Good knife skills are the foundation of preparing food. Without a sharp knife and the knowledge to use it, you won’t get very far in the kitchen. These roadblocks keep you from trying new recipes and limit your options at the grocery store. Kitchen Knife Skills is an instructional app that empowers users to master the knife and become more self-reliant, adventurous home cooks.
Using proper knife skills is not just about chopping ingredients; it’s about becoming more safe, thrifty and efficient in the kitchen. Learning the correct way to cut up an apple reduces waste. Once you’ve mastered basic knife skills you can throw out the gadgets clogging up your kitchen drawers — no need for a garlic press, apple corer or fancy mango and avocado slicers. You’ll be more adventurous, trying exotic ingredients you may have been intimidated to tackle in the past (ginger, pineapple, lobster, whole fish). Kitchen Knife Skills has everything you need to learn: knowledgeable instructors, step-by-step video demonstrations, clever tips and a knife-buying guide.
Don’t let lacking knife skills hold you back in the kitchen, keep reading to learn more about this useful resource for home cooks.
Like the article? You should subscribe and follow us on twitter.
Getting Started
Launch the app and you’ll find a sharp, sleek interface with an attractive intro photo and a main menu that reads like the table of contents from a book. In this time of mobile innovation and regression of print publications, it seems a bit strange to model the app design after a book, but maybe the idea is that by using a familiar format the app becomes more approachable and easier for users to navigate.
The Kitchen Knife Skills app is designed like a book, with an attractive cover photo and easy-to-navigate table of contents.
From the home screen you can access each section of the app, beginning with the Preface, which introduces you to the authors and gives a bit of guidance on how to get started. Kitchen Knife Skills is a Betterbook app created by Open Air Publishing. These guys are dedicated to working with skilled experts to develop how-to e-books for touchscreen devices. Respected food magazine editor, Jane Kirby, authored the app, and Sarah Copeland, a Food Network alum, is the on-camera expert. Many instructional apps in the marketplace never mention who’s behind the content and why users should trust their expertise, so it’s great to see the focus on transparency in the Betterbook family of apps.
Chef’s Knives 101
The first chapter of the “book” is titled, “The Go-To-Gear.” Tap the title for an expanded view of the information found inside. Navigating the app is intuitive and you can use a variety of motions to move from one area to another. This app includes quite a bit of information, but they’ve smartly broken down the text into small bites interspersed with photos, interactive diagrams and slideshows. You can decide how deeply you want to drill into the content, and as you interact with the app, your experience becomes more interesting. The gear section is all about understanding the purpose of each knife type, general knife anatomy and choosing a cutting board.
Tap on a chapter, like “The Go-To-Gear,” for an expanded view of the information within, left. The app goes into great detail regarding knife types and anatomy, with special features like interactive diagrams, where you can tap to learn more, right.
The app is focused on giving you the facts so you can make your own informed decisions as to which knifes to buy. The amount of detail given is impressive, to the point where you can tap on words highlighted in red for more information, like a diagram, definition or translation from inches to centimeters.
Each knife has a detailed description left. Tap text highlighted in red for more information, like where to find the “belly” of the knife, right.
This section of the app has everything you ever wanted to know about knives. Including an extensive section on Japanese knives, complete with a lesson on the Japanese philosophy and knife-by-knife-type comparison between Japanese and Western style cutting implements.
Learn to Cut, Slice and Chop Anything
Return to the home screen and you’ll find chapters dedicated to each food type in the Operating Instructions section. Building on each lesson in true Betterbooks fashion, the app introduces Fundamental Form to teach you how to handle a knife safely before you get cooking. You’ll learn how to hold the knife safely, and the different types of cuts to make. Here, instructional videos demonstrate techniques like the “push pull cut” and the “rocking cut.” Kitchen Knife Skills goes above and beyond expectations by also providing interactive diagrams so you can break down the elements of each motion. They’ve even included step-by-step photographed instructions.
Basic knife cutting techniques are illustrated in a variety of ways: by video demonstration, left, and by interactive diagram, right.
Once you’ve completed Fundamental Form, you’re ready to tackle the Fruits, Vegetables, Poultry, Seafood and Red Meat chapters. Each chapter is broken down further by ingredient. For example, Vegetables includes artichokes, hot peppers, onions, potatoes, etc. Poultry includes cutting up chicken or turkey. Seafood includes working with whole fish, shrimp and lobster (sadly, no crab). It’s nice to see a focus on using the knife to prep food, as well as serve it — the Red Meat chapter gives lessons on carving bone-in ham and prime rib roast, among others.
Knife techniques are demonstrated in fun and informative videos, left. Each technique is accompanied by a tools guide which links to the knife description, right.
Each lesson is given by video demonstration and comes with a handy tools guide linking you to the knife descriptions. I must also mention that Sarah Copeland demonstrates the techniques with a great energy and the videos are fun and informative to watch.
Digging Deeper
The app finishes with a chapter on Caring for Your Knives and a Buying Guide. Knife sharpening is a source of intimidation for many home cooks, and this section does a great job of demystifying knife maintenance. In the same vein as the rest of the app, you’ll learn what equipment is needed and find useful diagrams paired with step-by-step photos to help you master the skills. The instructors go surprisingly deep, explaining the material makeup of knives, the difference between honing and sharpening as well as how to clean and store your knife.
The Caring for Your Knives section provides valuable information and diagrams on how to clean, maintain, and store your knives, left. The Buying Guide allows you to browse a selection of knives from Amazon, right.
The Buying Guide is an interesting feature that breaks knives down by type (chef’s knives, paring knives, bread knives, etc.) so you can shop from options available on Amazon. Scroll through the selection and tap purchase to leave the app and enter the Amazon store. Would you purchase a knife this way? I doubt it, but at least you can get an idea for what’s out there. If you’ve learned anything using Kitchen Knife Skills, it’s the importance of holding a knife in your hand to really know if it’s right for you.
Conclusion
Kitchen Knife Skills is unique when compared with other cooking apps in the market in the way it utilizes the mobile interface to enhance the learning experience. The app focuses on sharing information from credible experts with plenty of supportive videos, step-by-step photographic instructions and interactive diagrams, and this is an example of why Betterbook apps are well-worth the money. Invest in this app and trust that you’ll walk away with everything you need to master knife skills and become a more confident cook.