I’ve been thinking about knife skills, not just what they are, but why they are. If you take a cooking class, the chef starts by teaching knife skills, so they must be important, right? But why?

Last week I learned, in passing conversation, that cutting foods into smaller pieces increases the amount of moisture available for tasting. Moisture turns out to be a vehicle that carries flavor molecules into your taste buds. So the more moisture, the more flavor. And that explains the appeal of my dad’s chopped salad; the relatively small pieces of lettuce, tomato, onion and other ingredients markedly increase the amount of flavor (and mixing of flavors!) released with every bite.

How does Chef Ira create that magic? With his knife.

So I watched a whole bunch of youtube videos on knife skills. I learned all about weight and balance, about chopping and dicing, and about protecting my fingers by making them into the shape of a spider that crawls backward along the celery stalk while the knife rocks back and forth to form uniform, bite-size pieces. I learned to peel half an onion in 1 second flat, to tell the stem from the root, and then to use that root to keep the onion together as I slice and dice.

I watched a few videos about mincing garlic. Henceforth, I will mince garlic in an imaginary quarter-circle area. Then, when the bits of garlic begin to stray from the 90 proscribed degrees of intention, I will use the back of the knife to draw them back together. At least I’ll try.

Why, then, are knife skills so valuable? Because we use them to increase flavor. Have you ever tasted something so good that you put down your fork and sat still, concentrating on the flavor and allowing it to run over your tongue, fill your mouth, satisfy your soul? On those happy occasions when this happens, I never find myself searching the kitchen cupboard afterward for a little bite of something extra. I am already thoroughly satisfied. Knife skills are everything.