Kiwisizzler

I often get asked about what knives to buy for the home cook (and sometimes chefs) and while part of the decision comes down to aesthetics, make sure you do your research and get the quality you need as well. Consider how much use they will get and try to match that to your budget.

For starters, I wouldn’t recommend buying any knives you don’t really need. What often looks like a great deal with a massive set at a low low price is not always value for money.  Ideally you should have an 8″ (+/-) chef’s knife, a bread knife, a paring knife and a good quality steel at least as long as your longest knife. If you start dealing with whole fish or need to bone out joints of meat, you can always buy a nice boning knife. A block is a good idea as well but another idea is knife guards, so you can store them in a drawer. Magnets look great but once your favourite knife falls onto a bench tip first, you’ll wish you’d stuck with a block!

Paring knife – until a recent upgrade, I’ve always used and recommended dirt cheap (around £5 each) Victorinox paring knives. They hold an edge well enough, considering how much use you get out of them, and are cheap to replace when you throw them out with the vege scraps! Bread knife – You won’t use this one as often but buy something long and, of course, serrated. It can also be sharpened on a steel easily. Check out: http://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Sharpening-Steel for info on knife sharpening. Chef knife – This has to be comfortable for YOU. Best thing to do is try some out at a decent catering shop. Weights, sizes, grips, etc all vary greatly and you will know pretty quickly what feels right for you. Until you know exactly what you want, try not to buy online.

Try and buy ‘forged’ knives over ‘stamped’, particularly for your chef’s knife. They cost more but are so much better!

What I use:

My first set is made by Mundial. Good quality, long lasting, high carbon knives. Not too expensive either – I paid NZD$165 thirteen years ago for a paring, bread, chef knife and steel. The bread and chef knives still going (relatively) strong after 40+ hours a week of use but have recently been relegated to home use. At work I now use a 10″ Solicut chef knife, quite heavy but a great all rounder; Wusthof ‘Culinar’ carving knife, which also doubles as a butcher’s knife for trimming meat; a Mundial ‘Olivier Anquier’ flexi-fillet for boning fish, 2 very sexy Japanese paring knives bought on a recent trip (brand unknown) and my piece de la resistance, a 32-fold mokume-gane santoku blade, also bought in Japan. I wouldn’t trust many people with this baby! My most recent addition was a gift from my wife – a ceramic vegetable knife. Super duper sharp but very fragile. Do not drop – it will shatter!

Other brands to check out:

Most knives made in Solingen, Germany are famous worldwide – these include brands such as J.A. Henckels, Wusthof and Solicut. Also check out Sabatier, Global, Kershaw Shun and Mundial. There are literally hundred’s of other brands out there. Best thing to do is check out a warehouse or shop dedicated to commercial caterers and restaurants. They can give great advice and recommendations. Have a look at Best Chef Knives for heaps more info.

Happy cooking!