Ever wondered what the four sided of a grater are for?

• Sharp edged large holes to shred soft cheese.
• Small holes with sharp teeth to grate hard cheese.
• Fine holes for grating zest or fresh ginger.
• Wide, sharp slots for slicing soft cheese or potato.

Gadgets:

What’s the difference between corkscrews?

The lever-type or “French” corkscrew

This type of corkscrew has a bottle opener on top and two wings on either side.

Opening a bottle of wine with this corkscrew is a snap. Just position the metal “drill” in the center of your cork and twist. As you twist the wings rise. When the wings are at 90 degrees pull both levers down. Repeat until you have removed your cork. DO NOT pull early or on an angle, you will damage your cork.

The waiter’s corkscrew

One word “finesse”! Showcasing the talents of the sommelier. By carefully leveraging the bottle the server is able to manually open the bottle. This does take some practice. So try it out at your friends place first.

Knife sharpeners

To get a sharp working knife you must learn or be able to use a sharpener. Remember it is less dangerous to have a sharp knife than one that’s dull.

Steel-the most used type of sharpeners. Angling your blade to put on a sharp edge.

Sharpening stone-the most effective to rid of all defects.

Hand held “pull” style – simplest and most quick.

Safety: After sharpening always wipe-off and wash the blade, metal shards are always present when sharpening. Using the above methods you can also sharpen skates, nail clippers and scissors.