Andrew Zimmern's Best Tip For Improving Your Knife Skills

Before you spring for another specialty knife or sign up for a cooking class to hone your slicing skills, award-winning chef Andrew Zimmern has a suggestion that will cost about $5 and change the way you cook. "Buy big bags of carrots, onions, and celery, and every day, mince them, cut them into batons, dice them (when you're sitting around listening to the radio for 10 minutes) and practice your knife skills," Zimmern said on "The Tim Ferriss Show" podcast.

It's advice rooted in the same practical streak that's carried Zimmern from his early tragic story to television fame and kitchens worldwide. This daily drill trains your hands without wasting food because learning how to chop vegetables like onions, carrots, and celery becomes the base for your soups, braises, and sauces. Repetition builds muscle memory, making each slice faster, cleaner, and safer. And when you no longer have to think about your grip or blade angle, you can give more attention to seasoning, texture, and the moment when a dish comes alive — something every cook, from a weeknight dinner maker to a chef perfecting a roast chicken, can appreciate.

Andrew Zimmern doesn't care if you ever slice an onion in 15 seconds flat, but he does want you to chop vegetables every day to improve your knife skills. "If you do that for two weeks, you will improve the amount of time [it takes to prep meals]," he told Tim Ferriss. "And gosh, don't I know how you love saving time." 

The payoff isn't just speed — it's the freedom to focus on flavor. Once knife work feels second nature, you stop thinking about your angle or how to grip a knife and start thinking about seasoning, plating, and the arc of a meal. That's when cooking turns from labor into play. Good technique, like learning how to cut vegetables using a chef's knife with precision, becomes the backbone to every recipe you tackle. Zimmern's approach may sound basic, but it's a chef's version of a musician running scales, tedious in the moment but transformative over time.