Basic knife skills are essential to faster, easier cooking because when your onions (or carrots or chicken cutlets) are all about the same size they cook more evenly. An onion is almost always used as the example of proper knife skills because it is also the most basic aromatic for everything from everyday chili to holiday roasts. But the fundamentals of cutting an onion apply to other produce as well: Remove the stem and peel, cut into manageable pieces with a flat steady side and then cut it into smaller pieces methodically.

Cut basic white, yellow, and red onions like this: Trim off the top of the onion—leave the root in place to make cutting easier. Remove the peel. Halve the onion lengthwise. Then, working with one half at a time, position the onion cut side down with the cut top parallel to the knife. With your knife parallel to the cutting board, make ¼ inch slices of the onion working from the bottom to the top, making wide planks of onion, and stopping before you hit the root. Then hold your knife as you normally would and start cutting downward perpendicular to the cut top. Finally, turn the onion 90 degrees and slice through all those slices to get a finely chopped onion.