The Chosen One

I often get the "what is the best knife" question, I will give my answer here.

First of all, here is a list of the knives not to buy:

• KNIFE BLOCKS - Unless you paying a lot of money for  a block of knives, and I mean $700-$900.00, don't bother.  
• Ceramic Knives - I don't get the hype, I don't find them all that sharp and they are a bitch to sharpen.
• There is a brand of knives that used to be sold door to door and you can get them online now at ridiculously expensive prices, don't bother with them either.

I understand that the block of 9 knives that you see at Costco or Walmart or other places is tempting, you can get 9 freaking knives for 100 bucks.  Here are the facts, the knives themselves are not that good, they are cheap and very soon you will have a set of dull knives. You will be constantly reminded of that 100 dollars you wasted. It's a trap folks, don't fall for it.

Instead of purchasing a block of cool looking knives, buy ONE good knife.  A single Chef's Knife from MAC, Grohmann, Wusthof, Henckels, Shun and Global, is likely better than that entire set of knives. (Keep in mind that not all these brands are created equal).

The knife in picture above is a Nakiri, (veggie knife) hand made in Japan, brutally sharp and cheaper to purchase than most high end Global and Shun knives. 

When you go buy a knife, you should be thinking also of how you are going to sharpen it. That is the mistake people make and I've been there. Regardless of how much you pay for a knife, it will be dull before long, or at least lose that crisp edge that some new knives have. 

Note that many new knives are not sharp in my opinion.

So, instead of thinking you are saving money buy buying 8 or 10 knives at once for the price of 1 knife, you are not, you are punishing yourself because soon all those knives will be dull. Even if they weren't, you don't all of those anyway.

Here is a nice Global Chef knife, nothing special to be honest but this one knife is probably better than all of those knives in the block and isn't it easier to keep 1 knife sharp than a bunch of them. Globals are easy to sharpen and take a nice edge, they will hold the edge for quite a while but need to be re-sharpened 2-4 times a year depending on use. If this is the only knife you have, look at getting it sharpened 3 times a year at least and if that knife came to me for sharpening, that is $30.00...for the whole year. 

There are so many knives to choose from, I know it is difficult but the folks at Paderno or Cucina Moderna here are knowledgeable and will steer you in the right direction.

Now my next knife will come from Mr. Kevin Kent at Knifewear in Calgary and now in Ottawa. He sells exquisite Japanese hand made knives.
AWESOME KNIVES