samk77•7d ago

A dishwasher at my spot in Portland told me he'd never seen a chef sharpen a knife on the line before.

It made me realize how much the simple, daily act of keeping a blade ready has faded from the routine in a lot of kitchens now.

3 comments

3 Comments

the_anthony7d ago

My first kitchen job in Chicago, the head chef would test the new guys by handing them a dull paring knife. If you didn't sharpen it before prepping onions, you were done for the day. That basic skill was the first thing they taught you. Now I see cooks using a knife until it's basically a butter spreader. It slows down every single task and makes the work harder. When did letting your tools go to crap become normal?

leewalker7d ago

I heard about a place where the house knives were so dull the cooks would just tear lettuce by hand to avoid using them. The manager finally bought a sharpener but nobody knew how to use it, so it sat in the box for a year. The real joke is they probably spent more on bandaids for slip injuries than a single decent sharpening stone would have cost.

angelaw786d agoMost Upvoted

Man, that's just painful to read. I've seen the same thing happen where a dull blade makes you push way too hard, and then it finally slips. Of course they spent a fortune on bandaids, because a sharp knife actually feels safer to use. It's crazy how something so simple gets ignored until it costs real money.