Abstract
To investigate the knowledge of and confidence in knife cuts, we conducted a survey of 1,149 college and vocational school freshmen, every April from 2010 to 2013. Twenty kinds of knife cuts were listed on the survey, which were later classified into three groups based on the responses on the level of difficulty. The knowledge of and confidence in the knife cuts depended on the frequency of cooking, attitude towards cooking, having their own specialty dishes, and their major in college and vocational school. The students who cooked regularly, liked cooking, or had their own specialty dishes had more knowledge of and higher confidence in the knife cuts. However, students who were majoring in food and nutrition, cooking, or home economics did not have higher confidence in the knife cuts compared to other students, despite their greater knowledge in the subject. Therefore, it was concluded that liking and having interest in cooking were important to acquiring the skills of cooking, although it was also important for students to learn fundamental knife cuts in college or vocational school.
