Rutgers football: Mayan Ahanotu named to Wuerffel Trophy watch list

Rutgers football’s Mayan Ahanotu was named to the Wuerffel Trophy watch list, honoring his efforts off the field

Rutgers football Mayan Ahanotu, linebacker for the Scarlet Knights, was named to the watch list for the Wuerffel Trophy. The trophy was established in 2005. It honors college football athletes who are serving others, while also achieving greatness on the football field and in the classroom.  As part of the National Football Federation’s Collegiate Awards, it was the first major award honoring the character of service to others.

IN the community, Ahanotu has been active within an initiative at Rutgers called Chop4Change. It was created to spread a message of unity and equality. Ahanotu said through a press release:

“It’s really awesome. I love our #Chop4Change program. It’s really about how we can impact our community right now. We’re just going to do all we can do for all the people in all our communities that we can affect right now.”

Some activities have included participating in the opening ceremonies for Special Olympics New Jersey and the Rutgers Dance Marathon. In addition, Ahanotu has been a weekly mentor for the Middlesex Juvenile Detention Center, leading sessions with young men who are incarcerated.

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The third year Scarlet Knight was named to the Academic All-Big Ten team in both 2019 and 2021. He appeared in all 13 of the team’s games last season, starting in nine – including the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl. Ahanotu finished last season with 18 total tackles, one sack, and a forced fumble.

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Knife Skills: How to Slice, Dice, Chop and Sharpen Blades

We explain what types of knives you should use, how to grip and sharpen your knife, and how to dice, mince and julienne almost everything.

While everyone agrees that knife skills are essential for chefs at any level, there’s no consensus on what the two-word phrase really means. Sure, you need to know how to slice fruit, veggies, herbs and meat, but does that also require expertise in the kinds of metal blades available around the world? How about dicing and mincing — are those fundamental to knife skills or is that level of knowledge for obsessives only?

We watched dozens of videos on food sites and across all social media — and identified the ones that are worth watching. So now, in addition to not slicing off your thumb, you’ll learn how to sharpen a knife, stabilize a cutting board, and even contribute to a conversation about the cult of Japanese knives.

 

Which Knives Do You Need?

If you can only have one nice knife, it should be a “chef’s knife” — the silhouette is iconic and it can do more than any other type of blade: It can “slice and dice most vegetables, chop a mound of herbs, and handle simple meat cuts like cubing beef or slicing chicken into strips,” according to Wirecutter, which recommends a few knives that cost between $48 and $200.

Japanese-Chefs-Knife

The fairly comprehensive list of knives below comes from Kitchen Ambition, where you can learn more about each one.

  • Chef’s Knife
  • Paring Knife
  • Santoku Knife
  • Utility Knife
  • Bread Knife
  • Butter Knife
  • Cleaver
  • Carving Knife
  • Slicing Knife
  • Boning Knife
  • Filet Knife
  • Nakiri
  • Mezzaluna
  • Steak Knife
  • Cheese Knives
  • Kitchen Shears

 

Kitchen Knives 101

To narrow down the list of possible knives, we like how chef Billy Parisi walks us through the five staples he thinks you need to consider — and he includes lengths, costs and brands.

Carbon vs Stainless Steel

At Epicurious, knifemaker Will Griffin of W.A. Griffin Bladeworks demonstrates how to choose the best chef’s knife for your culinary needs — starting with the fundamental difference between carbon and stainless steel knives.

Key points:

Carbon steel: The blade reacts with the environment (it can and will rust) but the patina is considered desirable by some. It’s also easy to re-sharpen.
Stainless steel: Never rusts.

Harder metals: Keeps a cutting edge longer but is brittle.
Softer metals: Don’t retain an edge as long but won’t chip.

 

Why Some Japanese Knives Cost $900 to $7,000

For a quick look at how some legendary Japanese knives are made (and why they can cost more than a good used car), watch this short video from Insider. There’s an incredible display of craftsmanship and you will not want to miss seeing how thin a tomato slice can get.

@insider

Why does a Japanese chef’s knife cost anywhere from $900 to $7,000 per knife? #LearnOnTikTok #TikTokPartner #Insider #Japan #chefknife

♬ Stargazing – Official Sound Studio

 

How to Hold a Chef’s Knife

Once you see how Jon-Paul Hutchins, a chef at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, explains how to hold a chef’s knife, you’ll never use your pointer finger again (that’s the one way you should never hold a knife, apparently).

Chopping vs Dicing vs Mincing vs Julienne

Jessica Pulliam, at A Culinary Reaction, offers many no-nonsense tips while demonstrating how to cut vegetables (onions, peppers, carrots), herbs and garlic. 

Standout tip: Place two wet paper towels under the cutting board to prevent it from moving while you chop. Who knew?

How to Chop Garlic and Onions

While Jamie Oliver offers a slick minute-long tutorial on slicing garlic, he doesn’t tell the whole story. We like how Copper Colander culinary instructor chef Cynthia Ware starts from the real beginning (a round thing you have to cut) and includes sly tips along the way, including the fact that sliding a knife sideways across a cutting board will dull the knife quickly.

 

How to Chop Herbs Like Basil, Cilantro and Parsely

Rachael Ray tackles a ton of tips in this three-minute video. Not just chopping but when to tear an herb (to avoid bruising), what to do with stems, and how you can even avoid knives altogether by bundling a bunch of herbs and throwing that in the pan. “Invest in kitchen twine,” she opines.

 

How to Chop Carrots and Celery

There’s an appealing combination of logic and safety coursing through this video by Dave Beaulieu. Carrots and celery are long and roundish; start by making them flat and slicing them in half. You’ll cut your time down immensely thereafter.

 

How to Sharpen Kitchen Knives Like a Pro

For a ridiculously in-depth look at hardcore knife sharpening, Joshua Weissman visited Josh Donald at Bernal Cutlery in San Francisco to get expert advice on Japanese wet stones (coarse, medium and fine grit), the ideal angle created when the blade touches the stone (two quarters high), and how to sharpen with a strop. If you like the 12-minute-long video, Donald has a book too. If you want more minutiae, watch Adam Ragusea’s magnum opus on the subject (24 minutes!).

For a more accessible demonstration of knife sharpening, consider watching Justine Schofield (from @everydaygourmettv) and her three-minute-long video; she is one of the rare chefs to cover whetstone, steel, and 3-stage water sharpeners.

Watch: Rutgers commit Taj White celebrates a big play by doing the ‘CHOP’

Rutgers football gets a ‘CHOP’ from commit Taj White in a recent game.

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Taj White is all in, the Rutgers verbal offensive lineman getting ready for his upcoming transition to the Big Ten by already incorporating the ‘CHOP’ into his on-the-field celebrations.

In a recent game, White got up from blocking an opponent and the first thing he did was the ‘CHOP’ hand motion. The ‘CHOP’ became synonymous with Rutgers during Greg Schiano’s first tenure as Rutgers head coach, the concept being introduced to the program in 2005.

When Schiano returned to Rutgers after the 2019 season, he brought back ‘CHOP’ as well as the ‘F.A.M.I.L.Y’ mantra. A Rutgers superfan on Twitter who goes by @Bori_Blanco found this gem. White’s inclusion of the ‘CHOP’ is reminiscent of Rutgers legends such as Eric Foster and Eric LeGrand both doing the motion on the field after big plays:

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>⁦<a href=”https://twitter.com/NelsonMonegro77?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@NelsonMonegro77</a>⁩ #76 check him out getting up after the pancake 🥞 &amp; immediately doing the chop ⁦<a href=”https://twitter.com/Coach_Aurich?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@Coach_Aurich</a>⁩ ⁦<a href=”https://twitter.com/RFootball?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@RFootball</a>⁩ 🪓💯🇺🇸 <a href=”https://t.co/SD7nsXV0nl”>pic.twitter.com/SD7nsXV0nl</a></p>&mdash; Bori_blanco (@ninaneddieanto) <a href=”https://twitter.com/ninaneddieanto/status/1455967827203084288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>November 3, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

A three-star offensive lineman, White is the No. 14 player in the state according to Rivals.com. He held a number of ‘Power Five’ offers at the time of his commitment in February to Rutgers including Maryland, Nebraska, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech and West Virginia among others.

Greg Schiano on bringing ‘CHOP’ and ‘Keep Chopping’ to Rutgers football in 2005

Rutgers football has a long history with ‘CHOP’ and ‘keep chopping’ that dates back to Greg Schiano in 2005.

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Love it or hate it, Rutgers football has embraced the ‘CHOP’ slogan since 2005. In an interesting twist, it is now being used prominently by another Big Ten program.

Over the past few months, Michigan State has been prominently using the ‘CHOP’ mantra. It is an unusual move from the Spartans to actively use something that is so notably linked to a fellow Big Ten program in Rutgers.

Rutgers (3-2, 0-2 Big Ten) hosts No. 11 Michigan State (5-0, 2-0 Big Ten) on Saturday at noon.

Greg Schiano’s use of ‘CHOP’ and the phrase of  ‘keep chopping’ became prominent in 2006 when Rutgers went 11-2 and won the first bowl game in program history. The idea behind the slogan, which was introduced by Schiano to his Rutgers team the year before, is that the only way to take down a forest of trees is one by one.

So, get started chopping.

“You know, we’ve been doing, ‘Keep Chopping’ since 2005 and Dr. Kevin Elko is, is the person who gave it to me – actually gave it to me in 1999 when I was at the University of Miami- he didn’t just give it to me he gave it to our whole staff,” Schiano told reporters on Monday.

“And it’s funny how things get tucked away and then come out and. But that’s become much more than a word in this program. So, we really, you know, live by that. It’s kind of a big part of our culture.”

 

With his return last year, Greg Schiano brought back ‘CHOP’ along with other mantras from his first tenure at Rutgers including ‘F.A.M.I.L.Y.’