umab86•12d ago

Shoutout to the old timers who taught me knife skills before I burned my hand

I used to think holding a chef's knife like a fist was fine. Spent 6 years doing it that way, no issues. Then last winter I was breaking down a case of butternut squash and my grip slipped, knife glanced off the skin and got my left index finger right near the knuckle. 11 stitches and a week off the line. My sous chef, Marco, finally showed me the pinch grip on day 3 of my recovery. Weird thing is, I'd seen him do it a hundred times but never asked why. Now I can't go back. Anyone else have a basic skill they ignored until a stupid injury forced them to learn it the right way?

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karen_sanchez1011d ago

Funny how that works, right? I had a similar thing with my thumb placement on my non-knife hand. Always tucked my thumb in weird, kinda on top of the food instead of behind my knuckles. Never thought twice about it until I shaved off a good chunk of my nail and part of the pad slicing herbs super fast. It didn't even hurt at first, just felt warm, then I looked down and saw the mess. Now I'm all about that claw grip and I still get a little flashback every time I grab a bunch of cilantro.