I have very good knife skills. I learned to butcher on my second job - I was 18 years old. Every other day we would break down six legs of veal.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I really feel like knife skills - not just in the kitchen, but in life - are really critical.
I'm really great with weapons: I did a lot of bo and staff training for 'Immortals.' I love knives. I'm a pretty good shot. But I love hand-to-hand combat.
My dad was a master butcher and I trained to be a butcher when I left school. I didn't enjoy it at the time but I love cooking now, so perhaps I would have been a chef.
I have friends who are blacksmiths in the north of Scotland, so I took a few master classes with,them. I loved learning a new skill. I will never look at a piece of wrought iron the same way now. I can now make semi-decent knife blades and candlesticks myself.
Whether I'm playing right now or not, I still have an opportunity to get better in practice. It's like sharpening my blade.
I have to do so many scenes cooking that I wanted to learn how to chop like I know what I'm doing and do certain things around the kitchen that look right.
I probably use my chef's knives more than any other tool in the kitchen. I'm not married to a particular brand, because they all work, they all have sharp blades.
When I was a kid, I had trouble at school because of my learning disabilities. Carving is my body compensating for the lack of other skills.
People come up to me all the time and ask how I stay the way I am, and it's no secret. The first lesson a chef needs to learn is how to handle a knife; the second is how to be around all that food.
I need to have better knife skills... for vegetables.