The Five Knife Cuts Every Home Cook Needs

Better knife work is the fastest way to upgrade your cooking. Master these five cuts and your weeknights start to look professional.

Most home cooks use one cut for everything: chunks. The rough chop is fine for soups, but it punishes you the moment you try to stir-fry, pan-roast, or build a salad with even cooking. Five cuts cover almost every situation. Slice, julienne, brunoise, chiffonade, and bias.

Slice means even thickness, almost always with the food held in a claw grip. Julienne is matchsticks for stir-fries and slaws. Brunoise is the smallest dice for refined soups and sauces. Chiffonade is for soft herbs and lettuce, rolled into a tight cigar and sliced. Bias means cutting on a sharp angle to expose more surface area, ideal for searing scallions or carrots.

Practice on a single onion every night for a week. Slice the first half, julienne the second. By Friday you will not need to think about it. The real reward is not speed, it is consistency. Pieces of equal size cook at the same rate, which means dinner stops surprising you in bad ways.