There are only two really important decisions in a cook’s life: choosing a mate and buying a chef’s knife. If that seems like an overstatement, you just haven’t found the right knife.
With a good knife–one that is sharp and stays that way; one that fits your hand like it was made for you–chores become a joy. Cuts are made cleanly and exactly as you intend, with only the slightest effort. Piles of fresh herbs are reduced to tiny confetti in a flash. Onions are diced before a tear can appear.
There is a revolution in kitchen knives going on today: Japanese knives, with thin, sharp blades that cut like scalpels, are redefining the cutting edge. And buying one just might change your life in the kitchen.
The relationship between a cook and his knife is beyond mere utility. It is odd that cold steel could generate such emotion, but while a screwdriver is a tool, a good knife is a body part. Indeed, perhaps at some advanced stage of evolution, those of us who are fascinated by food will come equipped with limbs that slice and dice.
Until then, we must shop. And these days, there are more choices than you might have thought possible.
Although not so long ago the selection of chef’s knives was pretty much limited to two brands (even today, even at the finest kitchenware stores, you probably won’t find more than three or four), shop online and you’ll find dozens of choices. In addition to the familiar Western-style chef’s knives, now there are Japanese shapes such as the santoku and the gyuto (also spelled gyutou) to consider.
As might be expected in a country where the most celebrated cuisine is largely a matter of perfect slicing, the Japanese have made a fetish of the knife.
It seems that everyone has been raving about these blades. After a couple of months of testing, I have to say that I am a convert.
In order to select a chef’s knife, I tried six blades (ranging in price from $65 to almost $200) and used each for at least a week before passing judgment. I tried to use the knives for every cutting chore: mincing garlic, carving roasts, peeling winter squash.
Different countries have dominated the kitchen knife world at different times. Twenty-five years ago, the high-end choices were Wusthof and Henckels, German in manufacture and design. German chef’s knives, which are still dominant commercially, are serious pieces of equipment: heavy, with thick blades that have slightly rounded bellies to facilitate the rocking motion used in chopping and mincing.
Slicing into the market
Now it’s Japan’s turn to get all the attention. Although they are not yet a threat to the Germans in department stores, Japanese knives do represent the cutting edge, and anyone who’s serious about cooking should consider trying one.
The Japanese knife revolution in the United States began in the mid-1980s when Global began introducing its knives here. At first, Globals gained a following primarily for their looks; they were one of the first knives to have steel handles as well as blades, giving them a high-tech, industrial appearance.
But there were other more important differences. Japanese blades are thinner than European ones, the edges feel sharper and they seem to stay that way longer. They are lighter too. Cutting with them feels much more exact.
Soon chefs looking for a new edge began to adopt them, and the Japanese knife rush was on. Today, there are dozens of Japanese brands available in the United States. Global is a standard at high-end kitchen stores, as is Kershaw Shun, made by Japanese cutlery giant KAI. Many more brands are available on the Internet.
Even the Germans have taken notice. Wusthof’s best-selling knife is a santoku. When Food Network celebrity cook Rachael Ray started using it on her show, sales went through the roof. At one point, the company estimated it was selling as many as 5,000 of these knives a week. Henckels has one too.
Japanese blades tend to be harder and hold an edge longer. German steels are a little softer but that means dulled edges can be honed back into razor shape more easily.
Japanese knives also are sharpened on only one side of the blade. This is another Japanese tradition, allowing thinner, cleaner slices (many Japanese knives come in left- and right-handed versions). It does have its drawbacks, mainly that it makes a thinner, more brittle edge. If you are an enthusiastic chopper, this could turn into a real problem.
The most important consideration, though, is the shape and heft of the knife. Which brings us to the actual testing, because this is one instance where the knife’s form really affected its function. Theory is interesting, but there’s no getting around the advantages of getting your hands dirty.
The familiar Western chef’s knife does not exist traditionally in Japan. Instead, the closest equivalent is the popular santoku, used for slicing veg-etables, and the gyuto, more often used for chopping but in practice used as an all-purpose knife.
You can tell the difference quite easily: Santokus tend to be smaller than chef’s knives (usually less than 61/2 inches in blade length) and they have a relatively flat cutting edge with a down-turned spine (that’s the part that runs down the back of the blade). Gyutos are bigger (8 inches and larger) and they have a slight curve to the cutting edge, though not as pronounced as a German belly–more like the old-fashioned French knives.
Despite their popularity, the santokus I tried just didn’t have the heft to do the jobs normally required of a chef’s knife. They aren’t long enough to mince a bunch of parsley and they aren’t heavy enough to chop vegetables easily. Discarding the santokus was easy.
Easy to love
Choosing among the four gyutos was much harder. They were all laser-sharp right out of the box and unlike my old Wusthof, which requires regular steeling to stay sharp, they all maintained their edges quite well. They were all equally easy to work with.
With equipment at this level, especially something as personal as a knife, the choice really comes down to personal feel. In working with them repeatedly and over time, there were a few things that stuck out.
The Kershaw Shun chef’s knife has a Japanese-style handle, roughly elliptical in cross section and kind of an off-center “D” shape. It was more comfortable than I expected, but still it was not fitted to the hand like the European knives I’m used to. It also seemed to be slightly more blade-heavy than the others.
The Suisin Inox gyuto was probably the most beautiful of the knives I tried, with a striking two-tone wooden handle. It was extremely sharp and very well balanced, but it was sharpened on only one side and felt slightly brittle when cutting.
Even with their flaws, I would have been happy with either of these. Al-though there are a thousand details that can make a knife slightly off, what makes a knife perfect can be summed up in one word: chemistry. The first time I picked up my two favorite knives–gyutos made by Hattori and Misono–I felt like I was shaking hands with old friends.
In the end, I chose the Misono, but only by the smallest of margins. What it really came down to was that the traditional Japanese lack of a bolster (the shoulder between the blade and the handle) was slightly more noticeable on the Hattori, which brought my knuckles a little too close to that razor-sharp blade when I was chopping with the knife in a pinch grip. And then there’s the $60 difference in price.
But in all the most important respects, the knives were equal: The balance was perfect; the handles fit my hand like they were made for me. There was such a feeling of control that it was more like using a paintbrush than a tool. Cutting was a pleasure. Believe it or not, I now look for recipes that require lots of dicing.
The knives are so sharp that the blade slices through with a click rather than a thunk. Carrot rounds, which used to scatter across the cutting board, fall neatly into place. Even feta cheese, which normally crumbles as much as it cuts, can be diced into neat cubes.
And if I cry when I’m chopping onions, rest assured, they’re tears of joy.
Here are two recipes to practice your chopping and slicing skills:
Jicama, mango and watercress salad with walnut vinaigrette
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
Adapted from Allen Susser’s “New World Cuisine and Cookery.” Jicama (HEE-ka-ma) is a crisp, sweet root vegetable (don’t let its tough skin intimidate you) that is sold in most supermarkets.
Vinaigrette:
3 tablespoons each: walnut oil, olive oil, white vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped toasted pecans
1 teaspoon each: chopped chives, parsley, cilantro
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
Freshly ground pepper
Salad:
1 bunch watercress
1 jicama, peeled, cut into thin strips
1 small mango, peeled, seeded, cut into thin strips
1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, cut into thin strips
1/4 teaspoon coarse or sea salt
1/4 cup toasted whole pecans
1. For the vinaigrette, whisk together the oils and vinegar in a medium bowl; whisk in the pecans, chives, parsley and cilantro. Add salt and pepper to taste; set aside.
2. For salad, combine the watercress, jicama, mango and bell pepper in a large bowl; add salt and pepper to taste. Toss with vinaigrette. Divide the salad among 4 plates; garnish each with 1 table-spoon of the whole pecans.
Nutrition information per serving:
352 calories, 68% of calories from fat, 28 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 27 g carbohydrates, 3 g protein, 305 mg sodium, 11 g fiber
Avocado, cucumber and dill salsa
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Yield: 2 3/4 cups
Serve this salsa, adapted from “The California Cook,” by Diane Worthington, with grilled chicken or salmon fillets.
1 cucumber cut into 1/4 -inch pieces
1 avocado, peeled, pitted, diced
2 tablespoons each: chopped fresh dill, olive oil, rice wine vinegar
Juice of 1/2 small lemon
1/2 teaspoon each: salt, sugar
Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl. Serve immediately.
Nutrition information per 2 tablespoons:
27 calories, 82% of calories from fat, 3 g fat, 0.4 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 1 g carbohydrates, 0.2 g protein, 54 mg sodium, 0.5 g fiber
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Internet cuts out the hassle of knife shopping
Local sources of Japanese and Japanese-style knives include cutlery shops such as Northwestern Cutlery, 810 W. Lake St., cookware shops such as Sur La Table in Chicago and Naperville and The Chopping Block stores in Chicago, and Japanese markets such as Mitsuwa in Arlington Heights.
But you easily can buy knives on the Internet these days. There are dozens of sites to shop; two of the best are run by the New York knife shop Korin and the online-only World of Knives and Blade Gallery.
Korin, a small Japanese knife store in Manhattan that has become something of a mecca for chefs, has not one but two Web sites. The main one for buying knives is japanese-knife.com. It is graphics-intense and loaded with cool stuff like chef biographies, interviews and testimonials. Strangely, though, background information on specific knives is slim to none. More than a dozen brands are offered, including Suisin, Nenox, Glestain, Misono, Masamoto and MAC. The plainer korin.com offers the same selection in a less graphics-intense version.
The Web site bladegallery.com has a well-edited selection of mostly Japanese kitchen knives, ranging from affordable to pricey (the top-of-the-line Hattori gyuto is more than $1,200). There also are artisan knives by Canadian chef Thomas Haslinger and others. The site provides a wealth of background information.
For a more international feel, check out worldknives.com, where knives from France, Germany and Belgium, as well as Japan, are offered. In-depth information on each knife is available. Japanese brands include Masahiro and the second, less expensive of Hattori’s lines (manufactured by Ryusen).
Because the choice of a knife depends so much on personal feel, all of these sites allow you to return a knife within seven days–provided it hasn’t been used.
If the information at these sites isn’t enough, or if you find yourself really interested in blade geometry and steel recipes, there are two good Web sites on knives and the people who love them.
At bladeforums.com, check out Joe Talmadge’s admirable explanation of steel and its variations, listed in the FAQ section.
There is a specific section on kitchen knives at knifeforums.com, where you can read in-depth reports on various brands and where a friendly, knowledgeable group will answer your questions.
— R.P.
