Choosing your first knife

Learning how to cook requires lots of practice, and you're much more likely to practice if your equipment is a pleasure to use and gets the job done well.

When I first moved out, I started shopping for all of my kitchen equipment from scratch. The total price for my list of tools that I "needed" became simply ridiculous. This when I stopped window-shopping for every neat gadget I thougth I needed, and began doing some research into the tools that would be absolutely essential. This helped me not only reduce my total cost of equipping my kitchen, but also in selecting the tools that I know I will have for decades.

I hope that in my series of posts titled Essential equipment for your kitchen, I can save you some time and money as you begin making these important decisions for your self. Subscribe to my blog to get more tips for cooking and selecting your essential kitchen equipment!

Today, I will share what I learned about selecting essential knives for your kitchen.

My current knife set. Don't need much more than this.

Buying a complete set of knives you see arranged neatly in a knife block might seem like a good idea, but in reality, unless you spend several hundred dollars, you are paying for quantity over quality. Instead of choosing a knife block full of knives you likely will never really have a use for, focus on buying just two or three essential kitchen knives that you will actually use every single day. The types of kitchen knives you will need are an 8 or 10 inch chef's knife, a pairing knife (usually around 3 or 4 inches), and a serrated "bread" knife.

Choosing a chef's knife

Your chef knife will really be the work horse in your kitchen. This is the most important tool in your arsenal and should be something you spend lots of time researching and testing before you buy.
As an extension to your hands in the kitchen, the chef knife is used for chopping, slicing, cutting, mincing, and many other fun and impressive-looking actions.

A 10" chef's knife; one of the essential types of kitchen knives.

My 10" Chef's knife. All-around work horse and also
the one thing I would run into my burning apartment to save.

The knife you see in the picture is the one I settled with after a few weeks of searching. I had originally intended to buy something very different but once I got in a store where I could actually handle the knives I had short-listed, this was the only one that really fit well in my hand. The lesson is here is to never buy online; always go in-store to physically try out the knife you plan to buy.

I bought this knife in 2012 or a bit less than $200 and really have no regrets. You can definitely get a great quality knife for significantly less (or mind-blowingly more), but you should really spend as much as you are able to on this one item.

There are a lot of anatomical pieces of a knife you should consider when shopping, but instead of listing them all here, I recommend you watch this entertaining video explaining these many details. Yes, I am totally biased towards Shun, but in my defense I bought my knife before I watched this video :)

A great tip I learned from a knife salesperson, especially as a first-time buyer, is to avoid looking at the price. Pick out a few different shapes, sizes, and brands of knives, handle them until you find one that's a perfect fit, and then look for a similar product in your price range.

Pairing knife

My 3" pairing knife, great for more delicate cutting.

A pairing knife is a smaller knife used for more delicate cutting jobs. You can use it to trim fat and skin from meat, peel, slice or carve fruits and vegetables, and other functions for which your chef's knife is just too big. No sense in carving the eyes out of a potato with your 10 inch knife, right?
This is my pairing knife which I got as a gift to match my chef's knife. Before getting this, I had another pairing knife which was a spare in my parents' knife set. It was cheap, didn't look as nice, and was not particularly sharp but did the job I needed it to do while I had it.
The point here is to focus on what you need first, then add to your collection as you go! I would recommend the pairing knife to be your second choice.

Serrated (bread) knife

A 10" serrated knife; one of the essential types of kitchen knives.

Serrated Knife, often referred to as a bread knife or a tomato knife.

My third choice for essential kitchen knives is a serrated knife. These come in many sizes and various shapes, but I chose this "bread" knife, which is 10 inches long and slightly flexible. These types of knives (not this one in particular though) are also sometimes referred to as "tomato knives" since they are great for cutting through the skin of a tomato without squishing the flesh itself.

I've had this knife for about two years and, again, got it from my parents' collection since it was a spare. Although it is perfectly functional, I plan to replace it with a better one which will match my current set of Shuns. This is certainly not necessary, but is just a personal preference. I like to build on my collection by adding a piece once per year. It's a great way to get what you want without spending a ton all at once.

There are hundreds of different knives out there with an endless array of functions. Some are as cheap as $10-20 while others can cost many thousands. You know your budget and your needs best, but I think if you start with these three types of kitchen knives, focusing on your chef's knife first, then a pairing knife, and finally a serrated knife, you will build the beginning of a great set.