Chef Knives 101 🔪

Do you often find yourself struggling to find a decent knife or buying new knives every season? Is there such thing as having too many knives? Can you do everything with one knife? In this weeks blog, we'll be sharing some insight into knives we believe every kitchen should be equipped with!

Knives are to cooking what additional and subtraction are to maths. Yes, you read that correctly. Whether your chopping, slicing, carving or even filleting, choosing the correct knife can make food prep easier, faster and more enjoyable. At 29 Performance, ensuring our chef's know when and where to use the correct knife gives us the confidence to prepare even the most complex of dishes.

Essentially, if you're looking for knives you can use again, again and again, it boils down to the chef's knife, the serrated knife and the paring knife. Between these three tools, you can carve a turkey, slice cherry tomatoes, dice an onion or peel a potato. We'll kick off the list with the most versatile and widely used knife of the three.

The Chef's Knife

Any professional chef will tell you that a good quality chef's knife is essential. You should look for something that's strong but lightweight, with a long blade and a handle that fits nicely in your hand. While these knives usually come with 8 or 10-inch blades, there is no 'right length'. However, when held, the knife should feel like an extension of your arm. As the chef's knife is used for an array of chopping, slicing or carving tasks, having something that is comfortable in the hand is key.

The chef's knife has a long broad blade that is widest at the heal, tapering to a finely pointed tip. Its belly is more or less curved such that a 'rocking motion' can be achieved when chopping - a common technique in Western kitchens. The edge of the blade is also bevelled on both sides, creating a "v" like cutting edge shape as is traditional for some Japanese style knives. These qualities make it the ideal tool for the many tasks described.

The Serrated Knife

When looking for a knife to cut through foods with tough skin, the serrated knife is the ideal choice given its toothlike edge. The teeth on a serrated blade allow you to essentially saw through food and create slices. Compared to a chef's knife, the serrated knife requires little force to get through these foods, preventing damage to the foods interior structure. This makes it incredibly practical and efficient when cutting through things like crusty bread loaves, cucumbers, tomatoes and citrus fruits.

This serrated design also gives the blade superior edge retention, allowing the knife to stay sharper for longer. Buying a quality serrated knife will only increase this quality, with many knives still able to efficiently slice even when the teeth and gullets become dull. This is largely due to the 'chisel grind' of the serrations, which get less contact with food during cutting. However, for these same reasons, this knife should not be used for chopping or dicing tasks.

The Paring Knife

And finally, the tool of choice for those small scale tasks requiring precision and accuracy is indeed the paring knife. Much like the chef's knife, the paring knife is incredibly versatile. It's perfect for delicate work like slicing but really shines when used for intricate cuts or inspired garnishing ideas. Often described as the swiss army knife of kitchen utensils, its benefits are drawn from its small size, giving much more control compared to a chef's knife. This also means it's much lighter and easier to hold, making it possible to use one hand and forego the need for a chopping board.

The knife's blade typically ranges from 3 to 3.5-inches which we feel is perfect for segmenting citrus, peeling cooked potatoes, deveining shrimp, mincing herbs or crushing garlic. Again, much like the chef's knife, we recommend going for something that feels good in the hand as this knife may often be used for long period's of time and so comfort is key.

We hope this week's blog has given you a bit of an insight into knives and the type of knife best suited for different tasks. If you'd like to receive email notifications any time we release a new blogs, you can now sign up by clicking in the top right-hand corner of our blog page!