CHEF KNIFE

A chef knife is called that because it is the knife most used by professional chefs. “The chef's knife was originally designed primarily to slice and disjoint large cuts of beef. Today it is the primary general-utility knife for most western cooks.” – Wikipedia. Disjoining and cutting large cuts of any meat is now more easily done by a Cleaver rather than the chef’s knife.

It’s blade is from 5-10” in length and is wider than it’s handle. The wide blade allows for you to anchor the tip of the blade on the cutting board and just go up and down while you are cutting any variety of fruits and vegetables while the high knuckle clearance prevents your fingers from hitting the cutting board. When you are slicing and dicing lots of vegetables, a chef’s knife makes the job easier and faster.

The technique for holding a chef’s knife depends on preference and its use. Some people like the length and diversity of the chef’s knife and use it for everything. Others, who use particular knives depending on the size of what they are cutting may choose the chef’s knife for larger and longer fruits and vegetables (melons, squashes, carrots, cucumbers) and use a smaller utility knife for smaller foods such (tomatoes, limes, lemons, onions). When using a chef’s knife on smaller foods, you may choose to bolster the knife (thumb and forefinger) on the handle for more control. When using it on larger foods, it is better to just hold onto the handle.

For more information, please contact me. See you next week when I will talk about the Slicer.