# Julia Child on Knives and knife skills



## lowercasebill (Nov 20, 2011)

i thought this was worth the time to watch. note how many times she refers to cutting her hand off! 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov-bABZHXM8&feature=player_detailpage


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## mr drinky (Nov 20, 2011)

I love seeing these vintage videos. Thanks for sharing it. 

Maybe this is the first recorded video of a person saying don't put a knife in a dishwasher. Btw, if you are ever in Washington, DC the American History Museum has Julia's actual kitchen on display and you can see what knives, pots, appliances etc she used in her home. I'll try take a picture of her knives when I go back in December.

k.


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## rahimlee54 (Nov 20, 2011)

f you guys have amazon prime or don't mind paying for "The French Chef" episodes, amazon has all of the episodes available. They are free to stream for prime members I have watched a couple of them.


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## Eamon Burke (Nov 20, 2011)

:thumbsup: Good advice doesn't change. This reminds me of being a kid.


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## lowercasebill (Nov 20, 2011)

thanks for the tip. we going to DC in the spring to do the museum and monument tour .


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## lowercasebill (Nov 20, 2011)

i have amazon prime .. thanks for the tip .. think i will put the lap top in the kitchen this evening and sharpen to julia !


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## lowercasebill (Nov 20, 2011)

me too.. i started wathcing Julia on PBS in black and white when i was about 12 .. tired to imitate her chopping skills and promptly hacked my thumb.. good thing Mom's knives were dull


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## Eamon Burke (Nov 20, 2011)

My mom watched Julia long before me, and she was a Home Ec major in the 70s, so Julia Childs reminds me a lot of my mom, too. I grew up with a set of Sabs and a steel just like that, because Julia told her to!


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## tk59 (Nov 20, 2011)

I love Julia...and Jacques...and Dan Ackroyd...


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## The hekler (Nov 20, 2011)

The old girl knew a thing or two... Puts Gordon Ramsey's onion cutting to shame.


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## JohnnyChance (Nov 20, 2011)

Oh how far we haven't come...


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## Johnny.B.Good (Nov 20, 2011)

Thanks for the link. I have Amazon Prime but never use the video streaming option. Guess I should see what's available.

Funny that she assumes the viewer has a relationship with their butcher. Takes that for granted. Thankfully I do, but I think I'm in the minority among my friends/family.

Also, I feel like onion soup now.


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## mpukas (Nov 20, 2011)

JohnnyChance said:


> Oh how far we haven't come...



+1,000,000


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## half_hack (Nov 21, 2011)

Great video. why do i get the feeling that if someone posted a video here of themselves chopping onions using that same grip, they'd get made fun of?

(btw, I am not saying that Julia has poor knife skills)


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## slowtyper (Nov 21, 2011)

Johnny.B.Good said:


> Funny that she assumes the viewer has a relationship with their butcher. Takes that for granted. Thankfully I do, but I think I'm in the minority among my friends/family.
> .



that was probably different at that time


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## Eamon Burke (Nov 21, 2011)

half_hack said:


> Great video. why do i get the feeling that if someone posted a video here of themselves chopping onions using that same grip, they'd get made fun of?



Because they would. The one advantage to television over the internet is that people with loud, rude opinions are at home, alone on the couch.


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## ajhuff (Nov 21, 2011)

Alice had a relationship with her butcher .

-AJ


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## ecchef (Nov 22, 2011)

NYC's best butcher.


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## bikehunter (Nov 26, 2011)

I've watched Julia in the old French Chef a dozen times. I get'em free at the library. Jacques too. Shrug.


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## eto (Nov 26, 2011)

That was great. If I only saw that video years ago I would of never had any questions about maintaining carbon steel knives. Spot on!


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## jm2hill (Nov 26, 2011)

Still love this video. Although I still think she needs a Bread Knife. I get sad when she uses her chef knife on bread .


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## bikehunter (Nov 26, 2011)

Not me. Don't own a bread knife. Chef knife works just fine.


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## ajhuff (Nov 26, 2011)

Ditto, my Chef knives cut bread great!

-AJ


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## Dubsy (Nov 26, 2011)

not on toast or dry breads. however, i used to have a Victorinox slicer that everyone would borrow to slice bread, cause it worked better than the bread knives. so really, they should be called toast knives, not bread knives.


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## mindbender (Nov 27, 2011)

What a great episode! Complete advice for the beginning knife enthusiast from way back when.

I found myself saying "Oh if she only would say 'get a magnetic knife block'" and ta-dah!! Julia says it.

I wish I saw this years ago.

The Cooking Channel (sister channel to the ugh Food Network) supposedly owns a large number of Julia's episodes from what I read. They were offered the library by someone who had the rights to it in order to preserve the film and they jumped on it. I don't recall if they even paid anything for it - could be wrong.


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## deanb (Nov 27, 2011)

I always loved Julia and this video brought back memories. Liked when she said a knife should be able to take an edge rather than hold an edge. Those old French carbon knives really do take a good edge. Anybody have any idea how hard they were (RC wise)?


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## bikehunter (Nov 27, 2011)

mindbender said:


> I found myself saying "Oh if she only would say 'get a magnetic knife block'" and ta-dah!! Julia says it.
> 
> Really???? I don't remember ever seeing that in all the times I've watched these. Time to get it from the library again. It never gets old. ;-)


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## tk59 (Nov 28, 2011)

deanb said:


> I always loved Julia and this video brought back memories. Liked when she said a knife should be able to take an edge rather than hold an edge. Those old French carbon knives really do take a good edge. Anybody have any idea how hard they were (RC wise)?


I would guess mid-50's.


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## Dubsy (Nov 28, 2011)

on the sabatier-k site they say their carbons on 54-56, so your spot on.


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## mindbender (Nov 28, 2011)

bikehunter said:


> Really???? I don't remember ever seeing that in all the times I've watched these. Time to get it from the library again. It never gets old. ;-)



More or less... she says "magnetic strip" at 6:20

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov-bABZHXM8&feature=player_detailpage


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## Janesgrains (Jul 10, 2012)

The Youtube link is no longer active. Any idea what show included the clip mentioned here? (I'm hoping to get it from Amazon or iTunes or ????) Thanks


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## steeley (Jul 10, 2012)

Hi Janesgrains 
we had a discussion on this from your message.
and it is The french Chef volume 5/episode 1 / The French Onion Soup episode.
and yes Amazon OR I TUNES 

and welcome to the forum.


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## Crothcipt (Jul 10, 2012)

Welcome.


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## Benuser (Jul 11, 2012)

deanb said:


> I always loved Julia and this video brought back memories. Liked when she said a knife should be able to take an edge rather than hold an edge. Those old French carbon knives really do take a good edge. Anybody have any idea how hard they were (RC wise)?



Don't expect all French carbons to be created equal. Especially immediatly after WWI the steel could be British or from occupied Germany, and probably made from Swedish ore. In these years the HT was not controlled as it is nowadays. Generally speaking these steels are quite soft compared to our standards, expect some 54Rc. You may encounter exceptions though. The Nogent Son sent me a few months ago behaves like a 58Rc steel, as it takes and holds an edge of some 25 degree inclusive, where one would rather expect a 30-35 degree inclusive.


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## Customfan (Jul 11, 2012)

It appears as if the video was removed


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## Johnny.B.Good (Jul 11, 2012)

Customfan said:


> It appears as if the video was removed



Read back a few posts for your answer...


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## Janesgrains (Jul 11, 2012)

Thanks for the welcomes and info.


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