Chef Knives!

 I'm often asked what my favourite chef knife is. I sometimes find it difficult to pinpoint the answer to this question because I have a lot. One of my expensive obsessions is buying a beautiful, perfectly crafted blade.  I have so far bought around 9 chef knives. Needless to say an amateur really does not need this many knives for cooking.

To the right are some of my knives I have bought. Starting from the top:
1. Classic Wustof Santoku (I think 7 or 8 inch)
2. Global Chef Knife (G2 8 inch)
3. Shun Classic Double Hollow-Ground Sumo Santoku (7 1/2)
4. Shun Classic Riveted Chef Knife (8 inch)
5. Shun Classic Chef Knife (10 inch)
6. No name brand sushi knife
7. Henckel Utility Knife
8. Henckel Paring Knife

I have since added a 8 inch Bob Kramer Shun knife.









What does one do with so many knives one can ask. Truthfully I do typically have a use for each of the knives. Some days I would use the global or one of my shun or Bob Kramer. For example if I was to fine dice an onion I could use any of them and they would do the job perfectly in some capacity. However having said that I do choose to use my Wustof Santoku. The blade is very strong, durable, and perfectly slices the onion. The blade slices right through the onion and the onion does not fall apart and you don't need to worry about having to push the onion back together to get a perfect dice. Some of the chef knives have rivets on the blades which allows an air pocket to form when slicing produce so it won't stick to the blade. Genius idea!


When I go to a William Sonoma or any kitchen supply store there are some things I look for in a blade:
1. Aesthetics - Is it nice to look at
2. Comfort- When you hold it is it comfortable to hold or is it awkward?
3. Price - For the amount of work that went into the blade is it really worth it?
4. Full Tang or Not - I believe a lot chef knives today are full tang. A knife being full tang means it is a one piece knife. When the blade was crafted the metal part of the blade was one piece and the handle was later added on. When a knife is full tang it allows more control.
5. Does it have a hamon line? If you look at the Shun Knives or Bob Kramer knives a lot of them have a wavy design on it. This is a Damascus steel design. A lot of Japanese knives have a hamon line on them. It is artistic as well, it dates back to the Samurai days. The Katana Samurai would use would typically be forged with several layers of Damascus steel which provides a beautiful design along the blade. 

A lot of cookbooks talking about knives every amateur chef needs in their own kitchen are: 1. Chef Knife/Santoku, 2. Flexible Fillet Knife, 3. Paring Knife.

My view on this is:
- A Chef knife is a must. It can do everything a fillet knife and paring knife does use. If you cannot afford the three of the knives then invest in a good chef knife. As I mentioned before I would recommend the Wustof santoku or even the Global inch chef knife.

- A flexible fillet knife is good if you are cooking fish quite often and want to fillet and debone the fish yourself. A good brand that is relatively inexpensive for a flexible fillet knife is Victorianox.
- A paring knife is helpful when you are trying to peel small things or if you want a nice presentation on your dish you created. Otherwise it is not really necessary to own. I was lucky because when I started to really get into cooking I was looking in our knife drawer at home and my mom has a paring knife and a utility knife that she never used or even looked at! At first I was hesitant to use them because I have never really used a Henckel knife but the Henckel utility knife is one of the sharpest knives I have ever used. Another knife everyone should own is a Chinese cleaver. This doesn't need to be an expensive brand it could be one you buy in Chinatown.  I typically use the clever when I am killing some lobsters. The other brands claim that their chef knives can be used to take a part a lobster but I would rather not use any of my knives but my Chinese cleaver for taking a part a lobster. A lot of the knives have lifetime warranties on the blades but it would be such a hassle sending the knife back and forth.


When you put your chef knife to good use you will eventually need to sharpen it. There are hundreds of youtube videos showing how to hone your chef knife. I would recommend buying a diamond sharpening steel that I bought at the Nella store near Vaughan Mills. Some people say to buy a sharpening machine from a kitchen supply store but I feel some of the machine would eat away some of your blade. With the Diamond Sharpening steel you have more control over it.

Hopefully this helps some of you looking to invest in a chef knife!

KW