The techniques of cooking preparation with the knowledge of kitchen tools

One of the fundamental knowledge of culinary art is the basic knowledge of cooking preparation with the knowledge of kichen tools and also the knowledge of the following:

• Food Safety
• Knife Skills and Basic Knife Cuts
• Cooking Principles

Food saftey is very important in the techniques of learning culinary art. With the knowledge of food safety, a culinarian may abide by the food safety rules and help minimize the rate of incuring food poisoning.The first process is by identifying certain cooking assessories and tools maintenance and gems contamination prevention. example is ,by knowing the right material for cutting board , your spices and vegetables will be prevented from contamination. Food safety is a scientific and academic discipline which portrays the way to handle things, prepare things and storage procedures which prevents foodborne illness or food poisoning.

There are number of procedures to go about preventing major health hazards. Food safety includes the learning of the origin of foods, practices in food labeling,food hygiene,pesticide residues, food additives and policies of biotechnology.

It also includes the management and control of imports and exports of certification systems for food.

According to the world health organization (WHO), there are five principles of food hygiene.
1. One should be able to prevent contaminated food with pathogens spreading from people, pets and pests.
2. Raw foods must be seperated from cooked foods to prevent contaminating the cooked foods.
3. Food must be cooked to reach the appropriate length of time and at the appropriate temperature to kill pathogens.
4. Food must be stored at the proper temperature.
5. Safe water and cooked materials must be used.

Other critical factors include food acidity, the time, temperature , oxygen and moisture and the water activity. Other bacterials to consider studying are Clostridium botulinum, E. coli, Hepatitis A, Salmonella and Listeria. With knowledge of these petty informations, one is on the right track acquiring the knowledge of food safety.

Other parasitic pathogens to consider are Blastocystis, Cryptosporidiosis and Trichinosis.
One must also know the ISO 22000 standard by the International Organiztion for Standardization dealing with food safety. This standard requires one to use the standardization process like interactive communication, system management, prerequisite programs and the Hazard Analysis and critical control points.

In 2003 the World health organizaton and the Food and Agricultural organization published the Codex Alimentarius which serves as a guideline for food safety.



Knife Skills and Basic Knife Cuts

The chef's knife is one of the most important tools a chef could get. As a chef, your knowledge of knives , especially the best ones, will make your chef life very easy.One off the most important questions to ask are
(i) What is the right metal knife material to buy
(ii) What are the right and best sizes of knives to start with.

Before we talk about the right metal knife and other characteristics of best knives. You should know that, the best knife is the one you can afford to buy. it all based on your choice price. from low grade knives to high grade quality knives.

What is the right metal knife and material to buy? 

The best knife material is stainless steel. Since knives are always used in the kitchen and are always faced with water and air, stainless steel knives are the best knives to use. Apart from the durability of the material, the strength,endurance and good handling are also the factors to consider when selecting a quality knife. To be able to identify these qualities are the best ways to acquire quality knives. In other to identify a stainless steel material , one must test the material with the four types of testing techniques. Magnet testing, spark testing,hardness testing and acid testing. There is also an article about the top 10 most reviewed kitchen knives.


What are the right and best sizes of knives to start with?

A good basic kit for an average domestic kitchen would include:
An all-purpose utility knife (13cm / 5 inches) – used for a range of foods; often a choice for the first knife as it can do many things.
A chef's knife (20-23cm / 7.8–9 inches) – used for chopping, dicing, mincing, and cutting.
A vegetable or paring knife (8cm / 3") – used for peeling, cutting, and trimming small items of food that you hold in the hand (such as trimming small potatoes).
A bread knife (serrated) – used for bread, cake, fruit, and tomatoes.
A cleaver – used for meat, and a smaller version for chopping herbs, etc. Only buy if you need to chop serious pieces of meat.
A filleting knife – helps to fillet fish. Only buy if you intend on filleting; most people don't bother anymore but buy food ready filleted.
A carving knife – used for getting thin and even slices of meat from roasts, full roasted poultry, etc.
Sharpening steel, knife-honing stone, or electric honer.You can also start with the top 5 kitchen knife sets.

Basic techniques and skills in using the kitchen knives.

Gripping the Knife: A chef must know how to hold  kitchen knife and how to grip the food or vegetable with the other hand and best way to avoid cutting your hand. The chef must grip the knife from the inside of the thumb-side of the cutting hand.

The thumb should grip the knife at the top of the blade with the hand wrapped on the bolster of the blade. You must practice this holding technique until you are familiar with it. On the other side of the hand holding the knife, the index finger is wrapped fully around the blade. The index finger and the thumb should be place on the knife opposite at each other remaining the other three fingers holding firmly on the knife's handle as shown on the picture.

After knowing how to hold and grip the knife with your first hand, the other hand must be able to hold your food or vegetable well for cutting.

Your other hand is your guiding hand. The purpose of the other hand is to hold the food firmly on the chopping board for accurate cutting on the board. This hand is in a dangerous position because any distraction and  your hand will be sliced. The chef must be careful with every single stroke made on the food while cutting. As time goes one with more cutting and accuracy, experience will be gained.

Cooking Principles

Cooking principles deals with various cooking techniques like dry heat, moist heat and other cooking techniques. One must know the main basic cooking methods. These are two categories in the culinary arts and skills.
1. Dry heat cooking which implies roasting, broiling and sauteing.
2. Moist heat cooking which involves braising, steaming or poaching.

Every cooking method either uses the dry heat or the moist heat or both. By classifying them in this way, the chef is knowledgeable of the type of foods and their cooking types.