Slicing Chives

Chives hold a special place in my heart. Or maybe I'm just working through the trauma of cutting chives a very particular way while working in a very, let's call it, "rigorus" kitchen.

There were generally three ways that we prepared chives there.

1. Roughly cut chives to be blended into a green oil.
2. Sliced chives. These are what most people would call "chopped" chives. But chopping involves crushing, which would bruise the chives and render them useless. So we "slice". Delicate. Soigné.
3. Lastly, we had chive tips. These are the chive's top inch (no more, no less) with the point. Do you know how many chive tips you can get from each chive? One. Do chive tips taste better you may be wondering. They do not. They taste the same as the rest of the chive, and they look quite similar too. Oui chef.

Honestly, though, I do love "slicing" chives. It's satisfying, it ensures I keep a sharp knife, and they look great when done well. And while a lot of people may not notice the perfectly sliced chives in their dish, YOU can feel good knowing that you made it nice.

If you want to work on improving your chive cutting technique, here's how we do it in the biz.

1. Ensure you're chives are dry. This will help get a cleaner cut and will keep them from clumping together after they are cut.
2. Use a sharp knife.
3. When slicing, your knife should be moving forward before it comes in contact with the chives. This ensures you are slicing through the chives rather than pressing down and crushing them. They'll last longer and look better.
4. Once you get close to the towel, slide it back to reveal more chives and repeat.

If you have any cooking, eating, or restaurant-related questions, I would love to hear them! Maybe I'll feature yours in a future issue.

I almost forgot! Here's some food we made this week.