Chef Profile: Chef Allegra McEvedy...and This Week's Giveaway
—Contest now closed—
Allegra is the Imelda Marcos of knives...
“Some Women Collect Shoes – Allegra McEvedy Collects Knives.”
When I first saw that line in an email, I had to know more. It served as the announcement for Bought, Borrowed & Stolen, a new book by Allegra McEvedy, a U.K. cooking personality whose story is told in the book via the food and knives she encountered in her worldwide travels.
Here’s more…read on to see how you can win a copy of Allegra’s book. I assure you, mine is already dog-eared.
The Chef: Allegra McEvedy has been cooking professionally for 20 years, working her way through a clutch of London’s best restaurants as well as an eighteen-month spell in the States. She co-founded LEON, a healthy, fast-food restaurant group in 2003, and today focuses on writing and broadcasting.
Take a look inside her toolbox:
The Toolbox: At home, my knives live in a massive drawer built in to my kitchen table – it’s about 3 foot square and is full to busting with around 80 knives that I’ve gathered over the years from all over the world. When I’m on the road I use a black leather knife roll made by the esteemed German knife makers F.Dick.
The Tools: My knife roll contains a big knife for chopping herbs, a small paring knife, and a regular sized chef’s knife. It also has an antique Ivory-handled carving fork, spatula, diamond-graphite sharpening steel, string, a bottle of Tabasco, and a melon baller.
An important tool in Allegra's knife roll.
The Sentimental Tool: A very battered and wobbly knife that my mum picked up in Turkey when I was about 15 from some forgotten hardware shop as we were going to have a picnic and were knifeless. 25 years later it’s definitely the wobbliest, most battered, least professional tool in my armory, but that was pretty much the last holiday we had as a family as my mum died not long after. And that’s where my obsession with bringing knives back started.
The You’re Kidding, Right? Tool: One of the marks of a good chef is to be able to think creatively, so in the last few weeks I’ve broken up bones with a short-handled hoe when I didn’t have a cleaver and I’ve grilled paninis weighted down by bricks covered in foil.
What A Psychologist Would Say About Your Toolbox: Well, a lazy psychologist might drift into a pat response about a woman in a man’s world surrounding herself with these aggressive tools, but I’ve chosen knives to be the focal point of my culinary adventures around the world, and they inspire me and give me pleasure.
Have You Ever Used Food As A Tool?: Does seduction count? ;-)
What Do You Do When You Step Away From The Stove? My one-year-old daughter Delilah keeps me pretty busy as I’m a single mum, and we both like to travel. Even though I’m a chef with a collection of 80+ knives from all over the world, I’m a total softy at heart.
What Would You Like The Winner of The Giveaway To Take Away From Your Book? That individual expression is worth more than conforming to some predescribed view.
Win One!
One lucky BehindTheKnife.com reader will win a copy of the just-published Bought, Borrowed, Stolen, a $24.99 value. Just leave a comment below by Sunday, November 13th, 11:59 p.m. This week, comment about the knife that got away, your favorite knife in the world that you’d do ANYTHING to get back.
BONUS! Get an extra chance to win by also signing up for our newsletter, The Blowtorch.
Spread the love
Spread the love by going over to Twitter and retweeting the contest. The good karma will come back to you tenfold. We’ll even write your tweet…Here ‘tis:
@BehindTheKnife Win Allegra McEvedy’s Bought, Borrowed, Stolen cookbook #free #giveaway RT by 11/13 http://tinyurl.com/bwhpsql
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the ceramic knife that disappeared.