Buyer's Guide: the Chef knife

As the greatest starred chefs’ indispensable ally, the Chef knife is both handy and polyvalent. With this knife alone, you can carry out many different cooking tasks: mincing, cutting, chopping, sculpting and even grinding. To make the most of a chef knife, here are the different ways you can use it in the kitchen.

The Chef knife: the indispensable cooking utensil

With a good chef knife in your hands, you can do almost everything in the kitchen. It can adapt easily to your needs and diverse characteristics, allowing you to find the chef knife which is perfect for both your hands and gestures.

The blade of a chef knife measures between 15 to 36 cm, and its height varies from 4 to 6 cm. The blade of the most popular chef knife among the professionals generally measures 20 cm or so, which is easier to handle than a 36-cm blade and as precise as a small one.

The slightly rounded shape of the blade favours a balancing movement which allows many ways of cutting, and its pointed extremity is perfect for precision work.

Made with metal, wood or plastic, the handle of a chef knife provides a firm and comfortable grip.

How to use a chef knife properly?

The polyvalence of a chef knife makes it perfect for many tasks. For each one, a specific movement guarantees you a perfect result quite effortlessly.

Usability

Before you start slicing, mincing, dicing or cutting, make sure you use your chef knife properly, for more efficiency and safety. If there is no universal method, here is how professionals handle their chef knife:

• Hold the knife in the palm of your hand and grip with three fingers – middle finger, ring finger, little finger – for a firm and safe grip;
• Hold the base of the blade between the thumb and the index finger for optimal precision.

The most important thing is that you feel comfortable with your chef knife and confident when you use it.

Gestures depending on the types of cutting

Your chef knife shall be very helpful in the kitchen, providing you know how to use it properly, depending on your needs and recipes.

• For precision cutting – mincing, chopping – use the front of the blade.
• To sculpt and cut hard or soft food, use the middle of the blade.
• To grind and cut meat or hard vegetables, use the back of the blade.
• To break the little bones of your poultries or the shell of your crustaceans, use the back of the blade like a little hammer.
• To crush food so as to collect juice or flesh (garlic clove, for example), use the flat side of the blade of your chef knife.