As a former line cook myself I totally agree. I never really fell for the expensive knife thing. I have had Dexter Russel and Victorinox knives in my kit since the beginning even after 25 years of being out of the restaurant business I still have the same brand at home. And when my daughter went off to college I got her the same 4 knives that you recommend. I think this video gives great advice.
Yeah, most chefs I've worked with run with pretty cheap knives, they work, they get blunt, you sharpen them they continue to work. I'm the opposite, I love having cool looking knives, I've spent a ton of money over the years on knives, don't regret it either. For me, it's one of the few things you can use to show your personality in a kitchen. Most kitchens have uniforms from hats, jackets, pants, apron, shoes, etc. so it can be nice to break the monotony. It's a personal preference, I know plenty of chef's that run with Kiwi brand knives that they buy for 5 bucks at an Asian grocer and sharpen it daily. The only thing that having a more expensive set gives you over a cheap set is generally the steel is going to hold the edge a lot longer, my main knife is made from VG10, after a good sharpening the edge generally holds as razor sharp for 2-3 weeks of aggresive use, another guy in my kitchen uses Globals, he is lucky to get a week out of it before it's blunt. The majority of that is probably down to technique and possibly even different edge that he uses to sharpen it with, but there is a distinct advantage that high quality gives over lower quality.
I don't need the hardest steel on the face of the earth as long as I have a honing rod. I have had good experiences with Dexter-Russell and Victorinox. As for shape, if you want to change things up, try a cai dao. They may look clunky to people who have never used one, but they're not.
As a professional high end custom kitchen knifemaker... I agree with you. Expensive knives have nothing to do in a professional kitchen/restaurant. But! But, they truly belong to your personal kitchen at home! Where you have time to take care of them, no risk of thief, and you have time to fully enjoy the experience and pleasure they can give you.
So good to see a real expert share their knowledge. I am a knife maker and agree with your advice. I have made knives that sell for north of $750 but as is true with so many things, there is a point of diminishing returns. More $$$ begets very little added benefit. You nailed it!
I'm in exactly the same boat: knifemaker, priced in a similar range, and my own personal kitchen knives are the cheapest, crappiest 440B stainless I could buy. Granted, I have an advantage in that I can take a dull chef's knife, walk next door to my shop and walk back out again with a shaving razor in 10 seconds, 20 if I need to swap belts. But I actually try to discourage my customers from asking me for fancy chef's knives and to invest in good sharpening kits!
I agree with you about the three basic knife types to start off with. My own choice for a 4th knife would be a slicing knife of some kind rather than a boning knife. Most of my knives are either Victorinox or Wusthof - and I would definitely recommend both these manufacturers. Ok I do have one expensive Japanese knife - but it was so pretty, I couldn't help myself!
Boning knives are actually amazing. The fact that it bends makes it a unique experience that other knives just don’t have. Plus with enough practice a chef knife works just as well as a slicing knife
I've got a Wusthof -- Classic 8 inch chef's knife. I hate it. Too thick, too heavy, the bolster makes it impossible to sharpen well. I much prefer the japs, but Victorinox are unbeatable for the money.
I'm a folding knife collector/snob, but it has inevitably led me to doing research on knives from other "realms" as well, such as buschcraft and kitchen. I find that principles of tools ring true throughout all of the categories. You CAN pay more for, really, any part of the knife you want... ornamental rivets, handmade handles, exotic folded steels, etc..., but, at the end of the day, the curve of diminishing returns starts picking up VERY QUICKLY at a VERY LOW price point. As much as I love my $600 pocket knives that were a limited global run of 10 in total, even I can't deny that your average Joe stops receiving substantial tangible benefits after the $50-75 range. What people really need to remember is that when it comes to the kitchen, we aren't just dealing with a situation where your equipment makes or breaks the outcome. Unlike pocket knives where pretty much anyone can do anything with relative success and ease, people seem to forget that the world's finest handcrafted knife straight from Japan isn't going to suddenly make them experts at slicing and dicing or anything else in the kitchen setting. Lots of people seem to buy expensive kitchen knives thinking they will suddenly laser-beam through vegetables like a chef who has been doing it for decades, and that will NEVER be the case.
In my humble opinion, how the handle feels in your hands is a key factor that many people overlook when picking out a "daily" use chef (or santoku) knife. This where brands that uses the same technique in forging their knives can differ greatly when used.
totally agree, i found that i prefer octagonal or d shaped wood handles and partial tang knives for the weight and feel in my hand. Hard to find "cheap" knives with those specs lol.
I suffer from neuropathy due to diabetes, so the thicker the handle, the better. For this reason I favor the Victorinox Fibrox handles, and to boot the knives cut way better and are lighter than more expensive block sets that are available.
Finally someone gets it. I have like 2 big boy expensive showpiece knives that I'll whip out for special occasion but they end up getting cleaned, dried, and put back into their cases. i can abuse the cheaper knives without feeling bad about it.
I think this is a mistake in the purpose of a knife. It’s like people who buy fine China plates but never use them. It’s meant to be used, just like your knives. What good are they if they never get used? Have the nice thing but use it, and you may enjoy it more. Or get more chances to enjoy it
I’ve gone through the same arc as you Brian. I started out in a fancy restaurant where everyone seemed to care so much about expensive, exotic knives. My first knife out of culinary school cost me $250. In the years since then I’ve literally bought Victorinox knives that I can use for anything guilt free
I'm not a cook but upon retiring a little over a year my wife asked me to cook at least two times a week to help out. The problem for me is Arthritis and Neuropathy due to Diabetes, so I started researching to find a knife that would accommodate me. I found the solution in the Victorinox Fibrox knives and couldn't be happier. The Victorinox knives are less expensive then most and light, they cut way better than my spouses old Calphalon knives, and she now is using mine and loving them. Her favorite is the six-inch Chef's pro knife which is her go to now.
I still have and use my Mercer knives from culinary school. Are good moderately priced professional knives. I thought about buying more expensive knives but thought no not now. I have add a few knives to my kit. But still modestly priced and good quality. My knives get the job done. My kit came with a chef’s knife, carving, serrated, boning, and a paring knife. I added a 6 inch Santoku knife and a tourney knife to my kit I was issued in culinary school. I add more tools to it too to make it easier for me to cook. If I don’t need it I take it out of the kit, but that hasn’t happened yet.
For home cooks, there's another great option to replace the chef's knife : a Chinese cleaver. You have to use it to realize that Chinese cleavers are soooo useful in home cook situations, mainly because the big rectangular profiles makes dealing with large vegetables, crushing garlics and scooping things from cutting board so much easier
Dexter russell makes a VERY GOOD chinese chefs knife (not a cleaver, not to be confused with the "dexter russell cleaver that is made in china, which is also great") . This knife is a game changer and very dangerous. It cuts almost everyone that get near it. Be EXTRA cautious, Incredible knife. Its razor sharp and heavy, It cuts under its own weight. Takes some getting used to.
I have nakiri aogami knife. It's much more heavy than my santoki, but it's not useful for preparing apples for french pie or doing any other job where the sharp tip is needed. I have another one petty VG10 knife, it's edges are not reliable as aogami and shirogami knifes. Because aogami and shiragami has much less Cr, Mo, Va they could be sharpened much more faster than VG10 or any other stainless alloy.
Loved this. I never worked as a chef but my wife attended culinary school. When we moved in together 10 years ago she gave me her kitchen aid santoku (~$20) and kept her shun damascus chef knife (~$200). The expensive knife was difficult to sharpen and also chipped easily, the cheap kitchen aid one is still in service today. And despite her training I cook 90% of our meals so there is also a major discrepancy in usage.
The shun is just a harder steel, so it keeps sharper longer, harder to sharpen when it does dull & is more brittle. The harder the knife, the more it is meant for delicate work (like sushi) or someone who knows how to use them.
I had really good experiences with Victorinox swiss army knives, so when it came to kitchenware, I automatically gravitated towards them. I now have their 10" chef knife, paring knife, bread knife, and also a paring knife sized serrated knife (not sure what the technical name for that is) and I'm super happy with them! Excellent quality and I really don't see the benefit in crazy expensive ones. It's just a tool for my kitchen, not a piece of artwork.
That serrated paring knife GETS STUFF DONE, doesn't it? I grab that more than the non-serrated version. My go-to's are the chef's knife, bread knife (also an absolute beast - like crazy sharp), the two paring knives, and I also need the boning knife. So I guess I use five very regularly.
While I agree with everything that is said here, I have to say, I LOVE my Chinese vegetable cleaver over a regular chef's knife. I found it about 3 years ago, and I will never go back. I really think I get more control out of it because of it's weight and handle-to-blade configuration, and for some reason, the thing NEVER gets dull. I have no Idea why. I doesn't stay razor sharp, but it never gets dull. I mean ever. I used the cheapest Amazon one for about 3 years almost daily without sharpening until I upgraded to a slightly more costly one with a better handle shape. I think I spent $35 on the first one and $40-ish on the second one. The steel was visibly better on the latter, and the handle was much better, but did not work any different. If you do try one, I would recommend getting the straightest edge you can. This adds an evenness to cutting a bundle of something. But do not confuse this up with a meat cleaver which is much thicker and is not good for general cutting (although it does have a perfectly straight edge, which is why I mistakenly bought one to start).
I totally agree with you here. I have a $400 Japanese knife, a $250 dollar German knife, and a $30 dollar mercer knife; My favorite of the 3 knives is the $30 dollar 8 inch mercer chef knife.
As an enthusiastic home cook I know how important a knife is. My wife had bought several "very cheap" knives before we lived together. We still have them and I have sharpened them, but they are terrible. You hinted at sharpening. This is a skill I'm becoming obsessed with! Almost any knife can be brought back from the dead if you can get a good edge on it!
Well, the video seems to imply that he's not going for the cheapest knives. Basically a notch above that. Spending $75 on 3 knives isn't exactly 'cheap' since you can pretty much get those types knives for maybe $10-$15 if you really go the cheap route. Still, if you are regularly cooking, at the very least it's very worthwhile to spend a little more for decent knives that won't constantly frustrate you.
When I first started learning to cook, I bought an expensive Japanese knife. Like you said I never felt comfortable using it. It stayed in its nice case most of the time. I finally gave it as a gift to my much better cook daughter and bought a Victorinox which I love and use all the time.
Brian, 100% agree. I too have spent a fortune on High-end knives. Now they sit in my knife drawer next to the Dexter and Mercer knives I use every day. I like the Mercer brand also because they have the weight of the high end knives but not the cost. Thanks!
Hey!! I feel validated. When he said "two brands" I immediately said Victorinox and Mercer. Its funny too because I don't even own a Mercer, but I do own a Dexter. *shrugs*
Good for you, Brian! I have an OLD chef's knife from Chicago Cutlery that is still the best knife EVER! It is, for real, 47 years old. I got it just after my first daughter was born and she will soon be 48. You are so right. Buy what works for you and keep it!
I have a CC chef's knife, too. Probably about the same vintage. At the time it was what I could afford. It is easy to get sharp. I've been given gifts of two other chef's knives that are higher end, but that one is bigger and I'll always find uses for it.
I really appreciate your insight on this! As a home cook with a $70 kitchen aid knife block set, that I have been using for years. It's nice to hear an honest opinion on this, I use my chef's knife about 85% of the time and run it over the sharpener every 2-3 times I use it and I would give it an 8/10 for performance, which is perfect for me! "Gotta work with what you have."
My 3 favorite knives are an 8 inch Portuguese steel Santoku, a 5 inch German steel Santoku, and a 10 inch, offset handle Mercer bread knife. I use these three 80% of the time and they cost a total of less than $100 CDN. I have a fancy $80 French Chefs knife that I use once in a blue moon to chiffonade herbs... mainly out of guilt for not paying enough attention to it. I also have a collection of cheap pairing knives that don't hold an edge worth a damn. I inherited a carbon steel, wood handled Chinese cleaver, that keeps a bloody dangerous edge. I use that once in a while, mainly to justify keeping it to people who ask "Do you ever use that?" I once was at a remote cottage with friends, and the knives there were as sharp as the edge of a table. I spent hours sharpening them with the bottom of a ceramic mug, and they became actual, useful tools for a week. My friends think I am a knife snob because I refuse to use a dull piece of crap knife purchased at a K-Mart in 1959, and I suppose they may be right.
Personally I always aimed at a middle ground between the two extremes to use in the kitchen. So I went for the Wusthof Classic line and honestly never looked back to cheaper knifes that I have used before. A 100% workhorse, no glitter, no frills, no nano-anything... just a good quality blade with a full tang, with comfortable and hygienic riveted resin handles attached. It's a bit more expensive, but not excessively so. I think their Chefs knife clocks in about 80 bucks and well worth the money in terms of edge retention, quality and comfort. I just give it some extra love every 2 years or so and give it to a shop for a professional resharpen to basically reset it back to factory settings (aside from touching it up my self and keeping it honed of course)
@@MenschgebliebeneHasszucht67 Agreed. I can't stand a full bolster on my knives, but I find I prefer the half bolster of the classic Ikon to not having a bolster at all.
@@MenschgebliebeneHasszucht67 I use a Santoku Ikon and it is one of the most comfortable, versatile knife I own. The shape of the handle is spot on, one of the best I tried.
From one brian to another , I totally agree with your take, being a professional cook for 30 years I can say that using the really expensive knives comes at a huge risk in a professional kitchen either being dropped, stolen or someone decides there going to use your knife as a can opener , pry bar or a screwdriver , I say for home use save your money for the best cookware you can afford( or splurge /investment )it will give you the best results and might save you from disasters(burning /scorching) and will make a you a lot better cook then any high end knives,IMO
I bought a no brand chefs knife at Walmart 22 years ago. Used it at least 3 times a week since. Is still razor sharp and I STILL but knives at Walmart. But yep, I LOVE using a whetstone and/or rod. That’s my meditation tool. Nice Video, thanks!
I was able to get a nice forged chefs knife from Zwilling for $40 (sale during holidays) I love it and I feel a forged knife will last longer than a stamped one. Make sure you use a soft material cutting board. No glass or marble or hard materials that will dull your knife. Sharpen when you feel degradation of use (wetstone) and make good food.
I have a couple of Mercer knives that I spent less than $30 each on, and they are great! I've had a couple restaurant jobs over the years and we always used plastic-handled NSF-certified stuff. Easy to clean, easy to hone, and not a big deal if one of them gets thrown away or broken/melted!
Spot on. I use a 10" French, a serrated semi French, and a utility knife for 100% of my needs. Been using the same ones since the 1970's. My favorite that does 90% of my cutting is a forged Dexter 10" French, and if I could only have one that would be it.
Seventh Monkey Thank you. My inexpensive 8" is my go to. I even shook my head when Brian cut a lemon with a paring knife. I cut all veggies with my 8". I don't really understand why people try to cut up celery with a tiny knife.
I have had one of those white-handled Russel chef's knives (and the boning, paring, and bread knives, also Russel) for more than 20 years I think. I live and die by those knives, and have spent a lot of time convincing friends that expensive/pretty is often the opposite of practical/functional. I'm glad youtube recommended this video. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who thinks this way.
I found 2 old Henkels international chef's knife last year at my local flea market at paid 5$ for each. Cleaned and sharpen them and I couldn't be more happy!
Totally agree on the chef’s knife and serrated knife, but I skip the paring knife and boning knife all together and just have a 6” utility knife. It’s small enough for me to choke up on the blade to peel vegetables, but I can also trim meat with it. Not essential, but I love having a Chinese cleaver for vegetables. It doubles as a bench scraper and it’s the best for smashing garlic to a pulp.
I find the fillet knife essential for cleaning and preparing fish, useful for boning meat, and usually a good one costs around $20 at a fishing tackle store
I agree. Mercer makes a really good quality line of knives at a great price, sold through restaurant supply stores. I've used for years in the travel trailer, the ranch/outdoor kitchen, and as leave behinds in places I'm pretty sure I will cook again and want a good knife. I think they perform as well as my Wusthof knives for a lot less money.
Mercer Genesis collection most likely. I have most of that set and use most of the knives because I deal with a wide variety of meals, Asian, European, Mexican and American. I NEED 8 different blades. Having only 3 would be terrible. There are cuts I just couldn't make with only 3 blades. Mercer Genesis BTW uses steel that's a LITTLE softer than what Wusthof uses, so probably less expensive, but it's EASY to sharpen with a pull through, and the handles are wonderful and excellent balance. I wouldn't replace what I have, but I need the Wusthof Classic 8" chef knife and it's a $140 blade. It makes certain cutting so much easier though with its perfect balance and more heft than many cheaper chef knives, so I have both the Mercer Genesis 8" chef and the Wusthof Classic 8". I also need a shorter and longer filet, with the longer being flexible, a pairing knife, a cleaver because I have to go through chicken bone for different Asian cooking. Oh, and every now and then I need a slicer, The extra length is important, and I need a bread knife. Yeah, 10 blades, and I wouldn't want to have less
Yep. I retired from culinary many years ago, but I'm still using my last set of knifes at home that I bought in 1993. Back then the brand was Forschner, similar to Victorinox, same price point, same utility for money. However, when I was one of the first American born Sushi Chefs in the mid 80s, I did spend the money on quality Japanese knives specifically for that. As I moved on from there into Nouvelle, (it was the 80s after all) and into hotels and institutional cooking, I retained the Forschners. 30 years later, still going strong, easy to sharpen and maintain.
Sweet. I remember when Forschners were only (at least in my area) available only with the white handle in the 90's. In the restaurant I worked at as a prep cook, we took pride in using the knives with the darkest stained handles!
I was going to buy a set of 3 for $99 from somebody who has a cooking channel and features a well known wok however your video made so much sense to me that I just purchased all three suggestions from you. The fact that you picked from various manufacturers was a big factor. I also subscribed!
I agree with the breadknife, but I love Wusthof knives. They last forever and are under lifetime warranty. When I was a head chef, I always stuck with my 8" wusthof.
After I completed my apprenticeship I 'upgraded' my 8" Henckels to a 10" Wusthof. Not much of a difference in the blades, but enough that the Wusthof has more of a natural "rocking" motion. Makes a huge difference chopping herbs and slicing cases of produce.
I've got a santoku chef's knife a while back and I use it for everything! It's relatively small, so I feel confident even using the tip for some "precision"ish cuts, and I just love the shape. It's some much more comfortable for me. 10/10 would recommend everyone to try this knife type.
Santoku knives are good knives, just a bit less versatile than a Chef's knife. I think a lot of people like them because they are shorter than the regular chefs knife (Bri was right on saying that 8" is more useful than 10" for many people).
Agreed. My 8" santoku and chef's knives are the two I easily use the most. I like the santoku because it has the cutouts in the blade which appear to help keep veggies from sticking to the blade.
As a little bonus from myself, I have french Tefal EverSharp, this one comes with it's own sharpener and casing in one, so every time you pull it out for work it will be sharp. I have it for 2 years now and I love it.
Well stated and argued. When I decided I wanted a sharp knife to rival my grandmother’s 40 year old Wiltshire ‘Stay Sharp’ I settled on Victorinox. My grandmother’s knife was the only ‘sharp’ knife I’d ever had but decades of use and sharpening every time it was stored had noticeably thinned it out. It is a decent utility knife but I wanted more options. My mom left me her Victorinox bread knife too so I picked up the Victorinox 8” chef, 5” chef/utility, and the 3” paring knife. I also got the honing steel too and hone the knives after cleaning before putting away (in knife protectors) and they remain wonderfully sharp. No more sawing or squish cutting Lol Yayyyy! Affordable, durable, and efficient
I think the sweet spot for chef knifes is in the $50-$200 range. in the $50-$100 you can get something very functional with good steel and ok fit & finish without feeling like you should baby it $100-$200 you can get something made of top quality steel with preference as good as anything more expensive. You may feel like babying it a bit. the cheaper stuff is ok it works. but you get a bulky plastic handle pretty soft Steel you have to sharpen all the time even with quite shallow angels. the blades are often thick so even if they are sharp they still wedge. The spine and choil area are often Sharp and uncomfortable to hold. and they're just about as exciting to use as driving a minivan. For a tool used so frequently its nice if you enjoy using it.
You’ve basically validated my own cutlery. I do almost everything with my 8” Victorinox chef knife, my Case paring knife ❤, and my vintage Cutco serrated knife I inherited. The Case paring knife keeps an edge better than the Victorinox I had. Cutco has a sharpening service, even on their serrated blades.
Back in the 90s, I was training to sell Cutco knives. Yeah, me. An introvert. Anyhoo, I never got out there to sell, but I do own the complete set of Cutco knives. My favorite pieces are the cheese knife, steak knives, and the scissors, which really can cut a penny in half. I know. I did it!
I have 5 non-serrated Victorinox knives, and they all hold an edge exceptionally well except my paring knife. I thought it was a fluke, so I bought another paring knife, and it is slightly better but still not as good as the others.
Everybody will have an opinion when it comes to knives, with myself being no exception. The best knife is the one you use all the time. For me, it comes down to sharpening them. The cheaper the knife, the more you sharpen. I laid down $300 for a good set years ago, and have never regretted it.
I too have been very happy with my single chef knife that I sharpen probably once every month or 2. My parents…they have a $150 set but they’re never sharpened so I fear for my hands when I visit their house 😂
@@classicrockonly In a pinch you can hone a cheap knife with the unglazed brim on the base of a dining plate. You can also strop the knife quickly with a towel or cardboard.
Love the no-nonsense approach. I got a nice thin chef's knife for $30 and it does 90% of the work in my kitchen. My other two knives are a heavier cleaver (good for potatoes etc) and a Henkels breadknife (got it for $9 pre-owned on ebay. I think it's vintage because it says "made in Spain" and looks hella old). Cool stuff, man.
I use old vintage Chicago cutlery that I find at thrift stores. You can find them from 3 to 15 dollars. I clean them and soak them in oil then sharpen them. They look great and cut just as well. Thanks for your time!
I cook some culinary classes at my community College in 2007 and the Victorinox Forschner knife kit was a requirement. I absolutely fell in love. I couldn't believe how inexpensive the set was and how great it was. Prior to that I was saving up for ultra expensive knives and glad I never purchased them! I have all the knives you suggested plus a non-serrated bread knife, serrated paring knife, and steak knives.
I've been using these exact 3 types of knives for my entire [serious] adult cooking life. Funny enough, just recently I thought to myself, "Why do other people have so many knives? I guess there's things I must not understand." Thank you for the validation that I'm actually doing it just fine Brian!
My go-to knife is the Winco 7" x 2" vegetable cleaver. It's literally a $12 knife sold in restaurant supply houses, and strangely , I have noticed a LOT of well-known Chinese chefs use this knife or the slightly larger version. If it is good enough for the chefs that cook 200 covers a day at the speed of Chinese takeout, it's good enough for me.
I am totally with you. I went through that itch of buying expensive knives (still have them...somewhere), but for the last few years an 8" KitchenAid santoku was my go-to knife in my home kitchen. I can do 99% of cutting chores with it. Once you get your basic cutting skills, there is rarely a need in extensive/expensive knife set.
Over the past 60 years or more I've tried and used a variety of knives. I very much like the 10" chef's knife, and I owned a carbon steel one for 40 of those years and for which I paid $75 in 1967 More recently, like the past 20 years or so, I've used a cheap Chinese cleaver-like knife for the great majority of my food prep work. It does everything my chef's knife does and provides the added benefit of serving as a handy picker-upper for great mounds of chopped, diced and minced ingredients that relieves me of having to find one of my bench-scrapers. I do use a 3" paring knife, as well as a 10" serrated knife. Over the decades, I've owned (and sometimes even used) a variety of special-purpose knives, like the set of boning and fileting knives that set me back a bit and that I hardly ever used. I even had two of those ceramic knives that were supposed to be the wonders of the kitchen back in the 1990s; they weren't wonders at all, they were way too expensive for the modest utility they provided, and, worst of all they were super fragile and couldn't be sharpened once dull. I'm not now nor have I ever been a professional cook or chef. However I'm demanding when it comes to the tools and ingredients I use in my kitchen. That being said, I comment only on my personal experiences in my home kitchen. The bottom line is that I don't buy fad knives or very expensive ones. I buy moderately priced knives that have the feel and balance that make me feel comfortable at the cutting board. I want blades that I can easily and quickly sharpen and maintain with minimum effort. The only exception regarding sharpening is my cheap $20 serrated knife, which I've had for at least 30 years and exhibits no visible sign of wear.
Your knife advice is, IMO, pretty good. Certainly your brand recommendations are on point. I own a professional sharpening business (NOT the guy showing up at a farmers market with a grinding wheel) and have sharpened thousands of kitchen cutlery knives. Victorinox is at the top of my list for a bang for the buck knife and I could happily use nothing else. I often recommend them to customers looking for new knives. Your sharpening advice, however, could use some revision. There's lots of misinformation floating around regarding sharpening and the internet hasn't been any help in getting the right info out there. I'm not about to preach about it on anyone's channel, but suffice to say there's no reason any knife cannot be sharpened by anyone on sharpening stones. A little training and practice is all it takes. It's definitely a learned skill, but it's not rocket science. Otherwise, thanks for the great channel on cooking. As a former like cook and pretty darn good home cook, I'd say its nice to see someone teaching the basics to get great results.
As someone who bought a cheap stone to sharpen on, and used a cheap knife to do so, it doesn't take too long to do so. From what I've gathered it's about the knife material and it's ability to hold an edge. While a honing rod will keep it straight, it may not keep it sharp. But I get not everyone has the time or want to learn to do so.
You're very correct, the way he portrays using the honing steel to quickly "sharpen" the cheap knife is just incorrect and it also doesn't mention that honing steel would be used on a more expensive knife as well to keep the blade straight. He also dramatizes the difficulty of stone sharpening which may put people off of it but I would say even cheap knives benefit greatly from a good clean sharpen.
He did greatly oversimplify it, and you're not wrong. But for your everyday guy at home to get something to feel sharp again, honing a cheap knife, or sliding it through those cheap plastic sharpeners for 3mins is all it takes while being a hell of a lot faster and more comfortable that whipping out several sharpening stones. And you just aren't gonna do those things to a 700$ rare knife are you?
@@dermax_hd I'd say that whether you're using a cheap knife or not, your best results will always be with sharpening stones. Pull through sharpeners visit all kinds of evil on your knives. Eventually they make a concave section in the blade edge, so part of the edge will not touch the cutting board. They also round off the point as you drag the blade all the way through. I have literally fixed hundreds of kitchen knives sharpened with pull through sharpeners. You do get an edge that will cut, but it isn't nearly as good as a honed edge. You can get away with just two sharpening stones, and they will last you years if not decades. And if you sharpen often, you only need five minutes to get your knife razor sharp.
@@chadlewis3515 Fair enough I get your point yeah. For the vast majority of people however, spending 20$ on a decent knife, and literally developing no skill to get a good cutting edge with a pull through sharpener and honing rod will be the way to go. eventually the cheap sharpener will destroy the cheap knife, possibly faster than with a sharpening stone but whatever you're just gonna spend another 20$ after five years which is perfectly fine. and your knifes really don't need to be awfully sharp to be able to cut really good and safely already which is what you can already achieve with a cheap sharpener and rod
Mercer is also a pretty awesome, affordable kitchen knife option. I'm a big 4 knife set fan. I have a a mercer bread knife and medium flex boning knife (they're awesome) and still have my 40 yr old Henckel's 3 pc set. I've only ever used the chef's and paring knife. The utility knife just never gets used.
There's a 5th kinda knife you should mention, IMO: Chinese-style chef's knife, often called a "cleaver" knife but they tend to be a lot more balanced than the things that get sold as that in the west. I got one a while back and I swear it's easier to do detail work with that than with even a really nice Japanese knife. And the width of it makes it easy for moving food around. And the weight of it makes it just glide through a lot of stuff that you'd have to force with other knives. I know they look intimidating, but this style of knife is great, and if I only had one knife it would be that one.
There's a whole orthodoxy you would need to overcome to get most people into the cai dao. I love mine too, and yeah, once you're comfortable with them, they'll do everything a knife and a bench scraper will do with extensive overlap with a mortar and pestle as well, but the average joe is just too timid to even try one. You can preach the gospel, I'm just saying, prepare to be disappointed. Just treat it more like a secret only you know.
@@kiltedcripple just watch a few episodes of Yan Can Cook and take your time when cutting. im thinking about getting a dexter chinese knife and seeing how it compares to my gyuto.
Just got the mercer chinese knife with full tang handle,its very high quality but haven't used it yet. Mercer imho is the best bang for buck knifemaker of them all, they're made in taiwan,but chinese knife made in Portugal afaik. Bottom line is Mercer has better prices for very high quality than anyone.
As a professional sharpener I've referred your advice onto others often. "Vickies" and Dexters are great knives. Dexters are much tougher than the Vickies and a staple for butchers and meat line workers. The only small correction I'd offer (which is largely irrelevant) is that a boning knife and a filet knife although often being similar shapes are different in one key area. The boning knife has a much thicker spine and is stiff whereas the filleting knife (is what you've shown) has a thin spine and it easily flexible. Great and useful video. You deserve the success that you've had with it Brian.
my life changed when i finally bought my first petty/utility knife. I remember seeing all these famous cooks on YT doing their prep work with a utility knife and i was enamored with them. When i got my first job in the kitchen i bought the misen 5 inch utility knife and had a custom saya made for it and it has been my go to knife for pretty much everything.
I cannot say how much I really appreciate this video. I was feeling lost when it came to trying to figure out what to look for whennit came to kitchen knives. Thank you so much for this Brian!❤️
Travis Pelley As I stated in another reply, go to a chain restaurant supply store. Not an expensive chi-chi home kitchen store though. Chain restaurant supply stores carry good kitchen products including knifes that wear well but don't cost much. Get one that has a plastic handle and feels good in your hand. That's all you need. I have an expensive knife but never use it. My $20-30 knives are just fine.
@@bayanon7532 I agree with you here. While a fancy knife is great if you have it, I don't have that sort of money or commitment to honing it properly with whetstones and such. Bought my forged dexter russell 10" knife from a restaurant supply place for 30 bucks and haven't looked back since.
Very interesting video. The knife you want definitely depends on who you are and the application of it. I'll never recommend that an occasional home cook buy a $300 knife, and almost always a cheap knife that's easily replacable with a decent sharpener will do just fine. However for extensive and professional use, it's definitely nice to have a high quality knife that, if properly maintained, will outlast you.
Haha now I have an image in my head of chefs having Crocodile Dundee moments in the kitchen competing with their knives. Appreciate you sharing tips that not only help people have better knives, but save money too. Nice to hear it's not required to spend a huge amount of money. Cheers Brian ✌️
I am a gourmet home cook and pay about $25 - $30 for knives. I use them all every day and these all serve their purpose quite well. Thanks for this video showing that you don’t need an expensive tool to do the trick! I also have a Ninja kitchen system that blends and mixes dough for me just fine. 😊
I have had my 10'' Dexter with full tang rosewood handle and forged bolster since I went to cooking school in the early 1970's.Admittedly it is used in a domestic environment, but I still love it's heft, comfort and ability to maintain an edge with very little maintenance . I also use a 12'' Victorinox serrated slicer from the same period and it is still going strong. My son, however, uses Japanese knives and when well tuned, they are a joy to use.
Very good info. I have a couple of Henckels that I really like but find myself defaulting most of the time to the 8" Chicago cutlery chef's knife. My father gave it to me around 25 years ago and it's still in great shape.
My favorite go-to knife is a Mercer culinary boning knife. They're like $13 basically making them disposable, and are surgically sharp. I have other chefs knives, including the 10" Dexter chefs knife you suggested, as well as an 8" version. The 8" definitely gets more use.
never used their boning knife, but their chef's knives sharpen up fine too. They come hollow ground so I reprofile them to a standard edge the first time I sharpen them.
Thanks for putting this advice out there! When I was setting up my kitchen for the first time, I thought I should buy some pricey knife block set. Thankfully, I stumbled across ATC's recs and got myself a chef's knife, serrated, and paring, altogether for ~$60. They're all excellent. I think there's the conceit out there that cooking well = expensive tools, but that's just not the case.
Equipment vs skill (and ingredients). Spot on. Goes for any craft/skill - from cooking, to playing guitar. The best of the best will make the cheapest of the cheap look like the best of the best.
Preach! As a chef returning to the trade after few years I just purchased exactly those three knives (before watching your video). I found over many years of being a professional chef that those three knives were all i needed. I also went for Victorinox partially because of its quality to price value, partially in case I lose or break them. Great vid dude!
I am a cook by profession and blacksmith/knife maker by hobby. Besides that i also run a small knife sharpening business that is the best in my small town. I can appreciate a beautiful knife like no other. In my kit is a 230$ gyuto from japan, an antique 1950's tranchelard sabatier and many other pretty knives in between. However, my daily driver is an old beaten up masahiro nakiri that i bought for 33 dollars in ebay. I beat that knife to a pulp every day, sharpen a new edge every 2 months and i enjoy it very much. Its not about the price tag of something. Its about the quality of that tool and the time you spent into research and digging to tkae such a good deal. My biggest flex in the kitchen is that my 8 knife kit only costs up to about 400 or less (CAD). Most of my tools are thrifted, bought on ebay or restored from a dump or made from scratch in my workshop. My petty knife is a cheese knife that i reprofiled and heat treated into a petty knife and put a new handle on it. That thing costed me 48¢. Its the worth of the tool, not the price of the tool.
I have to say that my confidence in the kitchen improved when I found a smaller chef knife that fit my hands very well. I paid about $10 for it at the grocery store. It is cheap and easy to sharpen but most of all I am not scared that I am going to lop a finger off and it is just a more comfortable knife in my hands. I love this knife so much that I have a little stock pile of them put back and have 3 that are in use in my kitchen at all times.
I have a bunch of expensive Japanese knives, and admittedly my knife kit is a fair bit bigger (but I started out with those 3 styles). For me anyway, I have 3 knives that have really stood out over time for me, and I would say my enjoyment using them has been far greater than other, cheaper versions of those knives I've used. I went into a knife shop expecting to spend around $120 on a petty, and I ended up trying one that was around $400 and...it was just perfect. It was the perfect size, shape, and weight for my hand, and razor sharp. I tried some that were more expensive and cheaper, and none of them felt as good, this one just felt like it was custom made just for me. I have a yanagiba which is also a specialty knife, but if you like making sashimi or want to be able to slice meat so thin you can see through it, it's an amazing, and unique tool for a specific, niche purpose, and it was a big upgrade from my other also expensive, but less specialized knives for the purpose. And I have a santoku from a very well known blacksmith, which I also bought because it felt perfect in my hand. Another big price one, but the quality of the knife is outstanding, the first time I cut an onion with it, there was 0 resistance, it was like cutting through the food with a laser. It wasn't new, I got a good deal on it from the knife shop, and it was a demo model that they sharpened while I waited, but it instantly became my new favorite and go-to knife. Not to say "Expensive is always better" but to say that there are a lot of knives out there, and my experience has been that if you follow your instincts and handle a lot of knives, you can find ones that feel perfect for YOU, and those may be expensive or they may not be. But I think finding something that feels "right" in your hand is well worth the investment if you enjoy cooking and/or cook a lot. Working with a knife that you actually love is game changing, and makes me look forward to prep work that previously I would have just accepted that I had to do as part of the process.
When I was in college, I did a lot of my own cooking, but after I got married in 1981, my wife did the majority of it. This past year, she was diagnosed with cancer, and I was pressed back into the cook role. I had always just used a pairing knife in the past. As someone with no training except what I learned from mom, I thought it was time to pick up some new skills, so I have been watching UA-cam videos to see what I could learn. I've started using a chef knife from our Chicago cutlery set, and after a good sharpening, I wondered why it took me so long to try it. I still like my Walmart Good Cook pairing knife because it is thin, and I can get it very sharp. Thanks for your information, I can see where the serrated knife would be useful. I don't think I'll ever be a culinary wizard, but with help from guys like you, at least we'll not starve, and we might even enjoy some tasty food.
Right. I have a set of Old Homestead knives I bought new circa 1980. Came with a steel which I replaced eventually. They work fine. Over the years I've picked up a few other things-- a smaller, thinner chefs knife, a used boning knife that's really flexible, a ceramic rod sharpener. I like the newer knives because they're thinner than the Old Homestead set, but it's all run of the mill stainless, 440 I think. You don't need much.
I do love my Victorinox knives. They hold an edge really well and have a great price point. Cooks Illustrated agreed with your assessment as well. I purchased the knife sharpener they recommended with great results so rather than disposing of my knife I tune it up and it's lasted me years. The look of a Damascus knife is really cool however so I would love to own it just to collect.
Got the 12 forks / spoons / breakfast knives kit from them liek 15 years ago... Those knives are still as sharp as day 1. You could cut of an arm, if thats for you... Never sharpened them or anything. Best purchase ever
This was fantastic. When I was working in the culinary world I bought a chefs knife that was medium expensive, as I recall. Not cheap for what I was making monetarily but also not a bank breaker. Ultimately, I decided that kitchen work was not for me and I went into mental health, but I took the knife with me. That was a little over 20 years ago and that knife is still going strong. Once I put an edge on it with a sharpening steel, it’s good to go.
After using cheap to sorta-mid range knives (Mercer, etc.), what I love about the Victorinix knives is the grip. There's something about it that sticks to my hand, even with gloves and slime.
Been doing this for years. Its amazing what you can do with a chefs knife. We would always get consistently sharp knives from our knife sharpening service. Depends on your experience skill and how you use it. We always kept our good knives for home use.
Good talk. I've been using my Victorinox knives for two years. Best kitchen purchase I ever made. As you say, they may not be the absolute best knives, but they are BY FAR the best value. They're better quality than a lot of knives costing 2-3 times as much. I'll never want anything else.
Brian, I have to tell you this is the most factual, practical, useful knife advice I have ever seen on UA-cam. I have been collecting knives as an amateur home cook for 30 years. I agree 100% with everything you have said in this video. When you described the Victorinox and Dexter knives as the 'Toyota Corollas' of the knife world, I nearly fell off my chair. I have been saying the exact same thing in recent years. I have so many high end Japanese knives, both handmade artisan knives and a large collection of Globals and Shuns. I have owned countless Zwilling knives, hundreds of knives over 30 years. At 48 years of age I have realised the Victorinox Fibrox and Swibo are all I ever needed. I also have a Dexter Chinese cleaver and large butcher knife. Thank you for this incredibly useful video mate! Every young person starting off in cooking should watch this video.
I get a lot of use out of my butcher's knife. I like the way its sheer mass helps the edge drive through stuff like unpeeled fruit, crispy pizza, large meat cuts, the skulls of my foes, etc.
i'm a knife head. i'm glad you totally support me :) good thing about fancy knives is their resale value. also, i've nearly given up my paring knives for petty knives. Bri is definitely correct on one front (if not all), you should NOT get fancy knives if you're not committed to sharpening with a whetstone. Care for your knives as a chef/home cook is very important as is, but with fancy knives it's of the utmost importance. I personally prefer a mix of the two. I have beater chefs knife, petty, and paring and the remaining are fancy.
I use a stone on my mid-range knife but I never am really sure if I'm doing it well enough or just making it worse very slowly. But I can usually keep it able to cut receipt paper with just the weight of the knife and a bit of horizontal movement so I guess thats not bad.
Victor i-nox, is probably something produced by apple :) while victor-(ey)-nox is a swiss sword/knife brand also for myself a boning knife is essential, even more than a serrated one, mostly because I like working with fish a lot.
I dropped an expensive chefs knife on my tile floor in the kitchen and it broke an inch off of the tip. I really liked that knife but I did not replace it. Bought a decent Chicago Cutlery to replace it and never looked back. It sharpens really easily and the edge holds up for hours of use. Good advice in this video.
Based on my experience making high quality knives, and seeing knives coming in for sharpening, what you say is for most knife owners true. That's because most people rarely maintain their knives (ie sharpen). A dull dollar store knife is really no different than a dull expensive knife. But if dull knives are the bane of your existence, and you don't want to be sharpening every two days, you need good steel, which holds its edge a long time and is actually easier to sharpen. Dollar store knives will not hold their edge well, and will be dull a high percentage of the time. To test this, hold your knife under a bright light like a range hood light or the sun, and with the cutting edge facing the light you should not see any light reflecting off the apex of the cutting edge. If you do, your knife is dull wherever it reflects.
Who's talking about dollar store knives here? I've had a few Victorinox knives for a few years and the wife insists on chopping with them rather than slicing and I only just had to sharpen them for the first time a month ago. And most of the time if you can see reflections off the edge of the blade it's just the edge has folded over one way or the other, which you can fix with a few strokes on a steel. If using the steel doesn't fix the shiny spots then you need to sharpen. But like I said my Victorinox knives have held up great with just a steel while getting put through the dishwasher and used more forcefully than is really proper for years and only just needed their first sharpening since the factory a month ago.
@@whorhaydelfuego7190 that's fine if you aren't concerned with performance. Imagine a paperclip, straightened out. Bend the paperclip back and forth in the same spot. The steel becomes weak, and eventually breaks. When you use a steel to realign the apex of the blade, you are weakening the steel around the apex. It becomes just like the bent portion of the paperclip, and leads to less edge retention. When you eventually sharpen the knife, you'll have to remove all the fatigued steel from the apex to expose fresh steel and actually know what your knife is capable of. Brand new, straight from the factory, most mass produced knives have fatigued steel at the apex from the grinding process. You may have never experienced what your knife is capable of. With that said, if you do your research and try to find a quality kitchen knife made with quality steel, it the performance will blow your mind. Find out what experienced people are saying about the heat treat and the HRC (hardness) rating. Knives can be found well under $100 that will cause your Victorinox knives to gather dust.
@@oceanwaves83 If you're sharpening every time you get a burr, which is a folding over edge, then you are certainly going to remove far more metal more quickly than if you just use a steel to straighten the edge, and sharpen as needed. Look I'd love to buy into the hand made is clearly superior koolaid but the fact is that factory methods are going to turn out tools of a higher quality day in and day out. Materials obviously matter but I don't think I've ever owned a knife made of a material so poor as what goes into paper clips. Feel free to waste your life sharpening and wearing out knives that don't need it though, and keep up that mysticism, it's surely good for your knifes chakra.
@@whorhaydelfuego7190 Lol, you can remain in darkness as long as you like. It means nothing to me. If you ever want to get serious about sharpening, you'll realize there's nothing better than never forming a burr to begin with.
@@whorhaydelfuego7190 To jump into the sharpening, eh hum, discussion... I am a knife sharpener as a hobby for about 3 years. All my knives are mirrored-edged, razor-sharp, hair whittling, blah, blah, blah. Once you are a very sharp edge on an 8000 grit whetstone or strop with diamond paste, the edge will roll over on cheaper steels. That is why some chefs buy the super steel, VG10, and Damascus knives. A honing stick is easy to keep your edge sharp. However, if you are a frugal person that wants good stuff, learn how to strop with diamond paste (Gunny Juice or Stroppy Stuff) and easily and quickly maintain a great knife.
I spent 15 years as a cook, chef, hospitality manager, culinarian. I 100% agree with the assessment that nearly all home chefs can get away with using these 3(4) knives for everything for decades. That said, I have that exact Dexter Russel chef's knife and I hate using it. The handle is uncomfortable. Victorinox make great blades with fantastic handles and I whole heartedly recommend them to anyone who asks for a recommendation. They absolutely hands down have the best bread knives, especially for the cost. Another Swiss knife maker produces my favorite paring knives - Kuhn Rikon. They are small 3" blades, but come with durable plastic sheaths. I have at least half a dozen of them. I can toss them in a bag, a drawer, or a pocket and the sheath protects the edge and my hands. They come in lots of colors too. What I use everyday though are my German high carbon steel professional Wusthof and Henckels knives. Please don't confuse them with the cheap knock off stamped steel crap these brands have come out with in the last 20 years. Don't get me wrong, I like quality stamped steel knives. See my recommendation above for Victorinox. For any professional though I recommend the good German knives over the Japanese knives. My Wusthof has been dropped to a kitchen floor more than once during the heat of a kitchen rush and shown no worse for the wear. I can't count the number of Japanese knives I've seen chipped, cracked, and missing points from anything but the most delicate handling. If you want to stroke off your wallet and ego and spend large chunks of salary on them, go ahead. The only professional that be using these delicate knives every day are sushi chefs. Anyone looking to round out their collection a bit more, a proper Chinese "cleaver" are great for slicing and chopping veggies and boneless meats. If you roast or BBQ huge primal cuts, a granton slicer is good. Last tip - if you have smaller hands or want something lighter than a classic European chef's knife - get a Santoku. Very versatile style of blade, just doesn't handle bigger tasks as well.
Handles are like shoes of different styles but the same size - some feel good while others feel off. I've been using the DR for over 20 years now (not a chef, just home cooking) and it's been great for me. My mom, who has smaller hands, likes the Victorianox chef knife's handle.
I do agree with the general message - however I would personally recommend a hand forged, heavy chef knife for better chopping. Moreover I would recommend a flexible filleting knife, especially for filetting and deskinning fish.
Very helpful, thank you! If you end up doing a follow up, would love to learn about general kitchen items that don't get a lot of attention (storage containers, pans, measuring cups, etc.). End up using these daily but have never really put any thought in quality options or helpful tips and tricks.
This video was great. The fancy, expensive knives always seemed intimidating and confusing. It’s good to know us home cooks have good, affordable options. I’d love to see more equipment content.
Expensive things are all about getting the nice thing you are interested in. They aren't about "need," they are all about "want". No one needs a Porsche GT3, but a person who's into German rear engine sports cars would likely be very happy with one even though it get groceries just as good as a base model Civic. With all that said no one should be telling anyone else how they should spend their money and no one should be admonished for buying something good enough or something expensive they enjoy.
Lazy attitude. Learn how to use high quality equipment and You'll have a high quality outcome. Cheap knives are cheap for a reason. They are expensive in the long run but deliver low quality results.
Good video. Even those of us who really enjoy using and maintaining some higher end knives often appreciate having some simple, no frills, less expensive blades handy that will take a decent edge. And many professional cooks also find those useful in busy kitchen environments of course. The brands you listed here are some of the best bang for the buck available in kitchen knives, and are going to be superior to what many home cooks already have, especially if they learn to maintain the edges or have them professionally sharpened on occasion. All that said, people should also be aware that there is a huge variety of blades available in between stamped plastic handled knives and super expensive hand forged Japanese or custom knives. For example, the Victorinox rosewood series have very nice handles for slightly more money and may be more appealing for many people in terms of aesthetics and feel. Mac and Tojiro have real Japanese blades in good steel with decent handles available for reasonable prices. Some people may prefer the lightness and thinner blades of typical Japanese styles. Anyway, good video and l would certainly encourage those who don't know much about knives to follow your advice here rather than wasting a bunch of money on the overpriced sets of garbage but cool looking knives marketed on social media.
While I've been anguishing over the internet looking at the myriads of different knife sets available (but I need this knife for this! and that knife for that!), your (very much appreciated!) video, coming from the perspective of a pro chef speaking to this avg. Joe puts the task back into the proper perspective, so, a heartfelt THANK YOU.
Victorinox 8 inch chef, 4 inch utility knife. Had them so long, love them so much, I bought a second chef as my "special company knife". (show off!) I am currently considering the Serrated 9" Offset. This video made me feel great!
I am a former chef and a professional knife sharpener. I love knives, especially ones made with exotic steels. That said, your advice to your viewers is essentially 100% spot on though I would say that Victorinox steel is somewhat superior to Dexter's. And as another viewer wrote, the fit and comfort of the handle is almost as important as the blade.
Perhaps it's true for the larger Victorinox knives. The small ones get dull quite fast, I find mysef having to touch up the edge on the small paring knife twice a day sometimes. That said, I find it indispensable, despite the mediocre edge retention. For a chef knife I use a Fiskars - seems to have a steel hard enough to keep the edge goung for some time, and also takes a very fine, razor-sharp edge, which on the small Vics is impossible to achieve. Of course for fondling and occasional use I have a Japanese bi-metal santoku 🙂
Thank you for making this video. 🙏 I, too was into expensive knives for a while, and I still have and love some that are, but tbh, there's just something about those "in the trenches" knives that make me more motivated to use them more...the knives that are generally inexpensive like the DEXTER and VICTORINOX knives just seem more like productivity workhorses to me. I feel like I'm drawn to them because I've always admired people who make the most of what they have when they have so little. Thank you for reminding people that not only can they get by with more inexpensive equipment, but oftentimes _it's more worth it_ to do so.
I used a nakiri branded as a usuba, but it's actually double bevelled. Straight blades are better for push cutting, while curved blades are more of pull cutting. Which is why the Japanese came up with the santoku, which is basically a hybrid of a nakiri with a gyutou.
I have many knives.... Most are expensive but never come off the magnetic racks on the wall... I use an inexpensive paring , a bread, a 10 inch Chefs but almost exclusively, about 95%, an 8 inch Chinese Chef's knife... Pretty much a slightly rounded "cleaver".... Cost about 30 bucks, had it for ten years, still works like it's brand new... Hands down my favorite. Take care.
Very true Bri. I have an expensive Japanese knife that I use when I can cook for pleasure and I have a couple of cheaper knifes that I use regularly that I don’t have to worry about chipping or damaging. Much less stress. In addition, the best bread knife I have used was a £28 Opinel bread knife that came recommended by a French baker based in the UK. It glides through a rustic sourdough easily with no tearing and the blade looks A1 after years. Up to a point you pay for quality, after that it’s craftsmanship, looks or brand.
As a former line cook myself I totally agree. I never really fell for the expensive knife thing. I have had Dexter Russel and Victorinox knives in my kit since the beginning even after 25 years of being out of the restaurant business I still have the same brand at home. And when my daughter went off to college I got her the same 4 knives that you recommend. I think this video gives great advice.
Once you use the commercial grade knives it's impossible to go back to anything else.
Yeah, most chefs I've worked with run with pretty cheap knives, they work, they get blunt, you sharpen them they continue to work. I'm the opposite, I love having cool looking knives, I've spent a ton of money over the years on knives, don't regret it either. For me, it's one of the few things you can use to show your personality in a kitchen. Most kitchens have uniforms from hats, jackets, pants, apron, shoes, etc. so it can be nice to break the monotony. It's a personal preference, I know plenty of chef's that run with Kiwi brand knives that they buy for 5 bucks at an Asian grocer and sharpen it daily.
The only thing that having a more expensive set gives you over a cheap set is generally the steel is going to hold the edge a lot longer, my main knife is made from VG10, after a good sharpening the edge generally holds as razor sharp for 2-3 weeks of aggresive use, another guy in my kitchen uses Globals, he is lucky to get a week out of it before it's blunt. The majority of that is probably down to technique and possibly even different edge that he uses to sharpen it with, but there is a distinct advantage that high quality gives over lower quality.
@@Chzydawg Everybody has their favorite knives, I agree.
I totally understand, but i just love my Japanese knives because of their beauty and their shapes. The octagonal handle is just super comfortable too.
I don't need the hardest steel on the face of the earth as long as I have a honing rod. I have had good experiences with Dexter-Russell and Victorinox.
As for shape, if you want to change things up, try a cai dao. They may look clunky to people who have never used one, but they're not.
As a professional high end custom kitchen knifemaker... I agree with you. Expensive knives have nothing to do in a professional kitchen/restaurant. But!
But, they truly belong to your personal kitchen at home! Where you have time to take care of them, no risk of thief, and you have time to fully enjoy the experience and pleasure they can give you.
So good to see a real expert share their knowledge. I am a knife maker and agree with your advice. I have made knives that sell for north of $750 but as is true with so many things, there is a point of diminishing returns. More $$$ begets very little added benefit. You nailed it!
They are great art pieces... but why waste an art piece...
@@TheDeathmail When you view your tools as art pieces, you have a problem.
I'm in exactly the same boat: knifemaker, priced in a similar range, and my own personal kitchen knives are the cheapest, crappiest 440B stainless I could buy. Granted, I have an advantage in that I can take a dull chef's knife, walk next door to my shop and walk back out again with a shaving razor in 10 seconds, 20 if I need to swap belts. But I actually try to discourage my customers from asking me for fancy chef's knives and to invest in good sharpening kits!
I agree with you about the three basic knife types to start off with. My own choice for a 4th knife would be a slicing knife of some kind rather than a boning knife. Most of my knives are either Victorinox or Wusthof - and I would definitely recommend both these manufacturers. Ok I do have one expensive Japanese knife - but it was so pretty, I couldn't help myself!
Boning knives are actually amazing. The fact that it bends makes it a unique experience that other knives just don’t have. Plus with enough practice a chef knife works just as well as a slicing knife
Just use a chef's knife wtf
I've got a Wusthof -- Classic 8 inch chef's knife. I hate it. Too thick, too heavy, the bolster makes it impossible to sharpen well. I much prefer the japs, but Victorinox are unbeatable for the money.
I'm a folding knife collector/snob, but it has inevitably led me to doing research on knives from other "realms" as well, such as buschcraft and kitchen. I find that principles of tools ring true throughout all of the categories. You CAN pay more for, really, any part of the knife you want... ornamental rivets, handmade handles, exotic folded steels, etc..., but, at the end of the day, the curve of diminishing returns starts picking up VERY QUICKLY at a VERY LOW price point. As much as I love my $600 pocket knives that were a limited global run of 10 in total, even I can't deny that your average Joe stops receiving substantial tangible benefits after the $50-75 range.
What people really need to remember is that when it comes to the kitchen, we aren't just dealing with a situation where your equipment makes or breaks the outcome. Unlike pocket knives where pretty much anyone can do anything with relative success and ease, people seem to forget that the world's finest handcrafted knife straight from Japan isn't going to suddenly make them experts at slicing and dicing or anything else in the kitchen setting. Lots of people seem to buy expensive kitchen knives thinking they will suddenly laser-beam through vegetables like a chef who has been doing it for decades, and that will NEVER be the case.
me: $60 isnt that much for a pocketkni- .... oh
I hope you never get into collecting swords. Pocketknives are addictive enough! Good point about the diminishing returns thing.
In my humble opinion, how the handle feels in your hands is a key factor that many people overlook when picking out a "daily" use chef (or santoku) knife. This where brands that uses the same technique in forging their knives can differ greatly when used.
Yeah if it’s not comfy then it doesn’t matter how sharp it is.
Right behind that is a belly line which matches your style of cutting!
totally agree, i found that i prefer octagonal or d shaped wood handles and partial tang knives for the weight and feel in my hand. Hard to find "cheap" knives with those specs lol.
This is why I love my shun, most comfortable knife I own.
I suffer from neuropathy due to diabetes, so the thicker the handle, the better. For this reason I favor the Victorinox Fibrox handles, and to boot the knives cut way better and are lighter than more expensive block sets that are available.
Finally someone gets it. I have like 2 big boy expensive showpiece knives that I'll whip out for special occasion but they end up getting cleaned, dried, and put back into their cases. i can abuse the cheaper knives without feeling bad about it.
totally. it's kind of liberating, right?
I use my expensive knives everyday and I love it. I know if I mess them up I can get them fixed.
I've got my one fancy, Japanese Damascus chef's knife, but it was a gift and I use my Henckels chef knife or my Shibazi way more frequently
@@BrianLagerstrom But the knife snobs will still come to their defense.
I think this is a mistake in the purpose of a knife. It’s like people who buy fine China plates but never use them. It’s meant to be used, just like your knives. What good are they if they never get used? Have the nice thing but use it, and you may enjoy it more. Or get more chances to enjoy it
I’ve gone through the same arc as you Brian. I started out in a fancy restaurant where everyone seemed to care so much about expensive, exotic knives. My first knife out of culinary school cost me $250. In the years since then I’ve literally bought Victorinox knives that I can use for anything guilt free
I'm not a cook but upon retiring a little over a year my wife asked me to cook at least two times a week to help out. The problem for me is Arthritis and Neuropathy due to Diabetes, so I started researching to find a knife that would accommodate me. I found the solution in the Victorinox Fibrox knives and couldn't be happier. The Victorinox knives are less expensive then most and light, they cut way better than my spouses old Calphalon knives, and she now is using mine and loving them. Her favorite is the six-inch Chef's pro knife which is her go to now.
I still have and use my Mercer knives from culinary school. Are good moderately priced professional knives. I thought about buying more expensive knives but thought no not now. I have add a few knives to my kit. But still modestly priced and good quality. My knives get the job done.
My kit came with a chef’s knife, carving, serrated, boning, and a paring knife. I added a 6 inch Santoku knife and a tourney knife to my kit I was issued in culinary school. I add more tools to it too to make it easier for me to cook. If I don’t need it I take it out of the kit, but that hasn’t happened yet.
Never heard anyone butcher the pronunciation of Victorinox so hilariously. Sounds like he’s talking about a dignified gentleman named, “Victor Rinox”
he's totally trolling us with that!
@@KF1 tbh I’m not so sure…
@@sluggishnu Nobody who can read would pronounce it that way :)
@@KF1 who knows? Americans pronounces Nokia as No-kia, and not Nok-ia.
@simulacrae They also pronounce Sportage as Sportadge. In this case it was funny tho.
For home cooks, there's another great option to replace the chef's knife : a Chinese cleaver. You have to use it to realize that Chinese cleavers are soooo useful in home cook situations, mainly because the big rectangular profiles makes dealing with large vegetables, crushing garlics and scooping things from cutting board so much easier
I use a cheap good cleaver at home. It’s awesome. Not so precise in my hands but a workhorse
@@MarkWitucke +1 more. Sometimes you just need a bigger hammer!🤣
Dexter russell makes a VERY GOOD chinese chefs knife (not a cleaver, not to be confused with the "dexter russell cleaver that is made in china, which is also great") . This knife is a game changer and very dangerous. It cuts almost everyone that get near it. Be EXTRA cautious, Incredible knife. Its razor sharp and heavy, It cuts under its own weight. Takes some getting used to.
I have nakiri aogami knife. It's much more heavy than my santoki, but it's not useful for preparing apples for french pie or doing any other job where the sharp tip is needed. I have another one petty VG10 knife, it's edges are not reliable as aogami and shirogami knifes. Because aogami and shiragami has much less Cr, Mo, Va they could be sharpened much more faster than VG10 or any other stainless alloy.
I've never owned one, but once a week I need one.
Loved this. I never worked as a chef but my wife attended culinary school. When we moved in together 10 years ago she gave me her kitchen aid santoku (~$20) and kept her shun damascus chef knife (~$200). The expensive knife was difficult to sharpen and also chipped easily, the cheap kitchen aid one is still in service today. And despite her training I cook 90% of our meals so there is also a major discrepancy in usage.
Love this 😢
The shun is just a harder steel, so it keeps sharper longer, harder to sharpen when it does dull & is more brittle. The harder the knife, the more it is meant for delicate work (like sushi) or someone who knows how to use them.
I had really good experiences with Victorinox swiss army knives, so when it came to kitchenware, I automatically gravitated towards them. I now have their 10" chef knife, paring knife, bread knife, and also a paring knife sized serrated knife (not sure what the technical name for that is) and I'm super happy with them! Excellent quality and I really don't see the benefit in crazy expensive ones. It's just a tool for my kitchen, not a piece of artwork.
Tomatoe knife
Victorinox wins the American test kitchen best knife contest every year
That serrated paring knife GETS STUFF DONE, doesn't it? I grab that more than the non-serrated version. My go-to's are the chef's knife, bread knife (also an absolute beast - like crazy sharp), the two paring knives, and I also need the boning knife. So I guess I use five very regularly.
The Victorinox semi-rigid boning knife is indispensable if you do any butchery
Sure is a funky way of pronouncing Victorinox!!
I was laughing whenever he said it.
Victorhainocks
I think it’s a tactic to provoke comments, since comments help improve the algorithm
@@Simplifier123 'Hadn't thought of that. Lol. Perhaps you're right!
"Victorr-ee-nox" is the correct pronunciation.
Thanks!
I bought a set of Henckel's 4-star knives 30 years ago and I still use them today.. I really love the handles - they just fit my hand really well.
Me too! 33 years and they are still going strong. Pretty amazing now that I think about it.
All mine lost their tips over time
This is absolutely fantastic information for home cooks. It's nice to see you using the knives and seeing which ones you use. Thanks!
While I agree with everything that is said here, I have to say, I LOVE my Chinese vegetable cleaver over a regular chef's knife. I found it about 3 years ago, and I will never go back. I really think I get more control out of it because of it's weight and handle-to-blade configuration, and for some reason, the thing NEVER gets dull. I have no Idea why. I doesn't stay razor sharp, but it never gets dull. I mean ever. I used the cheapest Amazon one for about 3 years almost daily without sharpening until I upgraded to a slightly more costly one with a better handle shape. I think I spent $35 on the first one and $40-ish on the second one. The steel was visibly better on the latter, and the handle was much better, but did not work any different. If you do try one, I would recommend getting the straightest edge you can. This adds an evenness to cutting a bundle of something. But do not confuse this up with a meat cleaver which is much thicker and is not good for general cutting (although it does have a perfectly straight edge, which is why I mistakenly bought one to start).
Good to know there's a difference between meat and veggie cleavers.
Which knife do you go with? (the upgraded to the slightly more costly one)
@@jdamommio I'm still waiting also in anticipation lol
I like my nakiri, which is a Japanese-style vegetable cleaver. Similar to the Chinese one, but less tall.
I totally agree with you here. I have a $400 Japanese knife, a $250 dollar German knife, and a $30 dollar mercer knife; My favorite of the 3 knives is the $30 dollar 8 inch mercer chef knife.
LMAO I have a chef friend who seethes over that type of thing, he will ONLY touch his superior Japanese knives
🤣
As an enthusiastic home cook I know how important a knife is. My wife had bought several "very cheap" knives before we lived together. We still have them and I have sharpened them, but they are terrible. You hinted at sharpening. This is a skill I'm becoming obsessed with! Almost any knife can be brought back from the dead if you can get a good edge on it!
Well, the video seems to imply that he's not going for the cheapest knives. Basically a notch above that. Spending $75 on 3 knives isn't exactly 'cheap' since you can pretty much get those types knives for maybe $10-$15 if you really go the cheap route. Still, if you are regularly cooking, at the very least it's very worthwhile to spend a little more for decent knives that won't constantly frustrate you.
When I first started learning to cook, I bought an expensive Japanese knife. Like you said I never felt comfortable using it. It stayed in its nice case most of the time. I finally gave it as a gift to my much better cook daughter and bought a Victorinox which I love and use all the time.
Brian, 100% agree. I too have spent a fortune on High-end knives. Now they sit in my knife drawer next to the Dexter and Mercer knives I use every day. I like the Mercer brand also because they have the weight of the high end knives but not the cost. Thanks!
Mercers are great!
Hey!! I feel validated. When he said "two brands" I immediately said Victorinox and Mercer. Its funny too because I don't even own a Mercer, but I do own a Dexter. *shrugs*
It's not t he weight as much as the ballance that is so good
Good for you, Brian! I have an OLD chef's knife from Chicago Cutlery that is still the best knife EVER! It is, for real, 47 years old. I got it just after my first daughter was born and she will soon be 48. You are so right. Buy what works for you and keep it!
I have a CC chef's knife, too. Probably about the same vintage. At the time it was what I could afford. It is easy to get sharp. I've been given gifts of two other chef's knives that are higher end, but that one is bigger and I'll always find uses for it.
I really appreciate your insight on this! As a home cook with a $70 kitchen aid knife block set, that I have been using for years. It's nice to hear an honest opinion on this, I use my chef's knife about 85% of the time and run it over the sharpener every 2-3 times I use it and I would give it an 8/10 for performance, which is perfect for me! "Gotta work with what you have."
My 3 favorite knives are an 8 inch Portuguese steel Santoku, a 5 inch German steel Santoku, and a 10 inch, offset handle Mercer bread knife. I use these three 80% of the time and they cost a total of less than $100 CDN. I have a fancy $80 French Chefs knife that I use once in a blue moon to chiffonade herbs... mainly out of guilt for not paying enough attention to it. I also have a collection of cheap pairing knives that don't hold an edge worth a damn. I inherited a carbon steel, wood handled Chinese cleaver, that keeps a bloody dangerous edge. I use that once in a while, mainly to justify keeping it to people who ask "Do you ever use that?" I once was at a remote cottage with friends, and the knives there were as sharp as the edge of a table. I spent hours sharpening them with the bottom of a ceramic mug, and they became actual, useful tools for a week. My friends think I am a knife snob because I refuse to use a dull piece of crap knife purchased at a K-Mart in 1959, and I suppose they may be right.
Personally I always aimed at a middle ground between the two extremes to use in the kitchen.
So I went for the Wusthof Classic line and honestly never looked back to cheaper knifes that I have used before.
A 100% workhorse, no glitter, no frills, no nano-anything... just a good quality blade with a full tang, with comfortable and hygienic riveted resin handles attached.
It's a bit more expensive, but not excessively so. I think their Chefs knife clocks in about 80 bucks and well worth the money in terms of edge retention, quality and comfort.
I just give it some extra love every 2 years or so and give it to a shop for a professional resharpen to basically reset it back to factory settings (aside from touching it up my self and keeping it honed of course)
Wüsthof Classic Ikon for me 🙋🏼♂️
@@MenschgebliebeneHasszucht67 Agreed. I can't stand a full bolster on my knives, but I find I prefer the half bolster of the classic Ikon to not having a bolster at all.
Have you thought about getting Cutco knives? They are higher quality
I like those knifes too. WMF and Zwilling make these kinds of knives too.
@@MenschgebliebeneHasszucht67 I use a Santoku Ikon and it is one of the most comfortable, versatile knife I own. The shape of the handle is spot on, one of the best I tried.
“Victor Eye Knox” 😂😂😂
"Victor E Nox"😊😂😂😂
From one brian to another , I totally agree with your take, being a professional cook for 30 years I can say that using the really expensive knives comes at a huge risk in a professional kitchen either being dropped, stolen or someone decides there going to use your knife as a can opener , pry bar or a screwdriver , I say for home use save your money for the best cookware you can afford( or splurge /investment )it will give you the best results and might save you from disasters(burning /scorching) and will make a you a lot better cook then any high end knives,IMO
I bought a no brand chefs knife at Walmart 22 years ago. Used it at least 3 times a week since. Is still razor sharp and I STILL but knives at Walmart. But yep, I LOVE using a whetstone and/or rod. That’s my meditation tool. Nice Video, thanks!
I was able to get a nice forged chefs knife from Zwilling for $40 (sale during holidays) I love it and I feel a forged knife will last longer than a stamped one. Make sure you use a soft material cutting board. No glass or marble or hard materials that will dull your knife. Sharpen when you feel degradation of use (wetstone) and make good food.
I have a couple of Mercer knives that I spent less than $30 each on, and they are great! I've had a couple restaurant jobs over the years and we always used plastic-handled NSF-certified stuff. Easy to clean, easy to hone, and not a big deal if one of them gets thrown away or broken/melted!
Spot on. I use a 10" French, a serrated semi French, and a utility knife for 100% of my needs. Been using the same ones since the 1970's. My favorite that does 90% of my cutting is a forged Dexter 10" French, and if I could only have one that would be it.
Seventh Monkey
Thank you. My inexpensive 8" is my go to. I even shook my head when Brian cut a lemon with a paring knife. I cut all veggies with my 8". I don't really understand why people try to cut up celery with a tiny knife.
I have had one of those white-handled Russel chef's knives (and the boning, paring, and bread knives, also Russel) for more than 20 years I think. I live and die by those knives, and have spent a lot of time convincing friends that expensive/pretty is often the opposite of practical/functional. I'm glad youtube recommended this video. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who thinks this way.
I found 2 old Henkels international chef's knife last year at my local flea market at paid 5$ for each. Cleaned and sharpen them and I couldn't be more happy!
Totally agree on the chef’s knife and serrated knife, but I skip the paring knife and boning knife all together and just have a 6” utility knife. It’s small enough for me to choke up on the blade to peel vegetables, but I can also trim meat with it.
Not essential, but I love having a Chinese cleaver for vegetables. It doubles as a bench scraper and it’s the best for smashing garlic to a pulp.
I have knives that cost upward of $600, but my go-to knife is a 50-cent 8" Calphalon I bought at a thrift shop. Fit like a glove I love it.
I love to hear of someone's treasure find at a thrift store, especially when the object is quality and of daily use.
I find the fillet knife essential for cleaning and preparing fish, useful for boning meat, and usually a good one costs around $20 at a fishing tackle store
I agree. Mercer makes a really good quality line of knives at a great price, sold through restaurant supply stores. I've used for years in the travel trailer, the ranch/outdoor kitchen, and as leave behinds in places I'm pretty sure I will cook again and want a good knife. I think they perform as well as my Wusthof knives for a lot less money.
Mercer Genesis collection most likely. I have most of that set and use most of the knives because I deal with a wide variety of meals, Asian, European, Mexican and American.
I NEED 8 different blades. Having only 3 would be terrible. There are cuts I just couldn't make with only 3 blades.
Mercer Genesis BTW uses steel that's a LITTLE softer than what Wusthof uses, so probably less expensive, but it's EASY to sharpen with a pull through, and the handles are wonderful and excellent balance. I wouldn't replace what I have, but I need the Wusthof Classic 8" chef knife and it's a $140 blade. It makes certain cutting so much easier though with its perfect balance and more heft than many cheaper chef knives, so I have both the Mercer Genesis 8" chef and the Wusthof Classic 8".
I also need a shorter and longer filet, with the longer being flexible, a pairing knife, a cleaver because I have to go through chicken bone for different Asian cooking.
Oh, and every now and then I need a slicer, The extra length is important, and I need a bread knife.
Yeah, 10 blades, and I wouldn't want to have less
I had a Mercer boning knife. I got sick of trying to sharpen it every time I tried to use it. I threw it in the trash and bought a Victorinox.
Yep. I retired from culinary many years ago, but I'm still using my last set of knifes at home that I bought in 1993. Back then the brand was Forschner, similar to Victorinox, same price point, same utility for money. However, when I was one of the first American born Sushi Chefs in the mid 80s, I did spend the money on quality Japanese knives specifically for that. As I moved on from there into Nouvelle, (it was the 80s after all) and into hotels and institutional cooking, I retained the Forschners. 30 years later, still going strong, easy to sharpen and maintain.
Sweet. I remember when Forschners were only (at least in my area) available only with the white handle in the 90's. In the restaurant I worked at as a prep cook, we took pride in using the knives with the darkest stained handles!
I was going to buy a set of 3 for $99 from somebody who has a cooking channel and features a well known wok however your video made so much sense to me that I just purchased all three suggestions from you.
The fact that you picked from various manufacturers was a big factor.
I also subscribed!
I agree with the breadknife, but I love Wusthof knives. They last forever and are under lifetime warranty. When I was a head chef, I always stuck with my 8" wusthof.
After I completed my apprenticeship I 'upgraded' my 8" Henckels to a 10" Wusthof. Not much of a difference in the blades, but enough that the Wusthof has more of a natural "rocking" motion. Makes a huge difference chopping herbs and slicing cases of produce.
Fell in love with the Chinese "chop chop" while I was living in Beijing. It now replaced the chef knife for me. ❤️
I've got a santoku chef's knife a while back and I use it for everything! It's relatively small, so I feel confident even using the tip for some "precision"ish cuts, and I just love the shape. It's some much more comfortable for me. 10/10 would recommend everyone to try this knife type.
Santoku knives are good knives, just a bit less versatile than a Chef's knife. I think a lot of people like them because they are shorter than the regular chefs knife (Bri was right on saying that 8" is more useful than 10" for many people).
Agreed. My 8" santoku and chef's knives are the two I easily use the most. I like the santoku because it has the cutouts in the blade which appear to help keep veggies from sticking to the blade.
agree. I use my small santoku 90% of the time.
As a little bonus from myself, I have french Tefal EverSharp, this one comes with it's own sharpener and casing in one, so every time you pull it out for work it will be sharp. I have it for 2 years now and I love it.
Well stated and argued. When I decided I wanted a sharp knife to rival my grandmother’s 40 year old Wiltshire ‘Stay Sharp’ I settled on Victorinox. My grandmother’s knife was the only ‘sharp’ knife I’d ever had but decades of use and sharpening every time it was stored had noticeably thinned it out. It is a decent utility knife but I wanted more options. My mom left me her Victorinox bread knife too so I picked up the Victorinox 8” chef, 5” chef/utility, and the 3” paring knife. I also got the honing steel too and hone the knives after cleaning before putting away (in knife protectors) and they remain wonderfully sharp. No more sawing or squish cutting Lol Yayyyy! Affordable, durable, and efficient
Squish cutting...haha... I envison squashed tomatoes. Been there, done that.
I think the sweet spot for chef knifes is in the $50-$200 range. in the $50-$100 you can get something very functional with good steel and ok fit & finish without feeling like you should baby it $100-$200 you can get something made of top quality steel with preference as good as anything more expensive. You may feel like babying it a bit. the cheaper stuff is ok it works. but you get a bulky plastic handle pretty soft Steel you have to sharpen all the time even with quite shallow angels. the blades are often thick so even if they are sharp they still wedge. The spine and choil area are often Sharp and uncomfortable to hold. and they're just about as exciting to use as driving a minivan. For a tool used so frequently its nice if you enjoy using it.
I love this concept from Mac. I want 1y to get a rebate for my chef knife. Easy to maintain will a great quality for the price
You’ve basically validated my own cutlery. I do almost everything with my 8” Victorinox chef knife, my Case paring knife ❤, and my vintage Cutco serrated knife I inherited. The Case paring knife keeps an edge better than the Victorinox I had. Cutco has a sharpening service, even on their serrated blades.
Back in the 90s, I was training to sell Cutco knives. Yeah, me. An introvert. Anyhoo, I never got out there to sell, but I do own the complete set of Cutco knives. My favorite pieces are the cheese knife, steak knives, and the scissors, which really can cut a penny in half. I know. I did it!
I have 5 non-serrated Victorinox knives, and they all hold an edge exceptionally well except my paring knife. I thought it was a fluke, so I bought another paring knife, and it is slightly better but still not as good as the others.
Everybody will have an opinion when it comes to knives, with myself being no exception. The best knife is the one you use all the time. For me, it comes down to sharpening them. The cheaper the knife, the more you sharpen. I laid down $300 for a good set years ago, and have never regretted it.
I too have been very happy with my single chef knife that I sharpen probably once every month or 2. My parents…they have a $150 set but they’re never sharpened so I fear for my hands when I visit their house 😂
How many knives were in the set?
@@Andrew-wp1bz 3. I've added a Santoku (sp) and a deboning. The Santoku gets the most use by far.
@@classicrockonly In a pinch you can hone a cheap knife with the unglazed brim on the base of a dining plate. You can also strop the knife quickly with a towel or cardboard.
Love the no-nonsense approach. I got a nice thin chef's knife for $30 and it does 90% of the work in my kitchen. My other two knives are a heavier cleaver (good for potatoes etc) and a Henkels breadknife (got it for $9 pre-owned on ebay. I think it's vintage because it says "made in Spain" and looks hella old).
Cool stuff, man.
I use old vintage Chicago cutlery that I find at thrift stores. You can find them from 3 to 15 dollars. I clean them and soak them in oil then sharpen them. They look great and cut just as well. Thanks for your time!
I cook some culinary classes at my community College in 2007 and the Victorinox Forschner knife kit was a requirement. I absolutely fell in love. I couldn't believe how inexpensive the set was and how great it was. Prior to that I was saving up for ultra expensive knives and glad I never purchased them! I have all the knives you suggested plus a non-serrated bread knife, serrated paring knife, and steak knives.
I've been using these exact 3 types of knives for my entire [serious] adult cooking life. Funny enough, just recently I thought to myself, "Why do other people have so many knives? I guess there's things I must not understand." Thank you for the validation that I'm actually doing it just fine Brian!
My go-to knife is the Winco 7" x 2" vegetable cleaver. It's literally a $12 knife sold in restaurant supply houses, and strangely , I have noticed a LOT of well-known Chinese chefs use this knife or the slightly larger version. If it is good enough for the chefs that cook 200 covers a day at the speed of Chinese takeout, it's good enough for me.
Yeah, I have a 7" cleaver that is my go-to knife and it cost me $20. Love it.
I am totally with you. I went through that itch of buying expensive knives (still have them...somewhere), but for the last few years an 8" KitchenAid santoku was my go-to knife in my home kitchen. I can do 99% of cutting chores with it. Once you get your basic cutting skills, there is rarely a need in extensive/expensive knife set.
Over the past 60 years or more I've tried and used a variety of knives. I very much like the 10" chef's knife, and I owned a carbon steel one for 40 of those years and for which I paid $75 in 1967 More recently, like the past 20 years or so, I've used a cheap Chinese cleaver-like knife for the great majority of my food prep work. It does everything my chef's knife does and provides the added benefit of serving as a handy picker-upper for great mounds of chopped, diced and minced ingredients that relieves me of having to find one of my bench-scrapers. I do use a 3" paring knife, as well as a 10" serrated knife.
Over the decades, I've owned (and sometimes even used) a variety of special-purpose knives, like the set of boning and fileting knives that set me back a bit and that I hardly ever used. I even had two of those ceramic knives that were supposed to be the wonders of the kitchen back in the 1990s; they weren't wonders at all, they were way too expensive for the modest utility they provided, and, worst of all they were super fragile and couldn't be sharpened once dull.
I'm not now nor have I ever been a professional cook or chef. However I'm demanding when it comes to the tools and ingredients I use in my kitchen. That being said, I comment only on my personal experiences in my home kitchen. The bottom line is that I don't buy fad knives or very expensive ones. I buy moderately priced knives that have the feel and balance that make me feel comfortable at the cutting board. I want blades that I can easily and quickly sharpen and maintain with minimum effort. The only exception regarding sharpening is my cheap $20 serrated knife, which I've had for at least 30 years and exhibits no visible sign of wear.
Your knife advice is, IMO, pretty good. Certainly your brand recommendations are on point. I own a professional sharpening business (NOT the guy showing up at a farmers market with a grinding wheel) and have sharpened thousands of kitchen cutlery knives. Victorinox is at the top of my list for a bang for the buck knife and I could happily use nothing else. I often recommend them to customers looking for new knives. Your sharpening advice, however, could use some revision. There's lots of misinformation floating around regarding sharpening and the internet hasn't been any help in getting the right info out there. I'm not about to preach about it on anyone's channel, but suffice to say there's no reason any knife cannot be sharpened by anyone on sharpening stones. A little training and practice is all it takes. It's definitely a learned skill, but it's not rocket science. Otherwise, thanks for the great channel on cooking. As a former like cook and pretty darn good home cook, I'd say its nice to see someone teaching the basics to get great results.
As someone who bought a cheap stone to sharpen on, and used a cheap knife to do so, it doesn't take too long to do so. From what I've gathered it's about the knife material and it's ability to hold an edge. While a honing rod will keep it straight, it may not keep it sharp. But I get not everyone has the time or want to learn to do so.
You're very correct, the way he portrays using the honing steel to quickly "sharpen" the cheap knife is just incorrect and it also doesn't mention that honing steel would be used on a more expensive knife as well to keep the blade straight. He also dramatizes the difficulty of stone sharpening which may put people off of it but I would say even cheap knives benefit greatly from a good clean sharpen.
He did greatly oversimplify it, and you're not wrong. But for your everyday guy at home to get something to feel sharp again, honing a cheap knife, or sliding it through those cheap plastic sharpeners for 3mins is all it takes while being a hell of a lot faster and more comfortable that whipping out several sharpening stones. And you just aren't gonna do those things to a 700$ rare knife are you?
@@dermax_hd I'd say that whether you're using a cheap knife or not, your best results will always be with sharpening stones. Pull through sharpeners visit all kinds of evil on your knives. Eventually they make a concave section in the blade edge, so part of the edge will not touch the cutting board. They also round off the point as you drag the blade all the way through. I have literally fixed hundreds of kitchen knives sharpened with pull through sharpeners. You do get an edge that will cut, but it isn't nearly as good as a honed edge. You can get away with just two sharpening stones, and they will last you years if not decades. And if you sharpen often, you only need five minutes to get your knife razor sharp.
@@chadlewis3515 Fair enough I get your point yeah. For the vast majority of people however, spending 20$ on a decent knife, and literally developing no skill to get a good cutting edge with a pull through sharpener and honing rod will be the way to go. eventually the cheap sharpener will destroy the cheap knife, possibly faster than with a sharpening stone but whatever you're just gonna spend another 20$ after five years which is perfectly fine. and your knifes really don't need to be awfully sharp to be able to cut really good and safely already which is what you can already achieve with a cheap sharpener and rod
Mercer is also a pretty awesome, affordable kitchen knife option. I'm a big 4 knife set fan. I have a a mercer bread knife and medium flex boning knife (they're awesome) and still have my 40 yr old Henckel's 3 pc set. I've only ever used the chef's and paring knife. The utility knife just never gets used.
F. Dick also makes great and affordable professional knives.
There's a 5th kinda knife you should mention, IMO: Chinese-style chef's knife, often called a "cleaver" knife but they tend to be a lot more balanced than the things that get sold as that in the west. I got one a while back and I swear it's easier to do detail work with that than with even a really nice Japanese knife. And the width of it makes it easy for moving food around. And the weight of it makes it just glide through a lot of stuff that you'd have to force with other knives. I know they look intimidating, but this style of knife is great, and if I only had one knife it would be that one.
There's a whole orthodoxy you would need to overcome to get most people into the cai dao. I love mine too, and yeah, once you're comfortable with them, they'll do everything a knife and a bench scraper will do with extensive overlap with a mortar and pestle as well, but the average joe is just too timid to even try one. You can preach the gospel, I'm just saying, prepare to be disappointed. Just treat it more like a secret only you know.
@@kiltedcripple just watch a few episodes of Yan Can Cook and take your time when cutting. im thinking about getting a dexter chinese knife and seeing how it compares to my gyuto.
I regularly use a Chinese chef's knife. Very practical and often easier to use than a German knife.
Just got the mercer chinese knife with full tang handle,its very high quality but haven't used it yet. Mercer imho is the best bang for buck knifemaker of them all, they're made in taiwan,but chinese knife made in Portugal afaik. Bottom line is Mercer has better prices for very high quality than anyone.
@@kiltedcripple 1.6 billion people can't be wrong.
Mass and carbon steel edge becomes an extension of the will.
As a professional sharpener I've referred your advice onto others often. "Vickies" and Dexters are great knives. Dexters are much tougher than the Vickies and a staple for butchers and meat line workers. The only small correction I'd offer (which is largely irrelevant) is that a boning knife and a filet knife although often being similar shapes are different in one key area. The boning knife has a much thicker spine and is stiff whereas the filleting knife (is what you've shown) has a thin spine and it easily flexible.
Great and useful video. You deserve the success that you've had with it Brian.
my life changed when i finally bought my first petty/utility knife. I remember seeing all these famous cooks on YT doing their prep work with a utility knife and i was enamored with them. When i got my first job in the kitchen i bought the misen 5 inch utility knife and had a custom saya made for it and it has been my go to knife for pretty much everything.
I cannot say how much I really appreciate this video. I was feeling lost when it came to trying to figure out what to look for whennit came to kitchen knives. Thank you so much for this Brian!❤️
Travis Pelley
As I stated in another reply, go to a chain restaurant supply store. Not an expensive chi-chi home kitchen store though. Chain restaurant supply stores carry good kitchen products including knifes that wear well but don't cost much. Get one that has a plastic handle and feels good in your hand. That's all you need. I have an expensive knife but never use it. My $20-30 knives are just fine.
@@bayanon7532 I agree with you here. While a fancy knife is great if you have it, I don't have that sort of money or commitment to honing it properly with whetstones and such. Bought my forged dexter russell 10" knife from a restaurant supply place for 30 bucks and haven't looked back since.
Very interesting video. The knife you want definitely depends on who you are and the application of it. I'll never recommend that an occasional home cook buy a $300 knife, and almost always a cheap knife that's easily replacable with a decent sharpener will do just fine. However for extensive and professional use, it's definitely nice to have a high quality knife that, if properly maintained, will outlast you.
Haha now I have an image in my head of chefs having Crocodile Dundee moments in the kitchen competing with their knives.
Appreciate you sharing tips that not only help people have better knives, but save money too. Nice to hear it's not required to spend a huge amount of money.
Cheers Brian ✌️
I am a gourmet home cook and pay about $25 - $30 for knives. I use them all every day and these all serve their purpose quite well. Thanks for this video showing that you don’t need an expensive tool to do the trick! I also have a Ninja kitchen system that blends and mixes dough for me just fine. 😊
I have had my 10'' Dexter with full tang rosewood handle and forged bolster since I went to cooking school in the early 1970's.Admittedly it is used in a domestic environment, but I still love it's heft, comfort and ability to maintain an edge with very little maintenance . I also use a 12'' Victorinox serrated slicer from the same period and it is still going strong. My son, however, uses Japanese knives and when well tuned, they are a joy to use.
Very good info. I have a couple of Henckels that I really like but find myself defaulting most of the time to the 8" Chicago cutlery chef's knife. My father gave it to me around 25 years ago and it's still in great shape.
My favorite go-to knife is a Mercer culinary boning knife. They're like $13 basically making them disposable, and are surgically sharp. I have other chefs knives, including the 10" Dexter chefs knife you suggested, as well as an 8" version. The 8" definitely gets more use.
which model of the mercer boning knife do you recommend ? theres a whole bunch on amazon
never used their boning knife, but their chef's knives sharpen up fine too. They come hollow ground so I reprofile them to a standard edge the first time I sharpen them.
Thanks for putting this advice out there! When I was setting up my kitchen for the first time, I thought I should buy some pricey knife block set. Thankfully, I stumbled across ATC's recs and got myself a chef's knife, serrated, and paring, altogether for ~$60. They're all excellent.
I think there's the conceit out there that cooking well = expensive tools, but that's just not the case.
Equipment vs skill (and ingredients). Spot on. Goes for any craft/skill - from cooking, to playing guitar. The best of the best will make the cheapest of the cheap look like the best of the best.
Preach! As a chef returning to the trade after few years I just purchased exactly those three knives (before watching your video). I found over many years of being a professional chef that those three knives were all i needed. I also went for Victorinox partially because of its quality to price value, partially in case I lose or break them. Great vid dude!
I am a cook by profession and blacksmith/knife maker by hobby. Besides that i also run a small knife sharpening business that is the best in my small town.
I can appreciate a beautiful knife like no other. In my kit is a 230$ gyuto from japan, an antique 1950's tranchelard sabatier and many other pretty knives in between.
However, my daily driver is an old beaten up masahiro nakiri that i bought for 33 dollars in ebay. I beat that knife to a pulp every day, sharpen a new edge every 2 months and i enjoy it very much.
Its not about the price tag of something. Its about the quality of that tool and the time you spent into research and digging to tkae such a good deal.
My biggest flex in the kitchen is that my 8 knife kit only costs up to about 400 or less (CAD). Most of my tools are thrifted, bought on ebay or restored from a dump or made from scratch in my workshop.
My petty knife is a cheese knife that i reprofiled and heat treated into a petty knife and put a new handle on it. That thing costed me 48¢.
Its the worth of the tool, not the price of the tool.
Its the worth of the tool, not the price of the tool. LOVE THIS.
I have to say that my confidence in the kitchen improved when I found a smaller chef knife that fit my hands very well. I paid about $10 for it at the grocery store. It is cheap and easy to sharpen but most of all I am not scared that I am going to lop a finger off and it is just a more comfortable knife in my hands. I love this knife so much that I have a little stock pile of them put back and have 3 that are in use in my kitchen at all times.
What knife did you buy ? . if you try the Ikea 6 inch utility is an amazing small little knife im sure you''ll love it . its only 17 bucks
I have a bunch of expensive Japanese knives, and admittedly my knife kit is a fair bit bigger (but I started out with those 3 styles). For me anyway, I have 3 knives that have really stood out over time for me, and I would say my enjoyment using them has been far greater than other, cheaper versions of those knives I've used.
I went into a knife shop expecting to spend around $120 on a petty, and I ended up trying one that was around $400 and...it was just perfect. It was the perfect size, shape, and weight for my hand, and razor sharp. I tried some that were more expensive and cheaper, and none of them felt as good, this one just felt like it was custom made just for me.
I have a yanagiba which is also a specialty knife, but if you like making sashimi or want to be able to slice meat so thin you can see through it, it's an amazing, and unique tool for a specific, niche purpose, and it was a big upgrade from my other also expensive, but less specialized knives for the purpose.
And I have a santoku from a very well known blacksmith, which I also bought because it felt perfect in my hand. Another big price one, but the quality of the knife is outstanding, the first time I cut an onion with it, there was 0 resistance, it was like cutting through the food with a laser. It wasn't new, I got a good deal on it from the knife shop, and it was a demo model that they sharpened while I waited, but it instantly became my new favorite and go-to knife.
Not to say "Expensive is always better" but to say that there are a lot of knives out there, and my experience has been that if you follow your instincts and handle a lot of knives, you can find ones that feel perfect for YOU, and those may be expensive or they may not be. But I think finding something that feels "right" in your hand is well worth the investment if you enjoy cooking and/or cook a lot. Working with a knife that you actually love is game changing, and makes me look forward to prep work that previously I would have just accepted that I had to do as part of the process.
When I was in college, I did a lot of my own cooking, but after I got married in 1981, my wife did the majority of it. This past year, she was diagnosed with cancer, and I was pressed back into the cook role. I had always just used a pairing knife in the past. As someone with no training except what I learned from mom, I thought it was time to pick up some new skills, so I have been watching UA-cam videos to see what I could learn. I've started using a chef knife from our Chicago cutlery set, and after a good sharpening, I wondered why it took me so long to try it. I still like my Walmart Good Cook pairing knife because it is thin, and I can get it very sharp. Thanks for your information, I can see where the serrated knife would be useful. I don't think I'll ever be a culinary wizard, but with help from guys like you, at least we'll not starve, and we might even enjoy some tasty food.
Right. I have a set of Old Homestead knives I bought new circa 1980. Came with a steel which I replaced eventually. They work fine. Over the years I've picked up a few other things-- a smaller, thinner chefs knife, a used boning knife that's really flexible, a ceramic rod sharpener. I like the newer knives because they're thinner than the Old Homestead set, but it's all run of the mill stainless, 440 I think. You don't need much.
I do love my Victorinox knives. They hold an edge really well and have a great price point. Cooks Illustrated agreed with your assessment as well. I purchased the knife sharpener they recommended with great results so rather than disposing of my knife I tune it up and it's lasted me years. The look of a Damascus knife is really cool however so I would love to own it just to collect.
Got the 12 forks / spoons / breakfast knives kit from them liek 15 years ago... Those knives are still as sharp as day 1. You could cut of an arm, if thats for you... Never sharpened them or anything. Best purchase ever
This was fantastic. When I was working in the culinary world I bought a chefs knife that was medium expensive, as I recall. Not cheap for what I was making monetarily but also not a bank breaker. Ultimately, I decided that kitchen work was not for me and I went into mental health, but I took the knife with me. That was a little over 20 years ago and that knife is still going strong. Once I put an edge on it with a sharpening steel, it’s good to go.
A good knife is handy to have when working with mental health for sure!
..'went into mental health and took my knife with me '....Yikes, that's some kind of therapy ! LOL
After using cheap to sorta-mid range knives (Mercer, etc.), what I love about the Victorinix knives is the grip. There's something about it that sticks to my hand, even with gloves and slime.
Been doing this for years. Its amazing what you can do with a chefs knife. We would always get consistently sharp knives from our knife sharpening service. Depends on your experience skill and how you use it. We always kept our good knives for home use.
Good talk. I've been using my Victorinox knives for two years. Best kitchen purchase I ever made. As you say, they may not be the absolute best knives, but they are BY FAR the best value. They're better quality than a lot of knives costing 2-3 times as much. I'll never want anything else.
Brian, I have to tell you this is the most factual, practical, useful knife advice I have ever seen on UA-cam. I have been collecting knives as an amateur home cook for 30 years. I agree 100% with everything you have said in this video. When you described the Victorinox and Dexter knives as the 'Toyota Corollas' of the knife world, I nearly fell off my chair. I have been saying the exact same thing in recent years. I have so many high end Japanese knives, both handmade artisan knives and a large collection of Globals and Shuns. I have owned countless Zwilling knives, hundreds of knives over 30 years. At 48 years of age I have realised the Victorinox Fibrox and Swibo are all I ever needed. I also have a Dexter Chinese cleaver and large butcher knife. Thank you for this incredibly useful video mate! Every young person starting off in cooking should watch this video.
I get a lot of use out of my butcher's knife. I like the way its sheer mass helps the edge drive through stuff like unpeeled fruit, crispy pizza, large meat cuts, the skulls of my foes, etc.
Yeah the butcher knife works great for skulls
i'm a knife head. i'm glad you totally support me :) good thing about fancy knives is their resale value. also, i've nearly given up my paring knives for petty knives. Bri is definitely correct on one front (if not all), you should NOT get fancy knives if you're not committed to sharpening with a whetstone. Care for your knives as a chef/home cook is very important as is, but with fancy knives it's of the utmost importance. I personally prefer a mix of the two. I have beater chefs knife, petty, and paring and the remaining are fancy.
I use a stone on my mid-range knife but I never am really sure if I'm doing it well enough or just making it worse very slowly. But I can usually keep it able to cut receipt paper with just the weight of the knife and a bit of horizontal movement so I guess thats not bad.
Victor i-nox, is probably something produced by apple :) while victor-(ey)-nox is a swiss sword/knife brand
also for myself a boning knife is essential, even more than a serrated one, mostly because I like working with fish a lot.
I dropped an expensive chefs knife on my tile floor in the kitchen and it broke an inch off of the tip. I really liked that knife but I did not replace it. Bought a decent Chicago Cutlery to replace it and never looked back. It sharpens really easily and the edge holds up for hours of use. Good advice in this video.
Based on my experience making high quality knives, and seeing knives coming in for sharpening, what you say is for most knife owners true. That's because most people rarely maintain their knives (ie sharpen). A dull dollar store knife is really no different than a dull expensive knife. But if dull knives are the bane of your existence, and you don't want to be sharpening every two days, you need good steel, which holds its edge a long time and is actually easier to sharpen. Dollar store knives will not hold their edge well, and will be dull a high percentage of the time. To test this, hold your knife under a bright light like a range hood light or the sun, and with the cutting edge facing the light you should not see any light reflecting off the apex of the cutting edge. If you do, your knife is dull wherever it reflects.
Who's talking about dollar store knives here? I've had a few Victorinox knives for a few years and the wife insists on chopping with them rather than slicing and I only just had to sharpen them for the first time a month ago. And most of the time if you can see reflections off the edge of the blade it's just the edge has folded over one way or the other, which you can fix with a few strokes on a steel. If using the steel doesn't fix the shiny spots then you need to sharpen. But like I said my Victorinox knives have held up great with just a steel while getting put through the dishwasher and used more forcefully than is really proper for years and only just needed their first sharpening since the factory a month ago.
@@whorhaydelfuego7190 that's fine if you aren't concerned with performance. Imagine a paperclip, straightened out. Bend the paperclip back and forth in the same spot. The steel becomes weak, and eventually breaks. When you use a steel to realign the apex of the blade, you are weakening the steel around the apex. It becomes just like the bent portion of the paperclip, and leads to less edge retention. When you eventually sharpen the knife, you'll have to remove all the fatigued steel from the apex to expose fresh steel and actually know what your knife is capable of. Brand new, straight from the factory, most mass produced knives have fatigued steel at the apex from the grinding process. You may have never experienced what your knife is capable of. With that said, if you do your research and try to find a quality kitchen knife made with quality steel, it the performance will blow your mind. Find out what experienced people are saying about the heat treat and the HRC (hardness) rating. Knives can be found well under $100 that will cause your Victorinox knives to gather dust.
@@oceanwaves83 If you're sharpening every time you get a burr, which is a folding over edge, then you are certainly going to remove far more metal more quickly than if you just use a steel to straighten the edge, and sharpen as needed. Look I'd love to buy into the hand made is clearly superior koolaid but the fact is that factory methods are going to turn out tools of a higher quality day in and day out. Materials obviously matter but I don't think I've ever owned a knife made of a material so poor as what goes into paper clips. Feel free to waste your life sharpening and wearing out knives that don't need it though, and keep up that mysticism, it's surely good for your knifes chakra.
@@whorhaydelfuego7190 Lol, you can remain in darkness as long as you like. It means nothing to me.
If you ever want to get serious about sharpening, you'll realize there's nothing better than never forming a burr to begin with.
@@whorhaydelfuego7190 To jump into the sharpening, eh hum, discussion... I am a knife sharpener as a hobby for about 3 years. All my knives are mirrored-edged, razor-sharp, hair whittling, blah, blah, blah. Once you are a very sharp edge on an 8000 grit whetstone or strop with diamond paste, the edge will roll over on cheaper steels. That is why some chefs buy the super steel, VG10, and Damascus knives. A honing stick is easy to keep your edge sharp. However, if you are a frugal person that wants good stuff, learn how to strop with diamond paste (Gunny Juice or Stroppy Stuff) and easily and quickly maintain a great knife.
I spent 15 years as a cook, chef, hospitality manager, culinarian. I 100% agree with the assessment that nearly all home chefs can get away with using these 3(4) knives for everything for decades. That said, I have that exact Dexter Russel chef's knife and I hate using it. The handle is uncomfortable. Victorinox make great blades with fantastic handles and I whole heartedly recommend them to anyone who asks for a recommendation. They absolutely hands down have the best bread knives, especially for the cost. Another Swiss knife maker produces my favorite paring knives - Kuhn Rikon. They are small 3" blades, but come with durable plastic sheaths. I have at least half a dozen of them. I can toss them in a bag, a drawer, or a pocket and the sheath protects the edge and my hands. They come in lots of colors too. What I use everyday though are my German high carbon steel professional Wusthof and Henckels knives. Please don't confuse them with the cheap knock off stamped steel crap these brands have come out with in the last 20 years. Don't get me wrong, I like quality stamped steel knives. See my recommendation above for Victorinox. For any professional though I recommend the good German knives over the Japanese knives. My Wusthof has been dropped to a kitchen floor more than once during the heat of a kitchen rush and shown no worse for the wear. I can't count the number of Japanese knives I've seen chipped, cracked, and missing points from anything but the most delicate handling. If you want to stroke off your wallet and ego and spend large chunks of salary on them, go ahead. The only professional that be using these delicate knives every day are sushi chefs.
Anyone looking to round out their collection a bit more, a proper Chinese "cleaver" are great for slicing and chopping veggies and boneless meats. If you roast or BBQ huge primal cuts, a granton slicer is good. Last tip - if you have smaller hands or want something lighter than a classic European chef's knife - get a Santoku. Very versatile style of blade, just doesn't handle bigger tasks as well.
Handles are like shoes of different styles but the same size - some feel good while others feel off. I've been using the DR for over 20 years now (not a chef, just home cooking) and it's been great for me. My mom, who has smaller hands, likes the Victorianox chef knife's handle.
I had my wusthof shefs knife for 20 years by now. It still works like the first day, its hilarious that its still my favorite
Totally agree with Your choice, I'd like to add that also the "hand feeling" it's important.
I do agree with the general message - however I would personally recommend a hand forged, heavy chef knife for better chopping.
Moreover I would recommend a flexible filleting knife, especially for filetting and deskinning fish.
Very helpful, thank you! If you end up doing a follow up, would love to learn about general kitchen items that don't get a lot of attention (storage containers, pans, measuring cups, etc.). End up using these daily but have never really put any thought in quality options or helpful tips and tricks.
Seconded!
This video was great. The fancy, expensive knives always seemed intimidating and confusing. It’s good to know us home cooks have good, affordable options. I’d love to see more equipment content.
Expensive things are all about getting the nice thing you are interested in. They aren't about "need," they are all about "want". No one needs a Porsche GT3, but a person who's into German rear engine sports cars would likely be very happy with one even though it get groceries just as good as a base model Civic.
With all that said no one should be telling anyone else how they should spend their money and no one should be admonished for buying something good enough or something expensive they enjoy.
Lazy attitude. Learn how to use high quality equipment and You'll have a high quality outcome. Cheap knives are cheap for a reason. They are expensive in the long run but deliver low quality results.
@@takuan650 So Brian's lazy for suggesting cheaper alternatives? Make that make sense.
Good video. Even those of us who really enjoy using and maintaining some higher end knives often appreciate having some simple, no frills, less expensive blades handy that will take a decent edge. And many professional cooks also find those useful in busy kitchen environments of course. The brands you listed here are some of the best bang for the buck available in kitchen knives, and are going to be superior to what many home cooks already have, especially if they learn to maintain the edges or have them professionally sharpened on occasion. All that said, people should also be aware that there is a huge variety of blades available in between stamped plastic handled knives and super expensive hand forged Japanese or custom knives. For example, the Victorinox rosewood series have very nice handles for slightly more money and may be more appealing for many people in terms of aesthetics and feel. Mac and Tojiro have real Japanese blades in good steel with decent handles available for reasonable prices. Some people may prefer the lightness and thinner blades of typical Japanese styles. Anyway, good video and l would certainly encourage those who don't know much about knives to follow your advice here rather than wasting a bunch of money on the overpriced sets of garbage but cool looking knives marketed on social media.
While I've been anguishing over the internet looking at the myriads of different knife sets available (but I need this knife for this! and that knife for that!), your (very much appreciated!) video, coming from the perspective of a pro chef speaking to this avg. Joe puts the task back into the proper perspective, so, a heartfelt THANK YOU.
Victorinox 8 inch chef, 4 inch utility knife. Had them so long, love them so much, I bought a second chef as my "special company knife". (show off!) I am currently considering the Serrated 9" Offset. This video made me feel great!
I am a former chef and a professional knife sharpener. I love knives, especially ones made with exotic steels.
That said, your advice to your viewers is essentially 100% spot on though I would say that Victorinox steel is somewhat superior to Dexter's. And as another viewer wrote, the fit and comfort of the handle is almost as important as the blade.
Perhaps it's true for the larger Victorinox knives. The small ones get dull quite fast, I find mysef having to touch up the edge on the small paring knife twice a day sometimes.
That said, I find it indispensable, despite the mediocre edge retention.
For a chef knife I use a Fiskars - seems to have a steel hard enough to keep the edge goung for some time, and also takes a very fine, razor-sharp edge, which on the small Vics is impossible to achieve.
Of course for fondling and occasional use I have a Japanese bi-metal santoku
🙂
Thank you for making this video. 🙏
I, too was into expensive knives for a while, and I still have and love some that are, but tbh, there's just something about those "in the trenches" knives that make me more motivated to use them more...the knives that are generally inexpensive like the DEXTER and VICTORINOX knives just seem more like productivity workhorses to me. I feel like I'm drawn to them because I've always admired people who make the most of what they have when they have so little.
Thank you for reminding people that not only can they get by with more inexpensive equipment, but oftentimes _it's more worth it_ to do so.
I used a nakiri branded as a usuba, but it's actually double bevelled. Straight blades are better for push cutting, while curved blades are more of pull cutting. Which is why the Japanese came up with the santoku, which is basically a hybrid of a nakiri with a gyutou.
I have many knives.... Most are expensive but never come off the magnetic racks on the wall... I use an inexpensive paring , a bread, a 10 inch Chefs but almost exclusively, about 95%, an 8 inch Chinese Chef's knife... Pretty much a slightly rounded "cleaver".... Cost about 30 bucks, had it for ten years, still works like it's brand new... Hands down my favorite. Take care.
I've got the Mercer cleaver. I think it cost me £20. Absolutely stellar knife.
Being really comfortable in the hand is really important! One issue I have is knuckle clearance.
Very true Bri. I have an expensive Japanese knife that I use when I can cook for pleasure and I have a couple of cheaper knifes that I use regularly that I don’t have to worry about chipping or damaging. Much less stress.
In addition, the best bread knife I have used was a £28 Opinel bread knife that came recommended by a French baker based in the UK. It glides through a rustic sourdough easily with no tearing and the blade looks A1 after years. Up to a point you pay for quality, after that it’s craftsmanship, looks or brand.