Do you dice and slice onions “freestyle,” with mixed results?

The same size pieces cook evenly. If your dice range from small to medium, the small pieces can burn while you’re waiting for the larger dice to soften.

Watch a professional chef show you how to dice and slice onions the right way. Don’t worry that your knife skills aren’t as fast as his: He’s been slicing all day for decades!

Watch his technique—how he holds and moves the knife. Then, start at the speed you’re comfortable with and increase speed bit by bit.

Remember: More accidents happen with dull knives. A dull blade is more likely to slip instead of slice through. Take your knives to be sharpened professionally, or treat yourself to a good knife sharpener. It’s less than $30, less than having your set of knives professionally sharpened once!

By the way, if you take a knife skills class, you’ll start out by slicing onions—lots of them. So consider spending a couple of hours with a bag of onions, working on your technique.

You can use the results of your labor to make onion soup, or make lots of caramelized onions. They’re so good, they’ll disappear quickly. (While most people caramelize sliced onions, you can also use your diced onions.)

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