My name is David Niemann, and Heat & Knives is my cooking journal and recipe box, and a way to share my experiences working in the crowded, dingy kitchens of New York restaurants. I’ve worked in five NYC restaurants, first in Tribeca, then East Midtown, then the West Village, and now East Midtown again. I also read a lot of cookbooks, and cook at home, to learn more and get better.

In the kitchen, we use heat and knives to transform the multitude of beautiful ingredients that nature has given us, to create the dishes and meals that not only sustain us, but make life enjoyable. With knives, we can prepare any ingredient to cook and present exactly as we wish. Nature gave us the artichoke, a thorny vegetable with tough leaves and a bunch of fuzzy hairs inside. With knives, we transform the artichoke and make it edible and attractive, so we can enjoy its unique flavor.

With heat, we can change the flavor and texture of any ingredient. By controlling heat, we can affect a number of chemical reactions which transform food when it is cooked: the searing of meat and browning of vegetables, the emulsification of a butter sauce, the tenderization of a tough cut of meat during hours of slow cooking over a low flame.

With heat and knives, and the bounty of nature’s gifts, we are free to create whatever we like in the kitchen, whatever fits the season, whatever matches the way we happen to be feeling at the time.