Knife Skills & Prep

Foundational Cut

Rough Chop

The rough chop is the most forgiving cut — irregular pieces of roughly similar size. It's what you reach for when the food is going to be cooked down, puréed, or strained. Think mirepoix for stock, vegetables for soup, or aromatics for a sauce that will be blended.

Roughly ½" to ¾" irregular pieces

Don't stress about uniformity. The goal is speed and approximate sizing so that everything cooks in the same timeframe. This is the one cut where perfection doesn't matter.

Stocks & broths Puréed soups Stews Sauce bases

Precision Cut

Dice — Small, Medium & Large

Dicing produces uniform cubes, and the size you choose depends on the dish. A large dice (¾" cubes) works for roasted vegetables and chunky salsas. Medium dice (½") is your all-purpose cut for soups, stews, and stir-fries. Small dice (¼") is for sauces, relishes, and anything where you want the ingredient to melt into the dish.

¼" / ½" / ¾" uniform cubes

Start by squaring off the vegetable to create flat, stable surfaces. Cut planks to your target thickness, stack the planks into sticks, then crosscut the sticks into cubes. Uniformity matters here — even pieces cook evenly.

Pro Tip

For onions, keep the root end intact. It holds the layers together while you make your horizontal and vertical cuts, making the final crosscut much cleaner.

Precision Cut

Julienne

Julienne — sometimes called "matchstick" — produces thin, uniform strips about 2–3 inches long and ⅛" thick. It's a beautiful, elegant cut that shows up in slaws, stir-fries, garnishes, and spring rolls. The uniformity isn't just aesthetic; it ensures everything cooks at the same rate.

⅛" × ⅛" × 2–3" matchsticks

Trim the vegetable into a rectangular block, then slice into thin planks. Stack a few planks and cut lengthwise into thin strips. A mandoline can speed this up enormously, but practice with a knife first to build your confidence.

Stir-fries Coleslaws Spring rolls Salad garnishes

Fine Cut

Brunoise

A brunoise is simply a julienne cut taken one step further — crosscut those matchsticks into tiny, uniform cubes of about ⅛". It's a fine, precise cut used in French cooking for garnishes, vinaigrettes, and elegant preparations where you want flavor distributed evenly without visible chunks.

⅛" × ⅛" × ⅛" fine cubes

This cut takes patience and a very sharp knife. Start with a clean julienne, gather the strips together, and make even crosscuts. It's not a cut you'll use every day, but when a recipe calls for it, the finished dish looks remarkably polished.

Herb & Leaf Cut

Chiffonade

Chiffonade is a technique for cutting leafy herbs and greens into delicate, thin ribbons. Stack the leaves, roll them tightly into a cigar shape, then slice crosswise into ribbons as thin as you like. The result is wispy, elegant strips perfect for finishing a dish.

Thin ribbons, roughly 1–2mm wide

This works beautifully with basil, mint, sage, spinach, and lettuce. For basil in particular, chiffonade just before serving — the cut edges darken quickly once exposed to air.

Pasta garnish Salad finisher Soup topping Cocktail garnish

Foundational Cut

Mince

Mincing produces the finest possible pieces — almost a paste. Garlic, ginger, shallots, and fresh herbs are the usual candidates. The goal is to break down the ingredient enough that it distributes evenly throughout a dish and essentially disappears into the sauce or mixture.

For garlic: crush the clove with the flat of your blade first to break the structure, then rock the knife back and forth over the pile, gathering it back together as you go. For herbs, use a sharp knife and avoid chopping repeatedly in the same spot, which bruises the leaves and turns them dark.

Pro Tip

Sprinkle a tiny pinch of coarse salt on garlic before mincing. The salt creates friction, helps break down the cells, and turns the garlic into a smooth paste much faster.

Angled Cut

Bias Cut (Oblique)

Cutting on the bias means slicing at an angle rather than straight across. For cylindrical vegetables like carrots, scallions, and celery, this exposes more surface area — which means more browning, faster cooking, and better sauce absorption.

Hold your knife at a 45-degree angle to the vegetable and slice. For a roll cut (also called oblique), rotate the vegetable a quarter turn between each angled cut to create irregular, multi-faceted pieces that look beautiful in braises and roasted vegetable dishes.

Braised vegetables Asian stir-fries Roasted carrots Scallion garnish