CHEF'S TIPS: Three Sacred Chef Rules Every Cook Should Know

Knife Skills

Proper knife technique is always advisable - Chef Jessie

Knife skills are the first thing you learn in a professional kitchen. Whenever I saw cooks wrestling with a red pepper using a dull blade, I’d put them straight onto knife-heavy prep: basic cuts, again and again, until they got it right. Most of the truly gruesome injuries I witnessed on the job, or patched up before rushing a bleeding cook to A&E, didn’t come from knives at all. They came from rotary slicers or the sharp edges of tins.

I made sure my cooks were properly equipped: a good chef’s knife, a flexible fillet knife for fish, an offset serrated knife and a paring knife. Some butchering hotshots also carried the super-skinny remnants of blades they’d ground down into something resembling a jail-house shank, using them to scrape meat cleanly off the bone.

On Lists

I’m a big believer in lists. They focus the mind and provide a reliable reference point. When I worked in restaurant kitchens, the first thing I did each morning was write the day’s prep lists, go through the refrigerators to see what I had, what needed to be used quickly, and what was missing.

I’m also a strong believer in forward motion. A less-than-great decision is better than no decision at all, or endless dithering. Improvise. Adapt. Move forward. And remember this: credit and blame accrue to the chef in equal measure. If your subordinates fail, it’s your failure. Blaming others is loathsome and, in itself, a form of failure.

On Punctuality

I devoted an entire chapter of one of my books to my old mentor, Pricey, whom I described as “a bully, a yenta, a sadist and a mensch,  the most stand-up guy I ever worked for.” Pricey had one rule: arrive 15 minutes early for your shift.

The first time I arrived 14 minutes early, I was warned. The next time, I was told I’d be sent home and lose the shift. The time after that, I’d be fired. I was never late again, for any job, and I instituted the same policy in my own kitchens.

To this day, I’m pathologically early for everything, business or social. Arrival time is an expression of respect; it reveals character and discipline. Technical skills can be learned. Character you either have, or you don’t.