Did you know that accidents in the kitchen are less likely to occur if your blade is sharp? A sharp knife with a good grip gives a better control on the object being sliced or cut, says Chef Gordon Ramsay in ‘Guide to Kitchen Knives’, part of his Ultimate Cookery Course series.
Most chefs are obsessed with knives. “I can go on about this topic forever. Knives are one of the two things I love collecting. I have stopped keeping count, even though each of them needs a lot of attention. My collection mostly has Japanese knives which I pick when I travel,” says chef Sandeep Reddy He adds, “My favourite knives are made by two legendary knife-makers from Japan. One is the Bunka knife by Masamoto and the other an Aritsugu knife by Kiritsuke. One of the knives has a specific handle that gives a better grip as it gets wetter.”
Want to know how much it costs to have a knife like that? Then get ready to shell out over ₹1 lakh.
Chef Vikramjit Roy, corporate chef of White Hat Hospitality, has a custom-made knife. Like how a goldsmith measures one’s finger for the right fit of the ring, Vikramjit says his knife-makers took moulds of his hand and wrist to make his knife.
Bengaluru-based corporate chef at Windmills Craftworks, Mandaar Sukhtankar’s favourite “is a global veg knife: it has a wide blade and helps me get through vegetables with relative ease. I like the wide-blade format as opposed to regular all-purpose knives, because of its ease of operation. I started my career at a Chinese restaurant, so my first brush was with Chinese choppers and this global knife comes the closest to giving me the same comfortable feel,” he says. This former chef for the Australian cricket team during the T20 matches adds “Each knife needs a special sharpener to keep it in top shape. I use the global diamond-edge sharpener for mine.” Why is it special? This solid-core rod hones and realigns knife edges. It is made of chrome/vanadium stainless steel and coated with diamond particles.
Metal apart, these days, chefs are also adopting sleek knives made of ceramic. Ceramic knives are sharpened for life, but will shatter if dropped. They cost anything between $19 to 125 and come with a ‘fragile’ tag.
TV host and chef Aditya Bal has a set of ‘custom-selected’ tools. He says he put together his chef kit after testing and trying various blades. “I have collected my kit over time. My knives are not of the same make, but they are definitely the ones I am most comfortable with. In my kit, I also carry my sharpening steel, because that way I can control the sharpness as well,” he says. Aditya’s knives are picked from professional stores.
Any discussion on knives is incomplete without discussing the metal. Damascus steel is popular: but what does it really mean to have a knife made of that metal? Chef Ranveer Brar decodes it, “There are two big questions that go unanswered: strength and flexibility. Damascus steel scores on both. The metal can be beaten really thin and still have its flexibility intact. My favourite collection of knives is something I cherish. I rarely use them. The Sakai knives were made by a family in Japan in Osaka, used to making the Samurai sword. This apart, I also love the kamikoto knives. They are black because after these knives are heated and beaten, they are dipped in oil. My most cherished knife is the one I got from the outskirts of Iceland from a place called Reykjavik; it is made by a craftsman named Kristjansson (also knows as Palli). He makes only 30 knives a year. The handle of that knife is a composition of whale and walrus tooth, along with the hooves of the Icelandic horse.”
Finally, Mandaar has some advice he gives every team he works with: ‘Leave the chef’s knife and wife alone!’