Category: Cooking

Knife Sharpening Class with Dave Martell

Why would anyone drive 9 hours from Toronto to the middle of Pennsylvania and pay $150 for a 1-day course on knife sharpening? Because Dave Martell really knows his stuff, teaches well, and learning from him will save you years and tons of money trying to learn to sharpen knives really well on your own. [...]

Monday October 10th, 2011 in How-To & Techniques | 3 Comments »

What Is Authentic Cuisine, Really?

The question of culinary authenticity has dogged me for years. In fact, it has dogged me since the day I decided to properly learn how to cook. I began my pre-cooking days by blindly applying heat to ingredients to make such classics as Shake’n Bake pork chops and macaroni in Campbells chicken noodle or minestrone [...]

Sunday October 9th, 2011 in How-To & Techniques, Tastes & Experiences | Comments Off

Disappointing to Hear a Chef Say He Hates What He Does

Some people are in the food business because they love food. Other people are in the food business only because they feel they have to be. Unfortunately the latter type is almost always going to outnumber the former type. That doesn’t make it any less disappointing to hear that a chef-owner whom I know personally [...]

Sunday October 2nd, 2011 in News & Commentary, Tastes & Experiences | Comments Off

I’m Just Not Happy with My Edges

I’m just not happy with the edges that I’m putting on my knives. Though I have been sharpening my own knives for a while now, and I can tell that I am improving, I still have a long, long way to go before I’ll be able to say that my edges are good. I didn’t [...]

Sunday October 2nd, 2011 in How-To & Techniques | Comments Off

Gonna travel to Pennsylvania for a Knife Sharpening Class

I’ve been telling friends and family that I’m heading down to Pennsylvania for a 1-day knife sharpening class. In almost every case, people have either given me quizzical looks or straight out asked me “Why?” Dave Martell of Japanese Knife Sharpening in Fleetwood, Pennsylvania is a professional knife sharpener who has established a strong reputation [...]

Sunday September 25th, 2011 in How-To & Techniques | 1 Comment »