The Complete Guide to Kitchen Knives Every Home Cook Needs
After twenty years in professional kitchens, here's every knife you actually need and which ones you can skip.
Walking through any kitchen store, you'll see dozens of different knives. But after two decades of cooking professionally, I've learned that most home cooks need only a few essential knives. Here's my complete guide to what you actually need and what you can save your money on.
The Essential Three
Every home cook needs exactly three knives: an 8-inch chef's knife for most tasks, a paring knife for detailed work, and a serrated bread knife for sliced bread, tomatoes, and delicate items.
The Victorinox Fibrox 8-inch Chef's Knife at under ninety dollars is what I recommend to everyone—it's the most used knife in professional kitchens for good reason. The Wüsthof 8-inch at around two hundred dollars is the upgrade option for those who want the best balance.
For paring, the Victorinox Paring Knife at about twenty dollars works perfectly. And for bread, the Fibrox Serrated Bread Knife at fifteen dollars will last for years.
What to Skip
Don't waste money on knife sets—they always include pieces you'll never use. Also skip single-purpose knives like tomato knives (the serrated edge handles that), santoku (it does the same job as your chef's knife), and fancy cleavers (the basic one handles everything).
Maintaining Your Knives
Keep your knives sharp with a honing steel used before each cooking session. For actual sharpening, a whetstone kit costs about thirty dollars and will last a lifetime.
A quality cutting board is essential—I recommend the John Boos Maple Board at about one hundred dollars for a large board that will protect your knife edges.
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