Wine Spectator Encyclopedia of Food.

Not that I'm a regular reader of the Wine Spectator, numerical wine ratings are completely and totally useless as far as I'm concerned, but the September 30 issue is a big thick guide to food and cooking, so it looked intriguing. I'm also a fan of Matt Kramer, who incidently, rips wine tasting panels in this issue (the only thing worse than numerical ratings is a tasting panel).

Of course, I paged through right to the cooking tools section and the article on knives. Sigh. Yet another rote recital of typical useless knife information. (Yeah, I know, another knife rant - predictably boring as usual). Not to mention they completely botched the cursory info on Japanese knives. It's news to me that Japanese knives come with "feather-light ceramic handles". No wait, you must mean those crummy Kyocera knives with the feather-light ceramic blades. I thought so.

Now this may tick off all of you clinging to your precious Wusthof and Henckels chef's knives, but the bottom line is those knifes suck. Period. Ok, the flexible boning knives are good, as is the birds beak paring knife, but the rest belong in the dumpster.

Just a gentle reminder, but Japanese knives are sharper than German knives. Period. You choose, sharp knife or not so sharp knife? Hmmm. Why are they sharper? They have thinner blades. Why are thinner blades superior? A thinner blade will slice through food with less effort. Why does this matter? Because it means less drag on the cutting edge. Less drag on the cutting edge means it won't wear down as quickly, it will stay sharper longer. Imagine, every time you go to prepare breakfast, lunch or dinner, using a knife that not only allows you to do that task twice as fast (due to your razor sharp cutting edge) but it's also much more enjoyable. Now you know I'm right, especially those of you who experience that little flicker of dread every time you pick up your Wusthof/Henckels/German-style knives, because you know they just aren't sharp enough to do what you want them to.


If you'd like to read more on the subject, check out the eGullet's Knife Maintenance and Sharpening Clinic written by Chad Ward. It is clear and precise, and he does a much better job than I do at explaining the fine points of kitchen cutlery. In fact, it should be required reading for anyone interested in a culinary career. Here is Chad on the subject of thin blades:

"The theory is that thick edges (larger angles) last longer than thin edges, and the majority of the knife buying public wants the edge to last as long as possible. But it doesn’t work out that way in practice. Thinner edges actually outlast thicker edges almost all the time.

The thinner edge starts out performing better than the thicker edge. So even if it does degrade it has a lot of ground to lose before it falls to the performance level of the thick edge.

Thinner edges cut more easily, putting less stress on the edge. If a thin edge takes three slices to get through a big slab of raw meat, a thicker edge might take six or seven. Or three with a lot more force. The thicker edge is doing twice as much work, degrading twice as quickly.

Thinner edges are easier to control. Lateral stresses are a significant source of edge degradation. The more smoothly, accurately and easily you are able to cut, the less lateral stress you put on the edge.

Thin is good."

Google Japanese Knives.