Large Mason Jars

Need more Zen in your life? Learn how to chop

“You have to modernize,” Eugene Shewchuk, my friend and the owner of Messis, a well-loved neighbourhood restaurant in Toronto, told me over dinner. “You’re too busy to spend hours preparing traditional meals.”

He was right. I was so sick of cooking, I’d happily serve up protein pellets if I could get away with it.

He offered to show me a new way of doing things in the kitchen. But first I’d have to learn to chop. Chop? What on earth did chopping have to do with cooking?

Everything, according to Mr. Shewchuk, who grew up in Northern Ontario and once ran a bistro in Paris. For many Japanese chefs, cooking is chopping. Although he doesn’t take things as far, Mr. Shewchuk believes in “the elegant gesture” in cooking, whose rituals are part of the beauty of life. Knives are a big part of this. (He uses hand-forged Japanese ones.) If you are a master chopper, preparing food becomes pleasurable and even poetic.

He maintains that chopping is a kinetic meditation. He says he could chop mushrooms all day and not grow bored. The focus you need while handling sharp objects bring a Zen-like peacefulness, a hard-won state at the best of times. He gave me a starter knife, a Kaneshige, with a light, thin blade and pakkawood handle, and told me to show up some afternoon at Messis.

I didn’t see how sharp objects could lead to inner tranquillity. But I had a novel out on submission, an anxious time in a writer's life. I needed a distraction.

He took me to the back of the restaurant. Bean sprouts were growing in large Mason jars. Chicken stock was bubbling on the burners. Men in aprons were running back and forth. Mr. Shewchuk put an apron on me and set to work on my re-education.

He demonstrated two chopping motions: the Asian-style chop, where a brisk bouncing motion of the wrist propels the entire blade up and down, and the European-style chop, where just the heel of the blade rises and falls in a rocking motion. Some say the European chop is more precise, but the Asian chop is definitely faster.

Naturally, you have to hold the knife properly. Ivan Fonseca, a chef at Messis, holds the knife by the handle only. He should know. He and his partner, Olivia Go, provide chopping demos and are opening a knife store this month in Toronto’s Annex area. Mr. Shewchuk holds it closer to the blade in the pinch grip, which he learned at cooking school. But no matter how you grip the knife, it’s best to hold your fingers primly back so your knuckles protect your thumb.

'The world's best everything.' « thrifted.

Good intuition when it comes to making food; as soon as I stray from the recipe things catch fire and become completely inedible. But, it appears I have great instincts when modifying cocktails. (In part thanks to the advice of a certain group of friends**.) Clarification: I am by no means a drunkard. It’s just nice to have a little something relaxing to sip on at the end of the day. Next up: More spiked from-scratch horchata and then this with whiskey & club soda.

2. World’s best gardening student

I may not be that great at gardening, but I sure am great at learning about it .

3. World’s best baby-tickler

I can pretty easily reduce Grady to a smiling wiggling pile of uncontrollable giggles just by waving my fingers at her. It’s pretty impressive. While I’m on the subject of the Kraken*** …

4. World’s best baby-translator

There are few things I like more than when Grady talks to someone else and they give me a look of utter confusion. And then I’m able to tell them what she just said. I guess it’s kind of silly; I mean naturally I’d be better at understanding what she says than anyone else. I’m with her all the time the time and hate it.