By Bee Wilson
This is an Armchair Adventure Book Club selection. The first non-fiction in a few months. I am again taking it in via audiobook because Spotify was the one place I could get the book without additional cost. It also helps to be able to listen during cardio to multitask. I prefer non-fiction to fiction, but this history of cooking wasn’t something that I was particularly drawn to.
I’m warming up to the book in chapter 2, which has been about knives. The chapter contrasts the specialization and single purpose knives of the French compared to the singular Chinese knife to be used for all cutting activities. I find myself getting more interested in buying a knife. I’m more compelled by the minimalist Chinese approach. I’d love a single super knife to cover all of my knife uses rather than a huge assortment of them. It hadn’t occurred to me, but the author pointed out how all of the cutting in Chinese food is done by the chef. The ingredients are all chopped down to manageable sizes so they can be fried together and then eaten without the use of knives by those consuming the meal. Europeans do less complete work in the kitchen, such that the diners need their own knives to use while eating. This behavior also led to the absurdity of table knives: knives made to be dull and less effective, less they be used as weapons or cause accidents among the diners.
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/why-i-use-a-chinese-cleaver