Posted by Hannah Howard, July 7, 2008 at 10:45 AM
The boy I was seeing last year, a cook, passed on his knives to me before I started my first gig in a restaurant kitchen. They were his set from culinary school—sturdy and unfancy in their utilitarian black case.
His nonchalance gave way to unfamiliar gravity as he ceremoniously bestowed them upon me. He demonstrated how to sharpen them, first with stone and then with steel, and looked concerned when I was catching on slowly, if at all. Knives are serious business—any cook knows that.
On my first day in the kitchen, the cooks asked to see my knives. “They're hand-me-downs from a friend,” I explained. But the chefs proved far more interested in showing off their own. They pulled out chef's knives, paring knives, and boning knives, and launched into raucous discussion about Western versus Japanese knives, and, of course, about whose knives were the crème de la crème.
They exhibited enormous patience in teaching me how to use my borrowed knives. I learned fast how to chiffonade basil into elegant ribbons, but my fine dice was never quite fine enough. I broke down duck after duck into its duck parts, but my breasts were unfailingly raggedy, skin flopping awkwardly off the flesh.
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Gourmet profiles the Warther Museum and Knife Factory, a maker of high-carbon steel kitchen knives for 106 years located in Dover, Ohio. They're one of the last companies that still grinds the knives by hand.
Posted by Matthew Amster-Burton, November 12, 2007 at 3:00 PM
The Melissa & Doug Cutting Food Box surely deserves a spot in the toy hall of fame. I've lost count of the number of "meals" my daughter Iris, 3, has prepared for me with this thing. The best feature is the sound: when the wooden knife lops off a chunk of toy carrot, cucumber, or watermelon, the Velcro gives way with a crunch much like the sound of a real knife through celery.
Trouble is, Iris has had the toy for almost two years, and she's getting bored with it. What's the next step? I have just the thing.
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Posted by Amanda Clarke, November 8, 2007 at 10:45 AM
One of the highlights of the holiday season, at least for me, is the prevalence of big, carnal, bone-in masses of meat: whole roasted turkeys and geese, racks of lamb, standing rib roasts…..raaaaoooarrrrr! But what is the best tool for bringing these unwieldy beasts into submission, breaking them down readily into tidy bits and pieces fit for consumption at a civilized holiday table?
Carving knives are nice. Their length allows for long, smooth passes through large pieces of meat, their relatively narrow blades facilitate maneuverability in between and around rib cages and breast bones, and, when paired with a carving fork, they smack of wholesome tradition—Bob Cratchit presiding over the Christmas table.
Carving knives are, however, no necessity. Not only are they expensive, but with their long blades and lack of knuckle clearance, they're awkward for doing just about anything other than carving. If you don't have one already, certainly there's no need to run out to get one in time for Thanksgiving.
While you might find some difficulty in dissecting the turkey with a Champagne saber or a paring knife, anything in between should do just fine—as long as it feels comfortable to you and it's sharp. So, the first place to start with selecting the best knife for carving up beasts and birds is in your own kitchen.
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