Chef knives

There is a sub-forum within Equipment that should be a good starting place for you: Cooking Knives - ChefTalk Cooking Forums

A knife name brand is just a name. you need to pick up a knife and be comfortable holding it. I have knives that cost me hundreds each, and then i have one that only cost me under $ 50 so what i am trying to say is that the brand and the cost means nothing t is your comfort!

i may be weird..

but i like buying cheap asian style knives, that have a thin blade, that way i can sharped it easily with a steele and then in a few months throw it out and buy a new one.

Ther is no such thing as "the perfect knife", just as there is no such thing as "the best wine", or "best" anything. It's all very subjective.

Here are some of the factors to consider when looking at knives:

Size of your hands
Preferred type of knife grip
Types of foods being cut
Cutting styles

Sharpening:
There are people who can and do sharpen on an almost daily basis and pay religous detail to keeping bevel angles and spout off the magical formulas of the steel types; and then there are people who send their knives out to get sharpened professionally every couple of months, and then there are people who have a few decent stones and can compentently sharpen their knives with a minimum of fuss or time and get excellent results. What I'm saying here is, whatever works, works.

Place of employment:
If you work in a place with only two or three other staff, and every one knows everyone well, then I have no qualms about bringing in an expensive knife to work. If the place is huge, with people getting hired and fired every day, delivery guys hanging around, waiters hanging around, and lockers getting broken into every week, then I bring the cheapest knives in my kit.

There is nothing more heart-breaking for me personally then having an expensive knife getting stolen or missing, money=bye-bye. It's not perfect anymore, it's gone.

If you want expensive knives, keep them at home untill you feel comfortable bringing then into work. But the magic is not in the knife, it's in the hands and brain of the person handling the knife.

yes tasos, wustofs are good knives...but see if they feel good in your hands. try others while you're at it.

Wusthof is extremely overpriced. For less money, you can get a higher performance steel and superior design. Togiharu is the option I would most consider. I bought one for a friend and sharpened it for him and I consider it an outstanding knife and the money is right. They are thinner and harder than Wusthof and a 240cm Togi will cost you less than a 210cm Wusty so the money is in your favor as well.

You can find them here Molybdenum (gyuto = chef's knife, actually it means Cow Sword but :rolleyes:). Don't worry about purchasing off the internet... this whole thing about "buy what fits in your hand" is true but you won't know it till you spend a few days of prep and settle in. What feels nice at the store might suck after an hour of carrots and vice versa. And really having a sharper edge, which the the Togi is superior to the Wusty at taking and holding, will mean more than hanlde comfort in the end because you will be using less force to cut through that pain in the ***** squash.

I can go into specifics if you are interested regarding the advantages I mentioned but one last thing you need to know before you buy that German knife is that the full bolster on it extends all the way to the edge and it will make like a living HE!.!. when it comes to sharpening. I use a K Sabatier Au Carbone with a similar bolster that I had to modify with a wet grinder.

Best of luck in your schooling... what part of the country are you in? and what direction would you like to go with a culinary degree?

Hi Tasos,

I just wrote a short essay on knives after several friends asked me the same question. Click on my blog and have a read. At the end of the day, what is right for you may not be right for someone else, so as long as you know what brands are worth looking at and how much you want to spend, I'm sure you will find something to suit. See if some of your fellow students will let you have a look at theirs so you get a feel for different styles and weights.

I wouldn't recommend going for the super-hard (60+ Rockwell) Japanese knives, unless you are prepared to look after them like nothing else. They are amazingly sharp and I love them but they are expensive, extremely brittle and they chip easily if not looked after. Not a good thing if you are learning (read: dropping accidentally!), especially in the company of other students who have a tendency to 'test' without position.

Happy cooking and all the best for your studies :smiles:

whatever knives you decide dont forget a few stones to go with them, any knives dull, dont let ANY salesman sell you bs on knives that wont dull. other than that get the best knives you can afford/can use to its full potential. i wouldnt go out and spend a grand on a Kd or somthing like that if i were just a culinary student but thats just me. if you want alot of good info on knives join foodie forums or read there cutlerely forum. every one knows there stuff there.

How do I decide between a santoku or a chef knife?

There is a sub-forum within Equipment that should be a good starting place for you (see note above)