Your best friend in the kitchen.

A friend asked if I thought she needed a food processor in order to cook. I said no immediately. Expensive equipment and fancy utensils are fine, but are not necessary and they create more work than they are worth. First, you must find a place to store it, and then when you do want to use it, you have to remember where you put it and you have to go and get it. Often the equipment has many different parts that must be found if you did not store them all together, and then you have to assemble it before you can use it. Once done, you have to take it apart, wash all of the parts, and then put everything away again. That is just a lot of hassle for not a lot of timesavings.

The only piece of equipment you need is an exceptional knife. Buy the highest quality, most expensive, high carbon stainless steel chef’s knife you can afford. Do not go for a cheap or inexpensive knife because you will always regret it. A great knife makes cooking a pleasure because cutting will be a lot less effort.

Also, be sure to buy a diamond sharpening steel to realign the blade before you use it. Before each use, hold the knife at a 45-degree angle to the steel and slowly slide the knife the entire length of the steel. This puts the edge back on the knife. Once or twice a year, depending on how much you cook, get it professionally sharpened. Do not trust your knives to just anyone; someone that does not know what he is doing can ruin a perfectly good knife and your knife was too expensive to lose it because someone sharpened it incorrectly. I only use www.mrleonardknifesharpener.com/. His service and turn around time is excellent.

Cooking is easier than you think and if you are armed with a great knife, cooking can become a pleasure.

Cooking is easier than you think and you are worth the time and effort it takes.

Simple cooking idea: Do not let your knives bang against other items during cleaning and storage. The banging will dull your knives and might even nick the blade.

Copyright ©2010 by Gigi Centaro. All Rights Reserved.