Mr Chowdhury
Favorite Answer
Always an automatic electrical device for sharpening knives,rescues them.
heart o' gold
Depends on what you are "chopping". Most knife work in a kitchen isn't really "chopping", it's slicing. Chopping, like hacking up a carcass, is not something most people are doing in a home kitchen.
I have an enormous knife drawer, it has three full knife docks chock full of knives plus a basket for misc knives and slicers. I have an amazing set of carbon steel antique french knives and many many stainless steel knives.I cook a great deal, have helped with a cooking school and knife skills classes, sharpen and maintain my own knives. I buy most of my knives thrift - it's amazing what I can find in the local thrift stores if you scout them regularly. I buy all the really good knives I find and often give them to folks visiting me when we cook together.
If you can only buy one knife, or want to invest in your first good knife, get a chefs knife. The guest chef who taught our knife skills class, which was one of our most popular classes so we did it over and over, recommended a 10" chef knife as the most important. At the time my very favorite knife that got the most use was a 6" chef knife. The teacher chef was very tall, about 6'3" and I am about 5'4". I now find that for most of my kitchen work I'm using an 8" chef knife, but I still use both shorter and longer ones.
Santoku knives have a big following and I must have 10 of them in various sizes. I like them for certain things but for production prep I prefer the rocking motion I can get with a chef knife.
If I had to pick two knives as my only knives (thank goodness I don't!!!) It would be a good 10" or 8" chef knife and a good paring knife as those are what I use the most. I still love that original 6" chef knife, but now that I really know how to properly use knives it's too small for dealing with larger items that need to be cut up.
I have two old carbon steel chef knives I've had for over 40 years, one is a 10" chef knife that was in my family from when I was a kid that I got when I moved into my own home. The other, a whopping 14" chef knife, I found thrift somewhere 35 years ago. I use that monster almost every day when I slice bread for my morning toast and for really big produce like watermelons. I love carbon steel because it holds such a sharp edge but those knives do require special maintenance.
The full set of antique carbon steel Sabatier knives I have are really special. I got them from the estate of a friend and had no idea what they were til I'd had them for over 10 years and took all my knives to be professionally sharpened. First the knife guy tried to talk me into parting with them, then when he realized I would never do that he told me I should check them out on ebay. When I realized what they were I immediately got them their own knife dock and started babying them, my cooking guests are forbidden to use them.
For most folks high quality stainless is the best option for ease of maintenance. Keep your knives sharp and use a steel regularly. A really sharp knife has a blade edge about a molecule thick. That very fine edge often is pushed out of whack by daily use which is where your sharpening steel comes in. I don't use my steel as often as I could, but I do use it rather a lot. The steel, properly used, will straighten out that molecule fine edge and make using your very sharp knife a dream.
Obviously with very sharp knives you want to exercise care when using them - in reality a dull knife can be more dangerous because you use more pressure but it's not uncommon for folks to cut themselves when they first have their knives really well sharpened. This is where knife skills come in - you learn to use knives, protect yourself and care for your knives properly. I remember thinking that I knew how to use knives when I first saw our listing for knife skills classes - I totally did not. After assisting in the kitchen for the first knife skills class I went home and made soup after soup after soup to practice my knife skills. If you've never actually looked up proper knife skills google some videos - it changed my cooking life - I can prep things in less than 1/4 of the time it used to take and I no longer get hand fatigue using knives.
Real sharpening, like with a whetstone, actually takes off metal and even professional chefs typically do that or have that done only a couple times a year at most. Most chefs will sharpen their own knives rather than having them professionally sharpened as the professionals really grind off quite a lot of metal. I use a whetstone when I sharpen and am on the scout for a sharpening wheel thrift. I had one many years ago but a boyfriend I booted out took it with him and I was never able to get it back.
Now that I use knife docks and don't have everything banging around loose in a drawer my knives keep their edges much longer.
Chris
If you buy only one, buy a Zwilling Chef's knife, sharp as a razor, German forged steal and actually made in Germany.
Wapon MSC
The Knife Chef's knife, I personally would recommend buying this, it makes life so much more convenient.
Jane
I agree that Santoku is the most versatile, if you're cooking at home then you only need one, it will handle most of your needs as long as you keep it nicely sharp. You just think about your budget then choose.