Buying a Kitchen Knife

Whether you are looking for a heavy duty Chef's knife or a small paring knife, or a knife to cut smoked salmon - there's really no absolute recommendation.

There are a few axioms to follow while shopping:

1. Ergonomics -A knife that you can hold comfortably is always the best knife.

2. Heavier is not necessarily better. German style knives, as a matter of style, are almost always heavier than their Asian counterparts.

3. You will always pay more for a Japanese knife.

There are so many options now, you can basically shop in whatever price bracket you want. Forschner's fibrox 8 inch chef knife is available for under $25. This is perfect if you only cook once or twice a week and are sick of cheap department store knives. If you are resolved to buy a really good knife, you'll be spending at least $80. Wusthof's 8 inch classic chef's knife is available for around $90. A chef might spend $300 on a good knife and sushi chefs spend $5000 on a knife. It is unlikely that best knife for a chef will be the best knife for you.

Trusted Brands:

Wusthof, Global, Messermeister, Shun, MAC, Sabatier. Victorinox and Forschner make very good knives at bargain values. They, however don't compare in quality and lack the cosmetic appeal of the others.

Brands to avoid:

Henckels, Chicago Cutlery, retail brands ie. calphalon, cuisinart, kitchenaid, viking and anything with a celebrity chef's name on it.

5 comments:

Jo said...

I agree most part of your writing. But I disagree your “Trusted Brands” like Global, Shun and Sabatier. They are nice looking and made from very good steel but not so easy to handle and use (bottom line over price a lot). Those kinds of knives I may call them good looking knives. Few line of Henckels’ knives use very high quality steel, will balance, nice finish and excellent cutting edge. Most of Henckels’ knives are junk and over price a lot.

The knife style Eastern knives (Chinese or Japanese) always better than Western knives (French knife). Western knife usually have narrow and long blade (blade not high enough). It is difficult to cut big object (chicken, duck, fish, potato … etc.) and impossible doing any detail cut. Eastern knives size usually bigger and heavier than Western knife. Small knives are danger to use because you need place big force to cut object. If knife slippery may cut your fingers.

Unknown said...

Hi, Thanks for the article. The brand you have mentioned I like Victorinox very much. Victorinox not only sells the kitchen knives individually but they have also created different sets that will suit all the needs in your kitchen.

Unknown said...

This was a really great read, appreciation for taking the time to put it together!
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