1. Living Independently Cooking Basics

2. 1. Safety and Sanitation: hair hands station 2
1. Safety and Sanitation: hair hands station 2. Teamwork: Cooking cleaning serving cleaning

3. How to measure liquid and dry/solid ingredients

4. Knife Skills AKA – how not to chop off your finger in the kitchen
Know this:
How to hold the knife
How to hold the food
How to position your fingers

5. Pinch Grip – Knife hold
Pinch the back end of the blade between your first finger and thumb, one on each side.
Wrap your other fingers around the handle of the knife.
This gives a firm, safe grip.

6. Bear Claw Grip – Food hold
Curl fingers to make a claw shape.
Tuck your pinky and thumb back to prevent cutting.
Rest the blade against your knuckle or flat of the finger.
Move food toward knife with thumb.

7. How to dice an onion Pinch grip knife Bear claw Onion
Make slices in the onion
Turn and slice other direction
Smaller slices = smaller pieces

8. How to mince garlic Pinch grip knife
Put other hand over point of knife
Keep point of blade on board
Rock knife through garlic
Turn and rock knife in other direction
Run through garlic multiple times to achieve mince

9. How to slice on the bias
Bias cutting is turning the food to a 45° and cutting.
DO NOT angle/turn the knife, only the food

10. Safety Tips
Keep your knives sharp. Dull knives can slip while you’re cutting. Also, you’re more apt to be careful with sharp knives.
Slice away from your hand and keep your fingers clear of the blade. Slicing away from your hand prevents an accidental cut if the knife slips.
Don’t ever use the palm of your hand as a cutting board. That’s just inviting the knife to slice into your hand!
When mincing, keep the tip of your knife on the cutting board and pump the handle up and down quickly. However, because that knife is moving fast, be extra careful about your fingers.
Curl your fingers under and hold the food with your fingertips when chopping. Better to ding a knuckle than slice a fingertip!