Knives: A chef's essential tools

As British food historian Bee Wilson observes in her recent book, "Technology in the kitchen has remained a matter of life and death." As she points out, the two basic processes of cooking--slicing and heating--are inherently dangerous.

"Kitchens are places of violence," Wilson explains. "People get burned, scarred, frozen, and above all, cut." Culinary knives, for example, are not far removed from weapons. As she puts it, "These are tools designed to break, disfigure, and mutilate, even if all you are cutting is a carrot."

This point was driven home to me recently when I was given a set of knives. Though they are those new-fangled color-coated Komachi knives, they nonetheless represent a class of tools that is the oldest in the cook's arsenal--older than even the management of fire, says Wilson. "Cutting with some implement or other is the most basic way of processing food," she asserts.

I vaguely knew this, but what I did not know until I read Wilson's book is how crucial the knife has been in the development of our culinary worldview. It turns out knives and different approaches to using them are responsible for what by common consensus are the two greatest cuisines of the world: French and Chinese.

Consider first Chinese cuisine, where a style of eating and cooking originated with a single knife, the Chinese cleaver. Regarding it, Wilson declares, "Perhaps no knife is quite as multifunctional, nor quite as essential to an entire food culture. . . ." If you've ever watched a Chinese cooking show on television, you'll see what she means. A good Chinese chef can prepare an entire banquet using just this one knife.

Though they come in a rainbow of colors, these Komachi knives are modern-day versions of tools that are the oldest in a cook’s arsenal. (TOM HARTE)

As anthropologist E. N. Anderson observes, the cleaver can be used to gut and scale fish, slice vegetables, mince meat, and crush garlic, not to mention, in a non-culinary vein, split firewood, cut fingernails, sharpen pencils, whittle chopsticks, and shave.

The upshot of all this is the cleaver made possible a form of cooking distinguished by the amalgamation of flavors through precise chopping, the essence of Chinese cuisine. More importantly, the cleaver produces a style of eating that doesn't require the diner to use cutlery at all. No wonder the Chinese consider using a knife at the table uncivilized. All one needs when presented with uniformly chopped bits of food is chopsticks, which in the Chinese mind are more refined, not more primitive, than knives and forks.

This approach contrasts considerably with what developed in France. As Wilson notes, French cuisine is not only a cuisine of sauces, but also one requiring specialized knives and precise cutting. "French food, no matter how simple, has meticulous knife work behind it," she says. Hence, the French have a knife for just about everything--ham knives, cheese knives [including one just for blue cheese], boning knives, fruit knives, fish knives, julienning knives and tournet knives [beak-shaped knives for transforming potatoes into oblong spheres], just to name a few.

Consequently, the world's two great cuisines represent two "sharply" divergent culinary worldviews: one is a culture of chopping and the other a culture of carving. And each is the result of a particular way with knives, each providing a unique edge in the kitchen.

Cherry Tomatoes filled with Diced Vegetables

This colorful recipe, adapted from ifood.tv, though simple, demands finely honed knife skills.

10 tablespoons + 1/4 teaspoon water

2 1/4 teaspoons arrowroot

4 teaspoons olive oil

2 1/2 teaspoons lime juice

2 1/2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

1/8 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

1/2 garlic clove, minced

1 tablespoon chopped basil

1 1/2 teaspoons chopped parsley

1 1/2 teaspoons chopped chives

16 cherry tomatoes

1 peeled carrot

2 green onions

1 medium zucchini

1 stalk celery

Combine arrowroot with 2 1/4 teaspoons cold water. Bring the remaining 1/2 cup water to a boil. Whisk in arrowroot mixture to thicken water. Let cool. Stir in oil, lime juice, vinegar, Tabasco sauce, garlic, and herbs. Wash tomatoes and pat dry. Slice off top third of each tomato and scrape out seeds. Dice remaining vegetables into 1/4 inch pieces. Toss vegetables with dressing and fill tomatoes. Refrigerate until serving time.

Tom Harte's book, "Stirring Words," is available at local bookstores. A Harte Appetite airs Fridays 8:49 a.m. on KRCU, 90.9 FM. Contact Tom at semissourian.com or at the Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699.