Stay sharp for a better kitchen experience.

Byline: FOOD DUDE By Lewis Taylor The Register-Guard

It's the rainy season and Food Dude has been watching lots of TV. It used to be that Julia Child (R.I.P.) was the only celebrity chef worth watching, but now you've got Emmeril and Alton, Bourdain and Batali, the "Iron Chef," the "Naked Chef" and, coming soon, "Top Chef."

Ask anyone who owns a grocery store or a kitchen shop and they'll tell you all those food shows are having an impact. Consumers are getting smarter, and as today's first question goes to show, they're thinking about things that didn't used to concern them.

Luckily, you don't need satellite or cable to tune into Food Dude, a Q & A column for people who want answers. So send us a Q and we'll give you an A.

Dear Food Dude: A friend tells me she gets her knives sharpened at the mall. Do I really need to do this? How often should I do this?

- Not So Sharp

Dear N.S.S.: Knife sharpening isn't an unnecessary luxury, it's a good idea, says Rick Hicks, manager at Castle of Swords in the Gateway Mall.

A dull knife is a dangerous knife, and keeping your blade sharp will make cooking safer and more fun, he says.

You can get your knives professionally sharpened and maybe find a 29-inch, hand-forged Samurai Katana weapon at mall stores such as Castle of Swords and Excalibur in Valley River Center. These stores charge about $2 to $6 per knife for sharpening, and some of them will even do it while you wait. Castle of Swords won't work on serrated knives, but Excalibur will sharpen them for $6 to $8. Some local saw shops such as Carson Saw Shop on Blair Boulevard also will put a new edge on your knife, and they will generally charge less.

Glenda Brown, a manager at Excalibur, says the frequency of sharpening depends on how much you use your knife. For the average family, she suggests a good sharpening every 1 1/2 to 2 years.

"That is assuming people take care of their knives," Brown says.

Taking care of your knife means keeping it out of the dishwasher and using a wooden cutting board instead of a synthetic one, she says. Wood has more give to it than most synthetic materials.

Other knife no-nos include cutting on glass or marble. Also, Brown says, you should never, ever use your knife for sawing through frozen food.

One way to double the life of your knife is to use a honing steel before each use. Brown recommends running your knife across the honing steel, blade-first, with a downward stroke. Make sure the edge is positioned at a 17- to 22-degree angle. A steel removes the burrs from the edge of the knife and realigns the blade, she says.

For those who don't want to bring their Henckels with them to the mall, Excalibur and Castle of Swords sell home sharpeners that will set you back about $100 to $130 for a high-quality model, such as an electric sharpener made by Chef's Choice that uses diamonds to sharpen the blade. Brown recommends against using can opener/knife sharpener combo machines, which can heat the blade and affect the temper of the steel.

And speaking of bringing your knife to the mall, if you're worried about being tackled by an overzealous mall security guard on your way through the door during this post-Sept. 11 era, Brown suggests wrapping your blade in newspaper and placing it in a bag.

Dear Food Dude: Lately, it has become the fashion to see the instruction, "Using a paddle attachment," mix thus and such. My mixer is not equipped with a paddle so I am somewhat puzzled as to the difference a paddle has suddenly made to mixing ingredients and, therefore, should I expect less successful results? Could you enlighten me, and I am sure others, as to how to deal with this instruction?

- A.M.

Dear A.M.: Sounds like you're up a culinary creek without a paddle. The paddle attachment comes standard with almost all upright mixers, says Kathy Campbell, owner of Cook's Pots & Tabletops in Eugene. The triangular device is designed for oatmeal cookie dough, bread dough and other hard to mix ingredients.

"I don't know a stand mixer that doesn't come with a paddle," Campbell says. "It's what we call the workhorse of the mixer."

The fact that your mixer doesn't have a paddle leads Campbell to believe that you're either using a hand mixer or an upright mixer that's lost its paddle. Campbell doesn't recommend using a hand mixer for heavy jobs, since it will probably destroy the motor on your machine. If you're using a paddle-less upright model, a replacement can be special ordered from a kitchen store that carries your brand.

Send your questions about food via e-mail to [e-mail]. Or, send mail to Food Dude, The Register Guard, P.O. Box 10188, Eugene, OR 97440-2168.