Victorinox for Culinary school

[jokhm]

I just went through my first two weeks of school now and I am supposed to be choosing my knives over the weekend. We have spent a great deal of time pouring through information to find out which is more suitable for us. The school has set up a great deal for the Victorinox knives but every teacher seems to have a different perspective of what we should be doing. They obviously all agree that it is a matter of taste, but some stress the fact that this is a long time investment while others give off the impression that the knives have nothing to do with how we will perform. Maybe that is just a way of avoiding the question....

Anyway, I just wanted to know what everyone here think I should be doing. I have quite a bit of cooking experience and use a mix of Henkels and no-name brands at home. So what would be appropriate? Do I treat this as a learning experience with the future intention of picking up better knives as I go along, or do I do something different?

What I was considering was to go along with what the school recommended (Victorinox), but go with a Global 8" Chef knife, which I get a good deal on ($75 Canadian - $45 US).

Is this overkill?

Thanks!


Jokhm

[phatch]

The owner of www.knifeoutlet.com has this to say about big brand kitchen knives.

QUOTE]Interestingly, we made some blind tests with a panel of six people on classic shaped, forged, full tang, riveted and bolstered European kitchen knives. We tested Henckels Pro S, Wusthof Classic and Sabatier Grand Chef. We had cutting and steeling tests designed to see if one brand would emerge better than the others. No such thing. The panel members couldn't even tell with any kind of statistical consistency which brand was which. I won't get into the details. I'll just tell you that preferences for these three, at least, are based on emotion and preference. On emotion. They all perform exactly the same statistically. We would have tested others but we wanted to stay with models that the panel members couldn't identify by feel alone. No, nobody got cut. Take care.[/quote]

In value for the money, the Forschner line by Victorinox is often considered "best".

Phil

[Marzoli]

Jokhm: One thing I can tell you is that the knives do make a difference. Though I've never been to culinary school, I have spent many years with inadequate knives. When I had the opportunity to buy quality knives, my chopping improved from hack and slash to actually looking like decent cuts.
Quality IS important, and from my own experiece, I'd say buy the best chef knife you can afford, take good care of it, and you'll get lots of reward for your effort.

[kokopuffs]

I'd recommend knives by either R.H. Forschner (they're stainless) or the old Sabatier high carbon steel knives - not the new Sabatier Au Carbone knives. The old ones - some of which are brand new - can still be procured on ebay. I just got an 11 inch Sabatier carbon steel knife on ebay for $60 delivered to my door.