How to cut the most common vegetables

November 9, 2023 5:13 AM

Chef Jean-Pierre Bréhier shows us how to cut the most common vegetables.
posted by swift (58 comments total)

It was pretty fun to discover all the ways I worked-out on my own to prepare bell peppers are exactly as he does them.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:35 AM on November 9, 2023 [4 favorites]

Here is how Jacques Pepin cooks eggs including the technique for making them very easy to peel.
posted by mhoye at 5:40 AM on November 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

“Don’t worry about jeopardizing the integrity of the onio’— it does not.”
posted by Songdog at 5:42 AM on November 9, 2023

It's a good onyo, a 6 pound onyo.
posted by mhoye at 5:50 AM on November 9, 2023 [12 favorites]

The one that I find maddeningly inconsistent is when my meal delivery kits have me quarter limes pole to pole before cutting them equatorially, while lemons are almost always just polar quarters. No particular rhyme or reason, and most of the time I end up clumsily mashing two quarters into a citrus squeezer anyway and cursing myself for not reading far enough into the recipe to realize their juicy fate.

I mean, they never really actually say specifically, but you can usually tell looking at the pictures and I just shrug and copy 'em. But whyyyyyyyyyyyyy?
posted by Kyol at 5:53 AM on November 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

I like this because he's not really showing you any tricks. He's just peeling and cutting and slicing like a normal human being in the kitchen. It's ... honest. The best one is garlic. Don't fuck around, just break down the cloves, peel the garlic, and slice it. ("many hacks out there ... none of them work")
posted by chavenet at 6:13 AM on November 9, 2023 [10 favorites]

I love his videos - not just for choosing to share his years of expertise , or his unwavering adoration of butter, but also for presenting everything with such apparent joy. Most of them are about specific dishes - but he also has one which talks about knife skills.
posted by rongorongo at 6:17 AM on November 9, 2023 [7 favorites]

DAMMIT I CHOPPED UP CAULIFLOWER LAST NIGHT ALL WRONG

So I work at a university with a great culinary program. Some people are a little surprised, but knife skills are one of the first things the students learn -- right after "don't touch any part of your head during service" and "don't put knives in a sink with soapy water because the person who reaches in will get cut" -- because without them, none of your ingredients are consistently-sized and you work slowly and you waste ingredients and you can cut yourself and and and.

It's just so fundamental a skill, and I am always disappointed when popular TV chefs don't call it out every single episode.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:28 AM on November 9, 2023 [6 favorites]

I watched this guy make meatloaf once. It's unremarkable, what you expect, except that he wrapped the entire thing in bacon.

I'm a kind of robotic cook. Everything I do I have done 1000 times before and I am on autopilot. I'm probably watching the evening news. So this video is not for me. If you know a robotic cook, take my advice, never tell them there's a better way to dice an onion, or peel a potato, or anything. They have done this for decades and found their way.
posted by adept256 at 6:31 AM on November 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

mhoye: It's a good onyo, a 6 pound onyo.

This post needs the "onyo" tag. (Also, that video was amazing.)
posted by wenestvedt at 6:32 AM on November 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

It's just so fundamental a skill, and I am always disappointed when popular TV chefs don't call it out every single episode.

I know we all love to hate Jamie Oliver but he has excellent knife skills
posted by chavenet at 6:43 AM on November 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

Huh. Today I learned you're supposed to cut peppers skin down. I'd always done it the other way around to avoid the situation where you end up with a couple of slices stuck together with skin that didn't cut through all the way, but that might be an artifact of having learned to cook with really dull knives.

I learned some tricks about cutting onyos, too! Thanks for this.
posted by phooky at 6:55 AM on November 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

It was pretty fun to discover all the ways I worked-out on my own to prepare bell peppers are exactly as he does them.

The bell pepper is the only vegetable that I have seriously cut myself while preparing. Probably the knife was too dull. This happened many years ago.

In response to this incident, I worked out a barbaric technique that involves slicing the pepper pole to pole, then ripping off the head of each side with my hand, which takes off the stem and most of the seeds. The decapitation step is best done over a sink.

His method is more civilized and I look forward to trying it.
posted by swift at 7:23 AM on November 9, 2023

I thought the "onyo" chapter tag in this video was a translation error but...it's not? Is this just french chef slang? Help!
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:27 AM on November 9, 2023

"and if some pieces are a leetle bigger than the rest, you know what, I don't think it's a make a difference"
Hallelujah! I love this, thanks for introducing him to me.
posted by Lookinguppy at 7:29 AM on November 9, 2023 [4 favorites]

I think "onyo" is just a self-deprecating joke on this specific chef's part.

If I search DuckDuckGo for "onyo," quite a lot of the top hits are directly linked to to Chef Jean-Pierre. He's become infamous for this pronunciation and he's leaning in.
posted by Western Infidels at 7:34 AM on November 9, 2023 [4 favorites]

Love it! I plan to use that term from now on.
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:36 AM on November 9, 2023

The way he says the name of each veg at the beginning of the segment is just wonderful.
posted by OrangeDisk at 7:41 AM on November 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

I'll have to try cutting celery on a bias like that next time we do stir-fry, so we get long strips like the rest of the veggies.

I worked out a barbaric technique that involves slicing the pepper pole to pole, then ripping off the head of each side with my hand, which takes off the stem and most of the seeds.

I did something similar, but cut little notches into each half next to the stems. Gonna have to try it his way.

"The white membrane doesn't taste very good, friends." Tell that to our dogs! They love the "ribs" :)
posted by Foosnark at 7:41 AM on November 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

The mise en place relay races were always one of my favorite challenges in Top Chef, though they seem to have eased up as the contestants have become more the types who haven't actually worked a station in a while.

Still remember Hung "been working in my parents' restaurant since I was old enough to walk" obliterating those chickens.
posted by praemunire at 7:48 AM on November 9, 2023 [5 favorites]

I want to cut some common veggies
I want to make whatever common veggies do
Wanna cook using common veggies
I wanna dine using common veggies
With you
What else could I do?
I said, "I'll, I'll see what I can stew"
_{- jarvis carrot}
posted by zaixfeep at 8:07 AM on November 9, 2023 [14 favorites]

Tell that to our dogs! They love the "ribs" :)

Yes, well, dogs also look at the cat’s litter box like it’s from Godiva. Just sayin’.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:12 AM on November 9, 2023 [9 favorites]

Some people are a little surprised, but knife skills are one of the first things the students learn

You can't cook food evenly if you can't cut it evenly, and you can't put in a full day's work if you're fighting your tools the whole time.
posted by mhoye at 8:17 AM on November 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

One of the low-key things in this video that I hope people don't overlook is how he keep saying "use for stock, use for stock", etc - if you haven't, you should try doing that! A lot of butchers will sell bones for dirt cheap, and you can freeze stock vegetables pretty well. It doesn't take a lot of money or effort to make excellent stock, better than you can buy, and your house smells great.
posted by mhoye at 8:19 AM on November 9, 2023 [9 favorites]

Yes, well, dogs also look at the cat’s litter box like it’s from Godiva. Just sayin’.

Dogiva!
posted by chavenet at 8:21 AM on November 9, 2023 [5 favorites]

Now I'm looking at his stock and chicken soup video. "The texture is the conductor of flavor." Love.
https://chefjeanpierre.com/recipes/soups/chicken-noodle-soup/
posted by Lookinguppy at 8:41 AM on November 9, 2023

Yes, well, dogs also look at the cat’s litter box like it’s from Godiva. Just sayin’.

yes, its called Almond Roca (sorry)

and yes, this guy is awesome and charming and we will now be calling them Onyo's in my family too!
posted by supermedusa at 8:52 AM on November 9, 2023

"Have you ever had a dish where you go 'You know, eehhh... That was very good, but I had a piece of onion that was a little bigger than the others!'... Hrmph. Get out of my kitchen!"

I like this guy.
posted by xedrik at 8:56 AM on November 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

*Horizontal*
posted by zenon at 9:21 AM on November 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

I was kind of hoping that this would start out normal and then get slowly but inexorably weirder and more hilarious over the course of the 82 minute duration. But instead I just learned useful things. :(
posted by aubilenon at 9:27 AM on November 9, 2023 [8 favorites]

I worked as a cook for a few summers in my wayward youth, and the most useful aspect was learning a bunch of different ways to cut vegetables. This one has some that I don’t know, and I’ll absolutely refer to this video, as it’s super clear and helpful. Thanks for a wonderful post, swift!
posted by Kattullus at 9:58 AM on November 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

Love the drumroll-crash for each vegetable.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:01 AM on November 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

Unfortunately, he is too shouty for me. Most of what I watch on YouTube is cooking videos, and I really want to enjoy Chef Jean-Pierre, but I watch the videos to calm down, not to get all excited about chopping. I do love what he is doing, though, a great guy through and through. And I agree about the butter.
posted by mumimor at 10:12 AM on November 9, 2023

He's definitely on the buoyant side. I half-expect him to let fly at any moment with a stereotypical French chortle (@28 seconds).
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:33 AM on November 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

There's a slightly better way to do the initial cut on a bell pepper. If you slice the stem end a bit higher up, you'll find that the stem and surrounding green parts just naturally detach, leaving a perfect circle of usable pepper.

I was waiting to see if he was going to do horizontal cuts across the halved onion, and gave him a big thumbs-up when he explained why he didn't. Chefs who insist you need to slice an onion in three orthogonal directions really irk me.
posted by pipeski at 11:00 AM on November 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

I half-expect him to let fly at any moment with a stereotypical French chortle (@28 seconds).
My favorite thing about that song is that the chef is Rene freakin' Auberjonois, and every time, my brain just substitutes Odo whirling about the kitchen, lost in jubilant song.
posted by xedrik at 11:02 AM on November 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

Butter brings out the stereotypical French chortle in him.
posted by swift at 11:05 AM on November 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

I know we all love to hate Jamie Oliver but he has excellent knife skills
Indeed - but I also channel an imaginary Jean Pierre yelling “use a scraper!” at several points in that video.A child could do it!
posted by rongorongo at 11:13 AM on November 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

I think "onyo" is just a self-deprecating joke on this specific chef's part.

It isn't exactly the typical way to say it in French (usually /ɔ.ɲɔ̃/). To be fair, he does have a lot going on with his accent - is it French, is it Italian, is it American, is it Cajun, is it Miami Spanish?
posted by Ashwagandha at 11:28 AM on November 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

These are pretty useful tips, but my only gripe (for lack of a better word) is that he's focused somewhat too much on appearance. Being a professional chef, he has internalized that food has to look a certain way, and look good when it's served, and that's reflected in the ways he cuts these veggies. Which is only a minor problem when he takes extra steps to make something look "better," and that step often means throwing away parts of the veggie that are perfectly edible. And at one point he said he uses some parts for stock, so at least there's that.

As for me cooking at home, I couldn't care less how good something looks as long as it tastes good. Usually I don't have time to cut things prettily.
posted by zardoz at 11:55 AM on November 9, 2023

garlic..."many hacks out there ... none of them work"


I don't know if it's a 'hack', but I find I can get through a bulb pretty quickly with three steps:

1) Chop the entire base clear off. one cut and it opens up all the cloves. I cook enough so that I can save the unused cloves in an air-tight and still get to them before they weaken.
2) To remove the skin I use either my hand or the flat of a chef's knife to compress a clove. This makes it way, way easier to de-skin.
3) Put the naked clove (sometimes halved, depending on the number) into one of these
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 11:58 AM on November 9, 2023

"Unused" cloves? I cannot comprehend such a thing.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:11 PM on November 9, 2023 [5 favorites]

I see he skipped avocados. Coward! Just kidding, these are awesome. His knife skills are really apparent when making a bunch of quick small cuts. That takes me 3X as long.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:42 PM on November 9, 2023

To be fair, he does have a lot going on with his accent

He says in one of his videos, I can't remember which, that his mother is Italian and his father is French.
posted by swift at 1:10 PM on November 9, 2023

See also, Cook's Country's Julia Collins Davison and Bridgette Lancaster doing a knife skills session at KQED. Although not really demonstrated in this particular video, Julia, in particular, has dazzling knife skills.
posted by bz at 1:58 PM on November 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

All I would add here is that some people should wear gloves when cutting butternut squash to avoid the dreaded squash hands.
posted by bgrebs at 2:33 PM on November 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

This looks essential for me, as a relatively new vegan.
Will work through it in stages.
posted by doctornemo at 2:39 PM on November 9, 2023

I also love that he accidentally referred to cabbage as cauliflower. In french, cabbage is "chou" and cauliflower is "chou-fleur." Meaning that "pâte à choux" literally means "cabbage paste."
posted by bgrebs at 2:44 PM on November 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

I just used his onyo method and it went great.

Not sure whether I like the method for bell peppers or want to stick to my own. We usually get two bell peppers to use in two dishes, so we can have some red and some yellow in each. Deciding how much is half a pepper is a lot easier when you start by cutting it pole-to-pole like I did before, and I'm not sure that dealing with the seeds etc. was any easier this way.
posted by Foosnark at 4:34 PM on November 9, 2023

In general, I like his approach. But he still seems too concerned with squaring things up to cut or dice easily. Are most of us really saving those scraps for stock? There's a lot of waste going on here if we aren't. I'd rather flatten my carrots by cutting them in half, putting the flat side on the cutting board, and then dealing with irregularities rather than trimming the entire carrots square to begin with. As he has said elsewhere, having them the exact same size isn't that important for most applications.
posted by mollweide at 5:26 PM on November 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

In general, I like his approach. But he still seems too concerned with squaring things up to cut or dice easily. Are most of us really saving those scraps for stock?

I think Jean Pierre's background influences a lot of this. He grew up in Provence with a Cordon Bleu chef mother and French father. He was working in a local butcher from 12 and then at the 3 star L'Oustau De Baumaniere restaurant from 14 (where, he says, his job for several months was entirely zesting limes). He moved to the US at 21 and ran a French restaurant in Fort Lauderdale for 20 years - then a cooking school for 15 years - and now Youtube. So - he is very much experienced in the goings on of high end French restaurants of that era - and hence the notion that there is one golden right way to do things and then everything else. His preparation techniques can look a little wasteful - but they are from a context there there would be a minion gleaning everybody's offcuts to make stock.
posted by rongorongo at 9:58 PM on November 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

Metafilter: a minion gleaning everybody's offcuts to make stock.
posted by mephisjo at 10:28 PM on November 9, 2023 [8 favorites]

Yeah, as a rule restaurants have a thin profit margin and can't afford to waste food.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:32 PM on November 9, 2023

knife skills are one of the first things the students learn

Pretty much the most important thing you can learn after learning how to like, use a pan that isn't a non-stick. Which itself often gets really glossed over in cookery books.

Usually I don't have time to cut things prettily.
There are certainly knife techniques designed for presentation, but many more specifically designed for efficiency and/or a particular end-state. The main thing I learned as a prep cook was how to process a lot of X ingredient quickly with a knife.
posted by aspersioncast at 7:02 PM on November 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

I get where he's coming from, but what is his point? Is he trying to show home cooks how to efficiently cut vegetables or make them nice for presentation purposes? I just feel he's at cross purposes with his carrots. Which is, of course, a ridiculous thing to say.
posted by mollweide at 9:04 PM on November 10, 2023

Is he trying to show home cooks how to efficiently cut vegetables or make them nice for presentation purposes?

I think the channel knife with the carrots was the only purely presentational cut that I saw. Everything else is about efficiency, and the needs of the recipe dictate the size of the cut.

For example, in his chicken noodle soup recipe he uses very coarse cuts for the veggies that go in the stock, because they are just going to be thrown out. But the veggies that actually go in the soup he cuts much finer, because those pieces have to fit on a spoon.
posted by swift at 3:54 PM on November 11, 2023

Re. meatloaf, I recently covered an apple-curry meatloaf in thinly sliced apple. It came out looking a bit like baked alaska, with the slices of apple curling up & browning, and they tasted lovely with the rest of the meatloaf.
posted by lodurr at 9:55 AM on November 15, 2023

Thank you, this post has been added to the Best Of blog and sidebar!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:01 AM on November 19, 2023