I finally understood the value of a good handshake after meeting an old timer at the Kansas City meat show.

Last year at the show, I got talking with a guy named Frank who ran a small shop in Wichita for 40 years. He asked to see my hands, then shook my hand and just held it for a second. He said, 'Your grip tells me you respect the work, but these calluses are in the wrong spots. You're fighting the bone, not guiding the knife.' He showed me right there, using a spare rib rack on his booth table, how to shift my thumb a quarter inch up the handle. That tiny change took so much strain off my wrist by the next day. It wasn't about strength, it was about letting the tool do the work. Has anyone else had a simple piece of form advice that made a huge difference?

2 comments

2 Comments

jake_kelly241mo ago

Totally get that. My first real kitchen job, the head guy watched me chop an onion and just said "you're holding it like it owes you money." Turns out I was curling my fingers all wrong, basically begging for a trip to the ER. That one visual stuck with me forever and probably saved me a finger. Some of the best advice really is that simple and obvious, but you just never see it yourself.

karen2751mo ago

Love that kind of unforgettable, visual advice.