I ruined 40 pounds of onions before I found the right way to dice them

Six months ago I started a new prep shift and the head chef wanted brunoise cuts, like perfect tiny cubes. I thought I was fast, but I kept crushing the onions and they turned to mush in the pan. It took me three whole shifts and 40 pounds of ruined onions to realize my knife edge was rolled over from hitting the cutting board wrong. I sharpened it with a 1000 grit stone for 20 minutes and suddenly everything clicked. That same technique now saves me about 15 minutes on every batch of mirepoix. Has anyone else wasted a ton of product on a simple fix like a dull blade?

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the_lisa14d ago

Cringed when I read this because I've totally been there... I once burned through a whole case of shallots before realizing my chef's knife was basically a butter knife with a handle. Spent a whole shift crying over the cutting board, not from emotion but from the sheer waste of it all. The sad part is I thought I was just bad at dicing, so I kept buying sharper knives instead of just fixing the edge on the one I had. Finally watched a video on knife geometry and felt like an absolute fool when I ran the blade over a honing rod and heard that clean sound. Now I sharpen every Sunday like it's church and my prep time dropped way faster than my ego did.