Playing with Knives

I'm pretty handy in the kitchen. But, my collection of cookbooks and Slow Food membership attest to the fact that I'm always up for learning more by way of the culinary arts. So, when The Neighborhood Kitchen Culinary Arts school opened a stone's throw away from my home, I was quick to pick up their course catalog.

What to take? A wine class? Nah - I can swirl and sip on my own time. A Vietnamese cooking class? Maybe.

Then I saw it - Knife Skills. I have a nifty collection of knives in my kitchen, but I've always wanted to slice, dice and mince at lightning speed - just like the pros on The Food Network.

Unfortunately, after tonight's class, I'm still green with envy.

Described as a three-hour class, the hands-on lesson only ended up mounting to a paltry two. And, more than half of the time was spent preparing a rather basic meal based on the few ingredients we'd cut up, rather than focusing on the topic at du jour - KNIFE SKILLS. Would you believe that they only gave us ONE knife to work with? Where were the deboning knives and the paring knives?

C'mon. Don't offer a class dedicated to the artistry of the knife and leave me to only wield one.

Then again - one was plenty for the Bobbits.