New book: "An Edge in the Kitchen"

[FabulousFoodBabe]

Congratulations, Chad! I wish I had your book now -- I'm teaching some classes and am constantly asked how someone can learn better knife techniques. We dont have enough time to do more than the basics in class -- right now. I hope it's a huge success and will come to your book signings. (Are you going to carve a big 'x' with your favorite knife? Maybe a bloody thumbprint ...)

Seriously: The only books I really know of are professional-type and kind of dry. I'm very much looking forward to this!

[Toliver]

As much as I enjoy your salt cellar avatar, you realize you're going to have to change it to something knife-related now.

[MARTHA]Self-promotion is a good thing[/MARTHA]

[Chad]

As much as I enjoy your salt cellar avatar, you realize you're going to have to change it to something knife-related now.

[MARTHA]Self-promotion is a good thing[/MARTHA]

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Hmmm, perhaps something like this:

Chad

[joiei]

Thanks, Brooks!

Now to rehearse: 'Tis but a scratch. I've had worse. 

Chad

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Chiming in with kudos and a couple of comments. "It's just a flesh wound!" "I'm not dead yet!"

And I really think you should go with these bandages instead, if you don't mind my saying so.

Thanks for making The Heartland and the hometown look good.

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I have some of those, talk about fun. and the sushi ones are also pretty cool, but the BACON bandages, they rule.

[Chad]

A quick update and a sneak peak for those interested. The book is nearly finished. A cross-country move slowed me down considerably. If that wasn't enough, a week before my photo shoot I had a nasty accident with a broken wine glass. Would you take knife advice from a guy with stitches in his hand? Publication date is now spring of '08. I finished up the marathon photo shoot this week and have been editing pictures into 4-5 shot sequences to demonstrate various techniques. I think they've turned out pretty well.

Chad

[Anna N]

A quick update and a sneak peak for those interested. The book is nearly finished. A cross-country move slowed me down considerably. If that wasn't enough, a week before my photo shoot I had a nasty accident with a broken wine glass. Would you take knife advice from a guy with stitches in his hand?  Publication date is now spring of '08. I finished up the marathon photo shoot this week and have been editing pictures into 4-5 shot sequences to demonstrate various techniques. I think they've turned out pretty well.

. . .

Chad

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Congratulations, Chad. And yes, the photos are looking good.

[Gabriel Lewis]

Congratulations Chad, looks like your going to do a great job.

It seems like you would know about all the various internet knife forums, but your Tojiro DP comments made me wonder. Are you familiar with Fred's Cutlery Forum? A ton of knowledgeable and helpful people on there; they've been pushing the Tojiro DP series for years, and recommend DP to anyone on a budget. Some of them might take you up on it being better than Misono UX-10 though. A forum member there also recommended the misono molybdenum series as a great value.

[Chad]

Thanks for the kind words, folks. Getting close to the end is exciting. I think the photos are looking really good.

As for the Tojiro vs. Misono statements earlier -- the Tojiros are excellent knives for the price. For $50 for the basic 8" chef's knife, you can't go wrong. At $200 or more, the Misonos are held to a higher standard. They have beautiful fit and finish and better blades, but the balance is off for me. They, like the Glestains, are a bit handle heavy. I prefer blade heavy knives. My go-to knives at the moment are a 240mm custom handled Artisan, a 270mm Takeda, a 270mm Nenox S1 and an $85 MAC MTH-80, which has the best blade geometry I've ever seen.

Chad

[Chad]

I just got sample pages today. This is what the title page will look like. I think it's pretty f'ing sexy.

Chad

[Anna N]

Way to go, Chad! I wish you loads and loads of sales and awards.

[Chad]

Thanks!

I know that in addition to the Hertzmann book out now (the illustrated one) there's going to be another knife book out about the same time. Yikes. I can only hope that large, friendly pictures and a little humor put mine out front. Keep your fingers crossed.

Chad

[kbjesq]

When and where can advance copies be ordered? I so need this book.

If the rest of the photographs are anywhere near as nice as the photos that you posted upthread, we are really in for a treat.

[Chad]

I don't know about advance orders, but the book should hit the shelves about mid-May, as I understand it, so it should be orderable (is that even a word?) from Amazon and the like probably around Christmas.

Had to add one more photo just because it's such a cool shot.

Chad

[kbjesq]

Very, very cool!!!

Maybe after I read your book, I will have the courage to replace my knives, all of which have been ruined by the "Chef's Choice" electric knife sharpener. (In my defense, it was recommended by CI!!!)

[NewEnglandSteve]

Ecellent job! I'm really excited for you. I can't wait to get my hands on a copy!

[Porthos]

Chad,

What an exciting time for you. Next spring can't come soon enough. I just let my sweet wife know that I would be buying your book as soon as it becomes available.

Cheers,

[Octaveman]

Yep, very cool. Looking forward to checking it out. How many pages?

[Hest88]

Wow, those photographs are great! I can't wait until this is published.

[aaguirrejr]

Wow, those photographs are great! I can't wait until this is published.

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yeah, these are looking great!! any updates?

[Chad]

Wow, those photographs are great! I can't wait until this is published.

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yeah, these are looking great!! any updates?

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Yep, everything is on track. The publishing process just moves very, very slowly. The advance reader's copies are out to blurb prospects -- you know, the people who say things like "I laughed, I cried, it became a part of me" on the back cover. Final corrections are done (I think) and my Amazon link is live, though the cover isn't up yet.

Final specs:

• 224 pages plus a 48-page color insert
  
• 7-3/8" x 9-1/4" hardback
  
• B&W photos & illustrations throughout
  
• $34.95 list, but Amazon has it for $23.07. So much for my 2nd home on the Riviera
  
• Official publication date is June 10. I hope it'll be available a little before that.
  

Here's the jacket flap copy, which I think turned out very well:

Why are most of us so woefully uninformed about our kitchen knives? We are intimidated by our knives when they are sharp, annoyed by them when they are dull, and quietly ashamed that we don’t know how to use them with any competence. For a species that has been using knives for nearly as long as we have been walking upright, that's a serious problem. An Edge in the Kitchen is the solution – an intelligent and delightful debunking of the mysteries of kitchen knives, once and for all. If you can stack blocks you can cut restaurant quality diced vegetables. If you can fold a paper airplane you can sharpen your knives better than many professionals.

Veteran cook Chad Ward provides an in-depth guide the most important tool in the kitchen, including choosing the best kitchen knives in your price range, practical tutorials on knife skills, a step-by-step section on sharpening, and more — all illustrated with beautiful photographs throughout. Along the way you will discover what a cow sword is, and why you might want one; why chefs are abandoning their heavy German knives in droves; and why the Claw and the Pinch, strange as they may sound, are in fact the best way to make precision vegetable cuts with speed and style.

An Edge in the Kitchen is the one-and-only guide to the most important tool in the kitchen. 

Chad Ward has been a writer and cook for more than 20 years. To date, more than 300,000 people have taken Chad’s online knife sharpening class on eGullet.org. His writing has been published in publications ranging from Best Food Writing to Aviation International News. He lives in North Carolina.

Thanks for the interest and support, folks. I really appreciate it.

Chad

[Qwerty]

Nice work man--from the looks of it this may turn out to be a big hit.

[rjwong]

Chad,

I'll be keeping an eye out for your knife book at my nearby Costco store.

Are you going to do a book tour? Perhaps to Los Angeles, please? I know LA is not the Riviera. Mind you, Los Angeles does have a few good restaurants ...

I wish you great success on "An Edge in the Kitchen"!!

[Chad]

Hi, folks. I promise I'll keep the shameless shilling to a minimum, but if anyone is curious an excerpt from the Introduction is up on chadwrites.com/An Edge in the Kitchen. The Table of Contents is also available if you'd like to take a look.

Looks like I'll be doing a Q&A here on eGullet (yay!), which should be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to it, so start getting your questions ready.

Take care,

Chad

[mrsadm]

Sounds like a great book, Chad! Congratulations. I'll be looking forward to it. I really enjoyed your piece about knives on egullet.

[Chad]

Thanks! Just three weeks now until it hits the shelves. Then comes the fame, the fortune, my own small southsea island, the embarrassingly self-indulgent public behavior, the rehab -- I can hardly wait!

Chad