Switched from pre-sharpened knives to a whetstone after a line cook told me my cuts looked sad

Been doing prep for like 8 years and always used those electric sharpeners or those pull-through things. Figured sharp is sharp. Then this kid fresh out of culinary school looks at my julienne and goes "dude, your knife is just bruising the peppers, not cutting them." Watched him run a $40 Kiwi over a 1000 grit stone for 5 minutes and suddenly that thing was slicing through tomatoes like butter. Bought a King stone that night and my veg prep time dropped by almost a third inside a week. Anybody else have that moment where you realized you been doing something basic completely wrong for years?

2 comments

2 Comments

betty_scott1821d ago

Was it hard getting used to the stone at first? I had a similar wake-up call a few years back when I was working prep at a diner. I always thought my knives were sharp enough because they cut through onions okay, but an old baker took one look at my tomato slices and just shook her head. She handed me her stone and showed me the angle, and after a few tries I saw the difference. Now I cannot go back to those pull-through sharpeners, they just tear up the edge too much. It is amazing how much faster and cleaner prep goes when you take that extra few minutes to keep the edge right.

willow73221d ago

betty_scott18 that thing about tomato slices hit home. I had a similar moment with bell peppers where I was fighting to get clean dice and my friend handed me a stone that had been sitting in a drawer for like a decade. Took me 20 minutes to not scratch the blade but once I figured it out I started slicing through peppers like they were wet paper. Now I keep a little 4000 grit stone in my bag just for touch ups during prep.