By Jamie Drummond

The New Year is always a good time to invest in some new knives for the kitchen, so this week we speak with Zwilling J.A. Henckels Executive Chef Jeffrey Elliot. Jeffrey gives us a quick guide to purchasing the knife that is most suitable for your needs… quite fascinating actually… I learned quite a bit!

If you happen to have been lucky enough to have received some good kitchen knives over the holidays then you’d do well to pick up a copy of Jeffrey’s Knife Skills book…

The Complete Book of Knife Skills – Jeffrey Elliot and James P. DeWan ($34.95)
I have always fancied myself as a skilled sharps man in the kitchen, but the truth of the matter is that I have destroyed more perfectly good food, and cut more fingers than you would possibly believe. Over the years I have attempted to remedy this through the purchase of a number of books on knife skills, but have always found them to be quite difficult to follow… normally leading to even more devastation of both foodstuffs and digits as I attempt to read and chop at the same time… never a good idea. This particular tomb is altogether different from those I had previously purchased, with explicit colour photographs (often annotated) of every single step of the particular process in question. I think that this would make a wonderful gift for any budding home cook, perhaps coupling it with a good Chef’s knife from Zwilling J. A. Henckels.

Edinburgh-born/Toronto-based Sommelier, consultant, writer, judge and educator Jamie Drummond is the Director of  Programs/Editor of Good Food Revolution… and after last night’s dinner party he has decided that he would like a sharpening stone.

This video is made possible through the kind support of Fortessa Canada/Schott Zwiesel