Knife sets

Knife sets are working tools, cutting tools, useful kitchen utensils.

We all use knives in our daily lives, for small or large cuts, both at the table while eating and during the preparation of our dishes.

The knife is also the oldest tool still in use today in our daily lives.

Each knife has a different balance, shape, structure, cut, and its construction is studied and designed for a different purpose of use.

In fact, there is no knife for all cuts and in the kitchen, working with the wrong tool can compromise the result of a good dish.

The choice of the model should be made based on what needs to be cut, and the success of the cut mainly depends on the structure of the blade.

For this reason, it is preferable to have a knife set in the kitchen, a selection of shapes that ensures precise and perfect cuts for every food we choose to cut.

In a good knife set, these shapes are definitely essential:

a straight or curved paring knife, a short-bladed vegetable knife, a santoku knife for chopping and mincing, a medium or large chef's knife, a serrated bread knife, and a meat carving knife.

To complete the range, if you choose to also work with fish, a filleting knife with a flexible blade, typically Western, is also necessary; the flexible blade is not used in Japanese cuisine.

If you also want to work with meat, such as small or large birds or pieces of meat to be trimmed or boned, a medium-sized boning knife is what must be present in a set.

All traditional kitchen knives have a symmetrical blade, a sharp cutting edge, and a balanced handle.

If you prefer Japanese cuisine and the preparation of sushi, it is good to have one or two knives with an asymmetrical blade in your knife set; the most used shapes are Deba and Sashimi-Yanagiba, knives perfectly suited for working with fish, the first one is excellent for robust and chopping cuts, the second one perfect for slicing raw fish.

In academies and cooking schools or in the many courses where national and international cuisine, bakery, and pastry are learned, each student must have their own knife set and tools suitable for the discipline they must study.

The cooking student, future cook or professional chef, must necessarily own their own personal knife case, well-equipped, with knives suitable for all types of cutting and some kitchen accessories, to make every recipe a success.

Cristina Passarotto