FOOD NEWS
Jacques Pépin's Tomato Trick To Test Your Kitchen Knives
By Margaret McCormick
As celebrity chef Jacques Pépin states in a Facebook video, an eight-inch chef's knife, a six- or seven-inch utility knife, and a four-inch paring knife are enough to accomplish most kitchen tasks. No matter how many you own, note that quality and sharpness come before quantity, as "a dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one," per Pépin.
According to Pépin, a great way to test how sharp your knives are is to grab a tomato — one that's nice and ripe — and slice into it. If your knife is sharp enough, it will neatly slice the tomato without resulting in a mess or shredded skin.
In the Facebook video, Pépin notes that the blade of a knife has tiny teeth, which get "out of whack" over time, and one of the best ways to "realign" them is to run the knife from top to bottom over a knife steel with a bit of pressure, repeating several times. Pépin is also a proponent of wood cutting boards as they won't dull your blades.