You can slice your way to an easier solution by just getting the whole set in one shot. A good set of knives will make your food preparation an easy task. But, if you are building a collection from the basics on up, here is what our wish list would look like.
Chef’s knife
The foundation of any splendid knife collection begins with the classic and versatile chef’s knife. These knives are designed to make quick work of all types of chopping, slicing and dicing work. The right chef’s knife will completely change the way you look at cooking.
Paring knife
Slicing, peeling and paring are all made considerably easier with these nimble wonders and they are the perfect option to take with you on a picnic. This is the type of knife granny would use to share an apple with you when you were a kid, remember? You can pick between serrated blade –– a great option for smooth-skinned tomatoes–– and the straight edge. Better still, get one of each.
Utility knife
Longer than a paring knife but not as big as the chef’s knife, the utility knife is good for all types of jobs but excels at slicing, mincing, dicing and cleaning veggies of all types. This is the best knife to choose when the paring knife is just too small for the larger tasks at hand.
Bread knife
It’s not cool to squash your fresh home-cooked bread by attempting to cut with a straight blade. You will need to use a proper bread knife to slice swiftly and gently through soft breads. These have larger serrations that grip tough crusts and gently cut through the softness below. Sublime sandwiches with all manner of fine breads can be crafted.
Steak knives
The perfectly grilled steak is the pinnacle of culinary achievement but can still be marred by the use of improper serving silverware. A traditional steak knife is essential to taking apart one of the sumptuous slabs of steak.
Fillet knife
The fillet knife has a long thin blade with great flexibility for deboning fish and other types of meat. Take the time to master your technique with a tool like this and you will be a master meat cutter and let no good meat go wasted.
Boning knife
Now we begin with the more technical blades. The boning blade has a narrow flexible blade with a tapered tip. This makes it much easier to get in and around bones while preserving the meat. This is a good thing to have and use, but only if you are a meat eater and deeply relish preparations.
Carving set
If you will be taking on larger roasts and impressive feasts from roast lamb leg to roast chicken the right carving set will allow you to serve with panache. Sure you can grab the chef’s knife and begin hacking away, even a bread knife is an option. But, the task will be much easier, more enjoyable and aesthetic if you learn the ways of the carving set. The special two-pronged fork will allow you to hold the meat in place while the long narrow blade will easily slice through cooked meat in slices perfect for dinners, sandwiches and snacks.
Cleaver
There is nothing covert about the work of the cleaver. This potent bully will chop through poultry and fish like butter and make light work of frozen meats and those with bones as well.
Santoku
Nothing compares to the styles and distinction of the Santoku or “three virtues” knife. This name alludes to the many uses this special blade can have. The Santoku Bocho has a hollow edge where air pockets prevent sliced foods from sticking to the blade. The special sheep’s foot design allows fine dicing and chopping to be done with an up and down motion rather than the rocking motion required from a chef’s blade.
Vegetable knives
With a wide selection of tapered, angled, broad and thin blades, veggie knives bring a wide range of versatility to the process of prepping veggies.
Mezzaluna
The term mezzaluna comes from the Italian word for “half-moon” or crescent. These specially designed knives are especially good at finely chopping and dicing fine herbs. Simply rock it back and forth to get your herbs chopped to the ideal size.
Cheese knives
If you too are crackers for cheese you should get yourself the best serving instruments for your pleasure. Cheese knives are designed to serve all types of cheese and greatly improve the experience of your favorite snacks and meals.