmet cooking shop. This tiny shop manages to carry every cooking/baking tool known to man in addition to several ingredients like baking chocolate, oils, spices and salts. Their prices were reasonable which is rare in regards to a specialty store. The quaint atmosphere was inviting and the owner (or who I believed to be the owner) Nancy was extremely well-informed and seemed to be an expert on every subject. I could have spent all day shopping around. Below are a few picture I took of the inside of the shop.

The Spices

The Baking Tools

The class was taught by Joe Raffa the Executive Chef at Oyamel in DC and he was great. He was extremely personable, very knowledgeable and had an array of interesting stories about cooking and the restaurant business. During the three hour course he walked us through knife construction, knife safety, knife cleaning, how to properly hold a knife and several cutting techniques. The class was very hands on and we spent the entire time working with vegetables at the cutting board. Below are some of the techniques we learned:

Chiffonade

Dicing

Julienning

Shredding
How to use the Knife Steel to bring the Edge Back

These were just some of the many things we learned during today's class. Although I had seen many of the techniques on TV and have used them it was nice to have someone explain the mechanics behind them and properly demonstrate the right way to approach the technique. Joe was awesome at answering all of my questions and giving me ideas on how to correct some of the mistakes I make when using my knives at home.

I really had a great time at the class and am so happy to have enrolled. This class wet my appetite for group learning about my favorite subject and I can't wait to take another cooking technique class. I will visit La Cuisine's Website and see what other classes they offer!