When practicing his art, he could slice salmon razor thin, as is fashionable today, or a little thicker, in what he called "the old-fashioned way."

What we need are people who can slice salmon.

I didn't know how to slice smoked salmon; I didn't know how to choose brie.

Mr. Pepin tasted potatoes, Mr. Vergnes sliced salmon, and several people fussed over the sausages, which were threatening to lose their shape.

Gary said his father, who learned to choose smoked fish by going to the market at dawn, quickly developed an uncanny ability to slice salmon at an angle so that any blemishes would not be apparent.

I didn't know how to slice smoked salmon or how to write a recipe or how to make a tray of brownies.

If you peek through the windows of the gleaming new part of the smokehouse, you might see them in their blue jumpsuits and white rubber boots, slicing salmon by hand.

Mr. Della Femina concurred, even though, he said, "on the weekends, some people garden; I slice salmon."

To serve, slice salmon across into 8 equal slices and spoon some of the sauce over each serving.

A recent midweek afternoon found him behind the appetizer counter at Zabar's, for example, slicing smoked salmon and chatting with customers about the relative merits of omega-3 fatty acids.