Very Finely Diced

I've been sort of obsessed with restocking my deep freezer. In late June, I arrived home after being out of town for 2 weeks, only to be greeted by a freezer full of rotting food. It seems that while we were gone, Austin had a series of thunderstorms. One of them tripped a circuit breaker and apparently we were without power for a while. What a stinky mess to come home to.

Today I practiced my knife skills in anticipation of making Mario Batali's ragu bolognese tomorrow. The recipe was in the current issue of Wine Spectator that I read on the way home from Twinland last weekend.

Mario emphasizes that the onions, celery and carrots (is it still a mirepoix if it's for an Italian recipe?) should be very finely diced because they should melt into the ragu as it simmers. I'm not sure mine qualify as "very". They might be "finely diced".

While I was dicing and being grateful that Chef Batali wasn't standing over my shoulder, I kept thinking about poor Casey. I don't know if you're watching Season 3 of Top Chef, but in an episode several weeks ago, the teams raced each other in some basic prep work. Casey had to chop 5 pounds of onions. She was so terribly slow precise that not only was it painful to watch, she lost the race for her team.