Buy a very good chef’s knife. There are expensive options, there are some more affordable options. Carbon steel is best, but there are some very good stainless alloys too. Do some research. Don’t cheap out, this is a tool you’ll buy for life if properly maintained. Pro range Wüsthof, Zwilling or Kai are great options.
Learn how to properly and safely use it.
Learn how to maintain it and keep it razor sharp (not exaggerating, you should be able to shave your arm after sharpening it). I use a dual sided Japanese wet stone (1000/3000 grit), it’s great.
Not only proper knife skills with a good, balanced, sharp knife are much safer and save a lot of time, they also make cutting a joy instead of a chore.
I agree with you 100%, I use both Wüsthof and Zwilling at home and have subscribed to the mindset of “a dull knife is a dangerous knife” for a long time.
However, I would place more emphasis on learning to sharpen a knife and purchasing a whetstone kit, because even the cheapest 2nd hand blade can be made to cut razor sharp at least once.
Yeah I sharpened a shit Ikea knife once. It was good for about 5 minutes. A quality knife holds an edge for a very long time. I use and mine daily and hone them about every other day, and feel the need to resharpen them maybe once every two months.
PSA: a honing steel does NOT sharpen a knife, it straightens the edge and should be used very gently.
Also, never buy knives in kits. First of all, these are shit 99% of the time. And second, when properly used, a chef’s knife is the only knife you’ll ever need.
My point is, in the context of a “cooking hack” perspective, if you’re about to spend 100€ to really up your prep game, spend it on an single, multipurpose, high quality knife instead of six or seven bad ones. There are good kits available, but good kits from reputable brands are super expensive, and you end up paying a lot for knives that won’t see much use.
You can buy a cheap cheese knife where the quality doesn’t matter as much for cheese platters and a decent paring knife later when you’ve mastered your chef’s knife and feel you sometimes need something smaller and more nimble.
But for the everyday cook, where all you need 99% of the time is to quickly and efficiently chop some vegetables, dice some onions and cut some protein, you don’t need anything more than a chef’s knife.
I’m glad to hear that! I have a 8" chef’s knife, 3 ¼ straight paring knife and a 12" serrated slicing knife, they work wonders and I can do everything with them.
Knife skills.
Buy a very good chef’s knife. There are expensive options, there are some more affordable options. Carbon steel is best, but there are some very good stainless alloys too. Do some research. Don’t cheap out, this is a tool you’ll buy for life if properly maintained. Pro range Wüsthof, Zwilling or Kai are great options.
Learn how to properly and safely use it.
Learn how to maintain it and keep it razor sharp (not exaggerating, you should be able to shave your arm after sharpening it). I use a dual sided Japanese wet stone (1000/3000 grit), it’s great.
Not only proper knife skills with a good, balanced, sharp knife are much safer and save a lot of time, they also make cutting a joy instead of a chore.
I agree with you 100%, I use both Wüsthof and Zwilling at home and have subscribed to the mindset of “a dull knife is a dangerous knife” for a long time.
However, I would place more emphasis on learning to sharpen a knife and purchasing a whetstone kit, because even the cheapest 2nd hand blade can be made to cut razor sharp at least once.
Yeah I sharpened a shit Ikea knife once. It was good for about 5 minutes. A quality knife holds an edge for a very long time. I use and mine daily and hone them about every other day, and feel the need to resharpen them maybe once every two months.
PSA: a honing steel does NOT sharpen a knife, it straightens the edge and should be used very gently.
Also, never buy knives in kits. First of all, these are shit 99% of the time. And second, when properly used, a chef’s knife is the only knife you’ll ever need.
Many knife kits come with very nice blocks to store your knives in, and the other sizes are worth having even if you only use them 1% of the time.
I can’t imagine serving a platter of cheese and crackers with a chef kife for example. And there are perfectly good knife sets available.
My point is, in the context of a “cooking hack” perspective, if you’re about to spend 100€ to really up your prep game, spend it on an single, multipurpose, high quality knife instead of six or seven bad ones. There are good kits available, but good kits from reputable brands are super expensive, and you end up paying a lot for knives that won’t see much use.
You can buy a cheap cheese knife where the quality doesn’t matter as much for cheese platters and a decent paring knife later when you’ve mastered your chef’s knife and feel you sometimes need something smaller and more nimble.
But for the everyday cook, where all you need 99% of the time is to quickly and efficiently chop some vegetables, dice some onions and cut some protein, you don’t need anything more than a chef’s knife.
I’ve been out of the knives game for a while, but I’m pretty sure Victorino Fibrox knives are still one of the best bang for the buck.
Removed by mod
I’m glad to hear that! I have a 8" chef’s knife, 3 ¼ straight paring knife and a 12" serrated slicing knife, they work wonders and I can do everything with them.
Yes, a good chef knife really upped my cooking.