--- Jack Hudler jack@hudler.org wrote:

Hi Jack:

I love cooking, as a hobby (and surprisingly, it's
a chick magnet). I've always wanted a good set of knives
but didn't know what to buy, so didn't.

This summer I've signed up for a professional French chef class
and we are required to own and bring a good set of four
knives: Chef, Boning, Paring and Scalloped Slicer.

They recommended several different makes and models,
in different price ranges. mine came with a Knife carrying
Case: 16 Slot, fake leather. My knives (“S” series Henkels):
http://usa.jahenckels.com/index.php?subcategory=5

• 9” Chef Knife
• 6” Boning Knife
• 3.5” Paring Knife
• 10” Scalloped Slicer
• 10” Sharpening Steel
• vegetable peeler
• 7" Carving Fork

We will spend three days on knives:

1. care, sharpening and then cutting vegetables.
2. cutting up and de-boning chickens.
3. cutting up fish.

I've refrained from sharpening until the class, even
though I'm a cabinetmaker and trained in sharpening
chisels and plane blades, so know how to use a water stone.
I've been using them for a few days, and what a joy they
are to use. If you cook, get yourself a good set of knives;
at least, spend $100 and get a good 9" chef's (french) knife.
You'll have and use it for the rest of your life.

/b

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I love this list!  What we find to talk about.

Until about this time last year when I closed the last one, for 11
years I owned and operated a pair of BBQ & steak restaurants and a
catering service.  For much of that time I was the chief cook and
bottle washer :-)

Believe it or not I like to cook as a hobby too.  The catering service
which provided cuisines other than BBQ, let me try out my recipes,
usually some variation of Italian.

Some input on knives.  How to say this delicately...  There's a good
deal of knifephoolery out there and IMO, Henkel is part of it.  About
10% of the price is knife and the other 90% brand name.

When I first opened the restaurant a friend bought me a 10" Henkel
butcher (oops, chef's) knife as a gift.  I quickly began to loathe
that knife!  Far too heavy for serious work.  (when chopping 300 lbs
of Boston Butt BBQ, every ounce matters!) Hard to sharpen.  Much too
thick, requiring too much force to push through food.  And the health
department nazi had a cow over the wooden handle. (TN's health
department goes with whatever fad flies past and one of those about 10
years ago was banning food contact with wood.  Yep, no wood chopping
blocks.  The insanity quickly passed but they cost some folks a lot of
money.)

It only took me a little while to find out what is the most popular
style of knife among area cooks (and probably nationally).  Any of the
many brands of pedestrian high carbon stainless bladed, plastic
handled knives.  For example, these:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/37f9qg

These prices are about double what my wholesaler charged.  A 12"
butcher knife was about $15.  Thin metal to slide easily through food.
Flat ground which is preferred for food work.  Easily sharpened and
fairly good at holding an edge.  And when one is worn out (as mine
were about every year), no major tragedy to toss it in the garbage.

Sam's Club carries a good line of commercial knives, though they tend
to toss too many different ones into their huge packages.

Other than these knives, I have two others that I really like.  One is
a chinese style cleaver.  Much thinner blade than an American style.
Great for a variety of tasks other than heavy meat chopping.

The other is a Japanese Hibachi-style grill knife.  There's a fancy
name for this type of knife but I can't recall it.  This is a VERY
thin carbon steel blade with a fairly high handle offset to keep the
knuckles off the hot grill when slicing at a low angle.  Being very
thin and of carbon steel, it easily sharpens to a hair-shaving edge.
The edge isn't all that durable but it doesn't have to be for Hibachi
style cooking.

John
On Sat, 21 Apr 2007 20:34:36 -0700 (PDT), Rasputin Novgorod
priapulus@yahoo.com wrote:

John De Armond
See my website for my current email address
http://www.neon-john.com
Cleveland, Occupied TN
All great things are simple and many can be expressed in single words:
Freedom, Justice, Honor, Duty, Mercy, Hope.  -Churchill

Rasputin Novgorod wrote:

The problem I have with some brands is that they were designed for use
by someone with significantly smaller hands than mine, Its about time a
choice in handle sizes was available. The one size fits all isn't
satisfactory.

Bruce

How much was the
Chef?............................................................Don C.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rasputin Novgorod" priapulus@yahoo.com
To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement"
time-nuts@febo.com
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2007 3:34 PM
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] OT: Knifephoolery

--- Jack Hudler jack@hudler.org wrote:

Hi Jack:

I love cooking, as a hobby (and surprisingly, it's
a chick magnet). I've always wanted a good set of knives
but didn't know what to buy, so didn't.

This summer I've signed up for a professional French chef class
and we are required to own and bring a good set of four
knives: Chef, Boning, Paring and Scalloped Slicer.

They recommended several different makes and models,
in different price ranges. mine came with a Knife carrying
Case: 16 Slot, fake leather. My knives ("S" series Henkels):
http://usa.jahenckels.com/index.php?subcategory=5

. 9" Chef Knife
. 6" Boning Knife
. 3.5" Paring Knife
. 10" Scalloped Slicer
. 10" Sharpening Steel
. vegetable peeler
. 7" Carving Fork

We will spend three days on knives:

1. care, sharpening and then cutting vegetables.
2. cutting up and de-boning chickens.
3. cutting up fish.

I've refrained from sharpening until the class, even
though I'm a cabinetmaker and trained in sharpening
chisels and plane blades, so know how to use a water stone.
I've been using them for a few days, and what a joy they
are to use. If you cook, get yourself a good set of knives;
at least, spend $100 and get a good 9" chef's (french) knife.
You'll have and use it for the rest of your life.

/b

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11:56 a.m.

--- Don Collie donmer@woosh.co.nz wrote:

The school suggested a range of $30 to $130, but price can
go into the $1,000's for a chef's knife. Naturally, I choose
Henckel, the most expensive, but they said the less expensive
ones (e.g. Victorinox) quite serviceable. A good place
to buy are those restaurant supply stores. You can see the
recommended choices in the campus bookstore here:
http://gbcbookstore.bookware3000.ca/eSolution/catalogue2/?data=010402040602&template=1&path_spacer=+%3A+&num_cols=&entry=8

Sincerely
/b

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