Essential Knife Skills: Prep Like a Pro

Overview:

The chef’s knife is a kitchen staple, yet it’s often the least understood and most intimidating tool we use daily. In this hands-on session, Chef Cheo Smith will cover the essentials: how to select, care for and sharpen your knives and the technical "why" behind classic French cuts. He will show how precision goes beyond aesthetics — that consistent knife work ensures even cooking and builds safe habits.

Learn the technique of sharpening with a whetstone — how to reshape a bevel and the difference between sharpening and honing — while identifying which common sharpening tools can actually compromise a blade’s edge. Students will practice foundational movements, including dicing, julienne, safe chopping as well as how to trim, portion and slice meats. This class will provide the technical vocabulary and physical mechanics necessary for any cook to work with greater speed, safety and intentionality.

In this class you will learn: 

• How grip, stance and body mechanics help and hurt your knife skills
• Maintenance and restoration: whetstone sharpening vs. honing and what to avoid
• Foundational vegetable geometry: mastering the dice, chop, julienne and chiffonade
• Advanced precision techniques: executing brunoise and paysanne for elevated garnishes

On the Menu: 

• Spring Harvest Salad with Shaved Radish and Julienne Snap Peas: a study in texture and precision, focusing on uniform vegetable preparation
• Poulet à la Provençale: braised chicken with a hand-cut mirepoix, white wine, olives, caper, and lemon, demonstrating clean slicing for proteins
• Fresh Mango with Lime and Chili: a technical exploration of processing one of the kitchen’s most challenging stone fruits
• Lychee-Thai Basil Cooler: a Southeast Asian-inspired refresher featuring muddled cucumber and aromatic herbs.

At the end of class, a tasting lunch of all recipes will be served.

Please note:  We are unable to accommodate individualized changes to the menu.

Instructor: 

Chef Cheo Smith brings his experience in kitchens of all sizes — from the home oven to producing hundreds of school lunches a day, and now, to the Farm at the Arb. A Minnesota native, Cheo is a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate and descendant of the White Earth Nation. He seeks to bridge the gaps in access and knowledge that prevent many people from getting farm fresh ingredients to their dinner table. His mission is to make preparing great tasting and healthy foods accessible to the home cook.