The Best Chef's Knives

The chef's knife is the workhorse of the kitchen: the knife you use to dice an onion, chop herbs, cut up a pineapple, and cube meat. If there's any knife you should spend more money on, it's this one. We reviewed nearly 30 different chef's knives, from both Japanese and Western manufacturers, to find our favorites.

Why Serious Cooks Use Carbon Steel Knives

For a long time, I lived in denial of how strong my feelings for carbon steel are. People would ask me what knives they should buy, and, unless they were professionals, I'd always steer them towards stainless steel. I figured I was giving good advice, since stainless steel is more forgiving, and most home cooks are looking for ease. But now I'm going to tell you what I really think: if you take cooking seriously, if you're ready to invest a little bit of time and a lot more care, and—this is a big one—if you're willing to sharpen your own knives, then carbon steel is where it's at.

Ditch the Knife Block: The Best Way to Store Your Knives

Knife blocks are one of the most common pieces of equipment home cooks use to store their knives. But there are much better options that offer way more flexibility. Here are our favorite knife storage ideas, all ones that have been tested and work for us, both at home and in a professional kitchen.

The Best Honing Steel (Not Sharpening Steel!) for Your Knife

Honing steels don't sharpen knives, but they do help maintain a good edge between true sharpenings. Every cook should have one at home. Here are some of the most important things to know about them, along with product recommendations.

The Chinese Cleaver Is a Serious Contender for Best Kitchen Knife

A Chinese cleaver is a cleaver in name only: it's not meant to smash bones. Instead, it excels at all kinds of basic cutting tasks like chopping, mincing, slicing, and dicing.

How to Sharpen a Knife With a Waterstone

A dull knife makes prep work a chore, your finished product less attractive, and it's downright dangerous—because it requires more pressure to cut into a food, it can easily slip off of a tough onion skin and into your finger. Here's how to keep your knife pro-level sharp using a whetstone.

The Best Santoku Knives

We tested 16 models of Japan's popular multipurpose santoku knife to find the best.

The Best Serrated Bread Knife for Your Kitchen

Not all bread knives are created equal. Despite serrated edges that often look nearly indistinguishable, only a couple of the many knives we tested aced all their tests. Whether cutting a crusty country loaf, tender and delicate sandwich bread, ripe tomatoes, hard winter squash, or the thick rind of a watermelon, our picks will get the job done with precision and ease.

The Best Knives to Have in Your Kitchen

Being a good cook depends on having a good set of knives—which usually doesn't mean buying your knives in sets. Here's a rundown of the best knives we've found in each essential category: chef's knife, santoku, paring knife, serrated bread knife, and carving or slicing knife.

The One Non-Cooking Oil That Belongs in Every Kitchen

Most kitchens are well stocked with bottles of oil, but good luck finding a food-grade mineral oil among them. That's unfortunate, because your cutting boards, butcher blocks, and knives need it.

At $65, The Misen Chef's Knife is the Holy Grail of Knives

Ladies and gentlemen, I am going to call it: This is the holy grail of inexpensive chef's knives. Incredible quality and design, high-end materials, perfect balance, and a razor-sharp edge.

The Best Paring Knives

We tested many of the top paring knives at a range of price points to find the best ones for you.

The Tourné Knife: A Paring Knife That Turns Heads, and Why You Need It

A tourné (bird's beak) knife can be good for more than just tormenting culinary students. It's perfect for peeling, hulling, and precision cuts.

How to Cut Citrus Fruit Into Wedges, Slices, and Suprèmes

This week, we're gonna show you how to cut citrus fruits into slices (rounds), wedges, and suprèmes (a.k.a. fancy-pants segments). Seems like simple stuff, right? And it is, but doing it right can make a world of difference in how your finished dishes look and taste.

The Best Carving and Slicing Knives

You don't need a good slicing or carving knife in your arsenal, but they're nice to have around during the holidays, when those big roasts make their way onto the table. Thinner and longer than a typical chef's knife, these knives are designed for carving and serving large roasts. I tested 10 of the best-rated knives in a few price ranges to come up with my picks.

The Food Lab: These Are My Knives

These are my knives. There are many like them, but these ones are mine. Now I may take my love of knives to the extreme—I collect them like stamps—but every chef I've ever met who's worth his or her salt is proud of their knives. These are a mix of the ones I use the most often, the ones that have the most sentimental value for me, and the ones that I think are just plain cool.

9 Ways You Might Be Ruining Your Knives

Knives are made to be used, so use them. But, if you want to keep that blade shiny and sharp for as long as possible, here are nine things you should never do with your knife.

10 Basic Knife Skills for Thanksgiving Day Prep

Mastering basic knife skills will make prepping for Thanksgiving a breeze.

How Japanese Knives Are Made: Behind the Scenes With Master Forgers

Japanese knife-making is a centuries old craft. We took a tour of Takefu Knife village to see how eight different knife-makers forger their blades.

Dull Knife? No Sharpener? Grab a Mug

Ever been stuck in a vacation home with a dull knife and no sharpener? If there's a ceramic mug, plate, or bowl in sight, don't worry—you've got the means to give that blade a wicked edge. Here's how.

The Travel Knife: Don't Cleave Home Without It

Looking for the perfect travel companion? These knives are small, lightweight, and safe to pack once they're paired with a wooden sheath.

Utility Knives: The Non-Kitchen Blades Your Kitchen Needs

Of all the knives out there, one of the most useful in the kitchen isn't a kitchen knife at all: For opening food packaging, finely dicing an apple, or slicing basil into perfect threads, a utility knife is what you need. A fresh edge is always just one snap away.

In Praise of Cheap Knives

Keep your good knives. I'm fine right here with my $10 blade from Chinatown.

Gadgets: Get Wavy With the Kuhn Rikon Krinkle Knife

Making wavy cuts in vegetables isn't an essential task by any means, but with Kuhn Rikon's Krinkle Knife ($14) knife, it's no more difficult than making straight cuts. And it makes presentation more fun.

Now That's a Knife!

Foodblogger Cha Xiu Bao has great photo set of the noodle-making process at a Hong Kong noodle shop. Complete with a knife that would make Crocodile Dundee proud. The cleaver held by master Shiu weighs in at 2 catties and 12 taels (1.6kg in plain English). Each day, he hand-cuts each one of the hair-thin gold noodles with this massive blade of his. The broth for the noodles is made of chicken and Yunnan ham, and is double-boiled for over 12 hours. Believe it or not, the noodles sell sinfully cheap at just HK$28 [US$3.60] a bowl. 1.6 kilograms in plain "American" is roughly 3.5 pounds! The Biggest Cleaver vs. the Thinnest Noodles: a Flickr Photo Set...