Another quarter in part-time culinary school has begun. One of myy chef instructors this quarter, Chef Chu Yen Luke, says all we need to bring to his class each week are two tools: our body, and a potato peeler. The rest, is provided for us.

Our main tool in the class: a cleaver. According to Chef Luke, we can do almost everything with the cleaver. This goes against what I learned in my knife skills class with Chef Pierre, but I’m open to it. Why not? With a cleaver in one hand, and an open mind, Regional Cuisines of China is sounding intriguing to me so far. Now that I’ve done quite a lot of slicing and dicing, and Chef Luke demo’d the giant wok, I’m ready to move onto the good stuff. Next week: dim sum.