1 hour ago, dcarch said:Unless you work for a restaurant or a food supply business, there is no need to be fancy with knife skills. All the cutting onions 10 lbs in 10 seconds can be impressive, but no practical use in a normal kitchen. Rocking motion, slicing motion all can work well.
I'll agree if you're really talking about fancy skills (katsuramuki, making roses out of tomatoes, etc). But I'm talking about basic skills. Being quick and efficient, cutting food evenly to the sizes and shapes you want, and making clean cuts that best preserve the flavor and texture of the food. I think basic skills benefit everyone, and being better at them is always better than being worse.
For me personally, broadening and improving my skillset has allowed to me to enjoy prep, when previously I didn't. And it lets me get things done in half the time. Always significant! Part of the enjoyment is that I have an understanding of specific techniques, so when I'm doing something tedious, I can be consciously working on how to improve them.
As far as rocking or not rocking, it's entirely knife-dependent. Rock-chopping was developed for European knives, which are limited by metallurgy in how sharp they can practically get. It's a technique that allows you to put a lot of force behind the cut, and to amplify that force with shearing action against the cutting board. The knives likewise have been designed for the technique, with a big curve in the belly. If you have a knife made of thinner, harder steel, not only is rocking unnecessary, but it's undesirable. Such a forceful technique would ravage the edge; you'd have a dull knife within minutes. I never rock-chop with the thin gyuto in that shallot video. But I have a burly German knife with a deep belly that I use for rock-chopping woody herbs and other things that are unfriendly to a thinner blade.
