Reddit mentions: The best cutlery & knife accessories

An Amazon registry (I would skip the Kohls cutlery offerings) will limit you somewhat, but there are certainly decent options available. I think your selection of two chef knives, a bread knife, and a paring knife is a good choice. For the most part I'm going to suggest fairly costly knives because, frankly, this isn't /r/culinary.

Chef knives first. Everything I have to say about 8"/210mm knives I would apply to 10"/240mm knives unless I make note.

If you want a hefty Western chef knife, I find Messermeister to be best in show. They take an edge better than other stainless German knives I've owned and they keep it longer. I find the grind and profile to be slightly more modern and workable in the Elite models opposed to the highly popular Wusthof Classic and sundry Henckels lines. The fit and finish on them is on par with Wusthof, which is to say impeccable. Messermeister makes three different handles for its Elite lines and offers the blades in a thinner Stealth version, which I like. Since Messermeister's Amazon offerings are a bit wonky I would highly suggest you look around the site for the style you like. You might even find some other kitchen gadgets you like. If you are interested in a French profile, look at K-Sabatier. A carbon K-Sab is a lot of fun. And though the stainless knives they produce aren't really as magical as their carbons, they're still fine knives.

• Messermeister Oliva Elite Stealth: Olive wood handled. My favorite. Extra classy.
  
• Messermeister San Moritz Elite Stealth: Poly handle option. I don't like it as much as the wood handles, but it's much cheaper as offered here.
  
• Messermeister Meridian Elite: Classic black pakka wood handle. It's classic and black.
  
• K-Sabatier carbon: This knife is king of the hill. Yes, it's a hill out in the middle of nowhere, but it's still a nice knife. This style is timeless, but it's also out of stock.
  
• K-Sabatier stainless: I believe this knife uses the same steel as Wusthof and Henckels with a similar heat treatment. The biggest difference is the profile.
  
  There are many good Japanese companies and makers to consider. These knives will all be lighter and somewhat thinner than almost any Western knife. If you want something functional and somewhat reasonably priced, Suisin, Mac, and Tojiro have some good options. In the next price bracket up, a Kikuichi, a Yoshihiro, a Takayuki, or a Misono fits the bill, though Misono knives have become incredibly inflated in price. If you have a rich Uncle Ed, slip a Takeda into your list. I would definitely consider other knives at these general price ranges, but they're not available on Amazon.
  
  A few budget suggestions:
  
  
• Tojiro DP gyuto: A great knife line. Tojiro's VG-10 heat treatment is on par with if not better than Shun's. If you're used to a heavy 10" knife, a Tojiro DP 270mm wouldn't be out of the question.
  
• 7.25" Mac Chef "chef" knife: This is definitely a gyuto, regardless what it's labeled. I've used it on a restaurant line during service and it is quite durable. It's reasonably priced, which makes it a popular choice in the food industry.
  
• 10" Mac Chef chef knife: Though they're from the same line, this knife has a wholly more substantial feel on the board than the above. It's still light. It's not priced as well as its shorter cousin. This is the knife that opened my eyes to what Japanese knives could be. The knife is available in the 12" length which, like the Tojiro, coming from a full weight Western knife would still be light.
  
• Suisin HC gyuto: A carbon steel knife selection. These knives have good production values and take a great edge. These knives have decent asymmetrical grinds, which is a definite plus for me. Suisin also makes a comparable Inox stainless line that is quite nice.
  
  To find out who really loves you:
  
  
• Takayuki Grand Chef gyuto: To be fair, I have not used this knife. Those who have like it, though they usually consider it a bit overpriced. It's made from AEB-L, which in kitchen knives is my favorite stainless. I would prefer the Suisin HC.
  
• Misono UX10 gyuto: This knife has been around for a few years and it's pretty popular at high end restaurants. It's nice, but it's a bit overpriced for what you get; the steel and grind on it are unremarkable. The fit and finish on it is probably the best you can buy, though.
  
• Yoshihiro gyuto: This knife is again a bit pricey for what you get, but it does at least include a saya. It offers you a crack at a wa handle, which is a slightly different experience. The steel is somewhat softer than I would like.
  
  Rich Uncle Ed special:
  
  
• Takeda 210mm Aogami Super gyuto: It's thin. It's light. It's made by a wizened old master craftsman. It's got a weird grind that does a whole lot of work while cutting something. It's made out of one of the finest carbon steels being produced today. It's... really expensive. Takeda lovers swear by them, but they're much too tall on the board for me.
  
  Unfortunately I didn't spot many knives on Amazon that I have confidence in and feature a Japanese handle. That's a shame because they're a treat.
  
  Unlike my essay on chef knives, I have only one bread knife suggestion, the Mac Superior 270mm bread knife. It's the best Amazon has to offer and one of the best bread knives you can buy. Tojiro makes a clone that sells for less elsewhere if no one gives you one.
  
  Paring knives are a little different. Edge retention and grind are much less important than geometry. I have this Henckels Pro 3" and I like it; the height of the blade is very comfortable. It has no flex, though, so don't expect to use it optimally for boning tasks. I am almost as happy with any Victorinox paring knife. I would suggest you try as many as possible in brick and mortar outlets to figure out what you like.
  
  And finally, storage. A wall mounted magnetic strip is popular. Those made of wood have less chance of scratching or damaging a knife, so they're somewhat preferable, but as long as you pop the knife off tip first you won't damage it. I've used this strip from Winco for the past year at work with no ill effect. A knife block actually is a good storage option if you can find one to fit your collection. The biggest risk is catching the tip when the knife is inserted into the block, but that's not much of a concern if the user is careful. I use a Victorinox block that was a gift at home for most of my house knives. This block is great, I've been told. A drawer insert is another good low space option. I like my Knife Dock for the stuff I want to keep safe. It lets me slip in as many knives as I have space for the handles. This insert from Wusthof is also popular.

Poor ass college student's guide to cooking episode 2 (draft)

Shokugeki no Soma is one of my favorite anime of all time, if nothing else because it showcases the amazing world of cooking to weebs like us. However, it isn't a guide, and it seems that too many of you guys here need a good lesson on how to get stuff done. Trust me, it's worth it and you'll feel much better about yourself after each episode, and maybe even want to try some stuff in the show out!

Lesson 2: Food is good. If you understand good food, you'll be able to make good food. Go eat more good food

One of the most important points in cooking, after the skills and book knowledge I can type here, is to acquire a good taste. Without it you won't progress beyond recipe following level (which is stupid easy, as I'll cover in the future). This is the reason why Soma, Erina, and others in this episode seem to all come from cooking families. They've all been raised while tasting great food made by their parents.

Now, not all of us are this lucky. I personally was lucky enough to be raised with great food, but only in Japanese cuisine. So I acquired my taste for other styles of cooking in other ways. Specifically, I started to really improve on my cooking when I started enjoying great food made by other people. The show will cover this too as Soma encounters different students with unique specialties.

Next time you get the chance, go eat some great food. Don't waste your money on bad fast food. And when you do eat out, try to guess what makes your favorites taste as well as they do, and venture out to try new places with new dishes to offer. Especially those that offer the style of cooking you are trying to imitate.

Ingredients/Spices of the day (two ingredients, one condiment)

Eggs

A god among proteins, it honestly deserves an entire post. They are quite possibly the cheapest, richest, most versatile ingredient in the world. They can be used as the main superstar, or as a supporting agent to enhance other dishes. They are very delicate when used as the main dish however, and are easily under or over cooked with a small region of perfection in between. Practicing cooking fried eggs or scrambled eggs for breakfast is a great way to hone your sense of over/under cooking that you'll make use of in any other dish in the future.

Fresh is better, but last for a good two weeks in the fridge.

Broth or Stock (dashi in Japanese)

An easy way to add the flavor of meat, fish, etc to a dish without actually using it. This is great when you don't want the texture or the bulk of the ingredient, and is often used in soups or sauces. Japanese sometimes like to use it like Soma did to add little bombs of flavor in a complex dish. Very cheap to make or buy since it often uses junk meat or bones.

ネギ negi, scallion?

A staple of Japanese cuisine, Soma uses it here to add a bit of oniony kick and a nice crunchy texture to a predominantly mushy dish. I think chives are used in Western cuisine to similar effect, like that British dude did in the scrambled eggs video above.

Freshness is paramount. Lasts for maybe a week or two, but every day lost beyond 3/4 is that bit of flavour lost.

Skill/Gear of the day: Knife and Cutting Board

The two mainstays of any kitchen. Having good ones are important with quality >>>>> quantity. You honestly don't need more than one each. Maintenance is a very important and different topic.

Learning how to quickly chop veggies will speed up your cooking immensely, and is like the coolest part (It's basically all Soma does to show off). You will impress a lot of your friends and maybe a girl or two if you are lucky.

If you own a knife and cutting board. That's great, you're ready. If not, just buy a chef's knife and as big and heavy wooden board you are willing to buy. And if you are fancy, A steel

Presentation of the day

Pls use proper china and metal silverware. It makes McDonalds look good, not to mention just feel that much better.

---

Tell me what improvements I can make to this guide! I hope that by episode 10 I won't be seeing any more cereal comments in these rewatches!

Mix and match as you see fit :)

This will add some detail to the sides of cakes. I like it more than the Wilton one (that is not textured) it’s thinner so it leaves a sharper edge.

https://www.amazon.com/Ateco-1447-Decorating-Icing-Smoother/dp/B0000VOOXI/ref=sxbs_bbp_recs_sx_m_p_v1?keywords=wilton+turntable&pd_rd_i=B0000VOOXI&pd_rd_r=1dd000e0-6a20-47aa-a7eb-1430dd1e605c&pd_rd_w=lxEhH&pd_rd_wg=2lLOU&pf_rd_p=c76ba563-2cae-47e4-929a-947a3c225819&pf_rd_r=62XTE33MCSK5G4ATB62S&qid=1572799240

Turn table: there are “better ones” but much more expensive. This is my favorite Wilton one. It’s elevated- which makes it easier to pick up larger cakes off of it. Also if you are piping on the side it’s a little taller so you don’t have to crouch so low.

https://www.amazon.com/Wilton-Trim-n-turn-Decorating-Turntable-Supplies/dp/B00AQ7ISMO/ref=mp_s_a_1_32?keywords=wilton+turntable&qid=1572799358&sr=8-32

9” offset spatula. Wilton changed their handles a while ago.. and I think the new metal blade is too flexible on the new ones- I don’t find the new ones as comfortable and don’t think they do as good of a job. So I like the old ones (couldn’t find one) or these Ateco ones.


https://www.amazon.com/Ateco-1305-75-Inch-Stainless-Dishwasher/dp/B0000VLEU4/ref=mp_s_a_1_7?keywords=wilton+9+inch+angled+spatula&qid=1572799468&sprefix=wilton+9%E2%80%9D+i&sr=8-7

Cake Leveler: this will help greatly with getting nice flat tops- even if her cakes dome. The Wilton one is a great one for the price, and for smaller cakes. For larger cakes, skip the large version and get a bigger than you think serated knife. Living the dream is the 3rd option... the Agby double blade!

https://www.amazon.com/Wilton-Leveler-Small-10-Inch-415-0165/dp/B007E8KCFY/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=wilton+cake+leveler%2C+small%2C+10-inch&qid=1572799751&sprefix=wilton+cake+level&sr=8-3

Style of knife: may be able to get at restaurant supply store


https://www.amazon.com/Mercer-Culinary-M23210-Millennia-10-Inch/dp/B000PS1HS6/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=serated+knife+large+10&qid=1572799849&sr=8-3


Out of budget and not needed for her.. but a dream!

http://www.agbayproducts.com/agbay-double-blade



Tips. I recommend Wilton to start because most blogs will say “use Wilton tip 1M” and it’s easier to get use to the tips. This case stores everything easy.

https://www.amazon.com/Wilton-Decorating-Piping-Tip-Piece/dp/B00C4UH6XI/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?keywords=wilton+tip+set&qid=1572799964&sprefix=wimton+tip&sr=8-4

Couplers. Skip Wilton ones if (the plains white once’s if you get in a kit are fine... ) but these are better: you don’t need a million but 4-8 is nice. Basically you want one for each color of icing you put on cake so you can change tips. So instead of two bags of icing you just have on.. and can change the tip to make vines, then another tip for leaves, and a larger tip for writing.

https://www.amazon.com/Ateco-398-Standard-Couplers-Decorating/dp/B00272GS64/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=ateco+coupler&qid=1572800119&sr=8-3

Bags. Any count is fine- but 50-100 would be best. I like the 100 count because it’s easier to remove / store in the box it comes in.

12” for decorating

18” for icing the whole cake.

https://www.amazon.com/Wilton-2104-1249-Decorating-Tools-count/dp/B00096ZTRY/ref=mp_s_a_1_2_sspa?keywords=wilton+disposable+decorating+bags&qid=1572800239&sprefix=wilton+dispo&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyN0lRNUFCTjdFSldLJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMTA1MTI2MTZVNlpCUkRQWjFOUyZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNjE0MjE1M1JPVk9ZWkJJTE9XQSZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX3Bob25lX3NlYXJjaF9hdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

Gel colors:

If you go Wilton:
These are awesome: you can get them in primary, pastel, and neon. I like them because you can just squeeze into the icing instead of the old way of dipping into a pot.

https://www.amazon.com/Wilton-Neon-Gel-Food-Color/dp/B01KO6NAM4/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?keywords=wilton+gel+color&qid=1572800403&sr=8-5


A better overal brand:

Americolor: the best thing is you can buy much large qty of colors so if you always use red.. you can buy 8 oz instead of 1 oz.

https://www.amazon.com/Coloring-AmeriColor-Student-Bottles-Colors/dp/B00KCUXRLC/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=americolor+gel+food+coloring&qid=1572800488&sprefix=americolor+&sr=8-3


You don’t need to buy every color because you can mix basic colors to dial in an exact shade.



Anything Wilton you can buy at joanns, michaels, hobby lobby. Make sure you use coupons!

Another option is you can sign her up for a decorating basics class at joanns or Michaels. It’s been a while since I taught- and it’s gift that will end up costing her money (you have to make cake and icing 3 out of 4 weeks of class- and she will probably want to buy extras). You can buy her the basic course 1 kit- but she’s still need to buy other things and i told my students to expect to pay about $100 all in with Wilton supplies, using some coupons, ingredients and extras. They could do it for less... or a hell of a lot more.

I made a pdf for my students with resources, color charts to mix icing, recipes if you’d like me to send you a copy.

Also, check out sweet sugar belle’s website. Lots of inspiration for cookies!

What city are you close to? I can search for a good cake decorating store- not chain that sells things like 1 box for cupcakes or 1 board for a cake.. you can pick up some small but super helpful things for a few dollars.

You and I are probably similar. I had never cooked before spontaneously deciding I was going to cook all of my own food from scratch on my 37th birthday. I also spent HOURS slaving away on often so-so dishes and felt discouraged. I pushed through that initial 2-3 month window of crappiness and now I'm 2.5 years into cooking 6 days a week and it's been life changing. That said, I still don't LIKE cooking, but I don't mind it, and I love the feeling that I finally know what I should be eating.

I think it was J. Kenzi Lopez Alt who said that good food is the result of:

1. Good Recipe
   
2. Good Ingredients
   
3. Good Equipment
   
4. Good Technique
   
   Good recipes: I can't believe there's 41 comments and no one's mentioned Budget Bytes. She is the queen of pragmatic, low cost, fast-enough, from-scratch, healthy weeknight dinners. For your first couple of months of cooking try focusing on just her recipes. They're beginner friendly and very well written.
   
   At least until you develop the sense of what makes recipes good, avoid YouTube, gif recipes, Pintrest, and the obnoxious blogs full of too-well-staged-photos. They're interested in views and shares, not cooking.
   
   Here's some other sites that produce consistently good food:
   
   

• Simply Recipes: Traditional American food
  
• Skinny Taste: Very similar to Budget Bytes, great weeknight meals
  
• Serious Eats: Great food, but tends to be pretty hardcore in ingredient & technique requirements. They probably make the best version of your favorite dish. Save SE for a weekend meal once you're more comfortable cooking.
  
  Here's some confidence building fantastic recipes:
  
  
• Baked Chicken with Artichokes and Tomatoes (Budget Bytes)
  
• Stuffed Pepper Soup (Skinny Taste) (Substitute marjoram for oregano for if you don't want to buy marjoram)
  
• Spicy Tuna Guacamole Bowls (Budget Bytes) (Here's a great guacamole recipe if you want to make that from scratch too)
  
• Greek Chicken Wraps (Budget Bytes)
  
• Greek Turkey and Rice Skillet (Budget Bytes)
  
• Roasted Cauliflower with Lemon Tahini Dressing (Budget Bytes) (if you grate the garlic in to the dressing with a microplane you don't NEED to blend the dressing; just whisk it)
  
• Easy Teriyaki-Glazed Salmon, Cucumber, and Avocado Rice Bowls (Serious Eats)
  
• Sweet Crunch Winter Salad (Budget Bytes) (WAY better than it sounds)
  
• Skillet Chicken Fajitas with Avocado (Serious Eats)
  
• Chorizo Sweet Potato Skillet (Budget Bytes)
  
• Chicken in Peanut Sauce (Budget Bytes)
  
• [Skillet Chicken Puttanesca (Simply Recipes)[https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/skillet_chicken_puttanesca/]
  
• Chipotle Chicken Chili (Pioneer Woman)
  
  Good Ingredients: In the beginning I found that cooking was often way more expensive than I'd ever imagined. That was in part because I hadn't built up much of a pantry (oils, vinegars, spices, other condiments), but the main reason was because I was shopping a supermarket. For both cost and quality reasons, each week try finding a new market in your area. In particular, look for ethnic markets frequented by people of the biggest ethnic culture in your area. The asian, mexican, and middle eastern markets in my area have better quality food for quite seriously 50-75% less than a supermarket. The closest supermarket charged $7/lb for prepackaged ground beef. The mexican place nearby charges $3/lb for ground beef they grind themselves.
  
  Speaking of ethnic markets, try to find an ethnic market with a dry goods section where you can scoop out as much of an ingredient as you want into bags for cheap.
  
  If you live in a metropolitan area find a Penzeys. They sell spices that are much higher quality than a supermarket for about 25-50% less than supermarket prices.
  
  You're going to need tons of chicken broth. Until you inevitably start making your own large batches in a pressure cooker a year from now, stick with Better Than Bouillon(https://www.betterthanbouillon.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/BTB_Package_8oz_Roasted_Chicken_Base-2017.png). It's cheaper and better than the crap you get from a can or carton.
  
  Good Equipment: The most important thing is a sharp knife. Here's the $27 knife everyone usually recommends. Even if you already have a knife, it's probably dull if it's not new and you haven't sharpened it; get it sharpened or buy a new one for now. Learn to hone it before or after each use.
  
  Go to a kitchen supply store, Smart & Final, or Amazon and get a couple of 1/4 sheet trays ($4?), ten or so bar towels ($1 each), and a prep bin ($4) so that your prep area looks like this. Also get a bench scraper ($5). The 1/4 sheet trays keep your ingredients organized and ready to go. The prep bin saves you from having to keep a trash can nearby and keeps things tidy. The bench scraper is a time-saving godsend for moving stuff around. A proper prep station alone will probably cut your cooking times by 10-20%.
  
  Good Technique: Once you have an organized prep station and you get your workflow down, the biggest time saver is going to be knife skills. Onions & garlic will be your most commonly chopped items, so watch several videos and make sure that each time you chop one of those it's meaningful practice. To avoid cutting yourself: get a sharp knife, while cutting always consider what would happen if your knife slips, and every time something awkward/unusual happens, take a small pause before you continue cutting.
  
  The art of home cooking by recipe really comes down to heat management. Get an infrared thermometer for $20, they're incredibly valuable when starting out. For the vast majority of sauteing, turn your pan to medium high (just guess) and measure your pan with that thermometer until it's around 300 then pour in whatever oil you're using. Keep checking them temp with the thermometer until that oil is around 330-360 then toss in your meat or vegetables. If you wait a few seconds, slide the food out of the middle of the pan, and check the temp again you'll see it's in low 200's because the food saps the heat out of the pan. Your goal is to keep that heat in the 300's. Note that as the food heats up the pan will get hotter quicker, so as you're learning keep monitoring that pan and get used to the sounds it's making so eventually you'll manage heat through sound & instinct.
  
  The last thing is: use more salt. If you're cooking a recipe that looked great, and got great reviews, and it doesn't seem like you made any big mistakes yet it's still bland, it's because you didn't add enough salt 100% of the time. It took me a while to realize that when I add salt to a dish someone else has made, they had already put a good amount of salt in it. So when salting a dish that makes four portions, you're not going to just shake in some salt from a shaker, you're going to pour in a teaspoon or more.

Originally I wrote this as a reply to another comment, but it got nabbed by the automod for accidentally having one affiliate link, and it's not a reply to that comment really, it's a reply to OPs question, so I deleted it as a reply and am posting it top-level here:

-------- PART 1 of 2:

There are several choices now for (i) Japanese (ii) fully stainless (iii) gyutos/chef knives of (iv) either 210 or 240mm in length and (v) $80 or less, thankfully:

1 Narihira 8000 (210mm) or 240mm

2 Mac Chef Series (8.5")

3 Misono Molybdenum (210mm)

4 Fujiwara FKM (210mm) or 240mm

5 Tojiro DP (210mm)

6 Yahiko VG-10 Western (210mm)

7 Yaxell Mon (8"/210mm)

8 Shun Sora (8")

So, #s 1, 2, 3, and 4 are all made of "Molybdenum steel" or "Molybdenum / Vanadium ("MV") steel". This is typically harder than European knives but softer than VG-10, right around 58-59 HRC. #s 5, 6, 7, and 8 are made with VG-10 steel, typically around 60-61 HRC. The Molybdenum knives will be easier to sharpen because the steel is softer, but they won't retain that sharp edge as long as VG-10. VG-10 is more difficult to sharpen, but at least in my experience it's still not that difficult. VG-10 is also more prone to micro-shipping along the very edge, because it is harder and more brittle, but with good boards and technique I don't think that's a problem and even if it happens you can take the micro-chips out with sharpening. Personally I tend to value lasting sharpness over ease of re-sharpening, so if everything else is equal I would prefer VG-10 for my main chef knife.

(1) I don't know a lot about Narihiras. Hocho Knife sells them and confirms they are made in Japan (one Amazon listing said China, though the others said Japan as well) and they appear to arrive in the same style of clear plastic packaging other definitely Japanese knives come in from my local Asian ethnic markets, so. They are notably cheaper -- 210 gyutos for $44. They might be a great value and allow you to get a matching petty for your $80, or they might be awful. At least Amazon has easy returns.

(2) The Mac Chef series is known for the cheaper non-bolster handles and for the blade being especially thin, to the point of having more flex than a lot of people desire. I had one and found it just a little too flexy for me. Also the stainless MV steel in that line will pick up just a tiny bit of slight discoloration with certain foods, I learned. Not super popular because of how thin they are, but if you want super thin, the way to go.

(3) The Misono Molybdenum series are Misono's cheapest line (Misono makes the king of western-style stainless gyutos for pro chef use, the UX10, about $200), but the fit and finish and grinds are still excellent.

(4) Fujiwara FKMs are really well-liked. Very similar in pretty much all external dimensions to the Misono. The FKM handles might be just a tad (1-4mm?) narrower. Sometimes in the past these were reported to have a knife here or there with less than perfect fit and finish, but that appears rare.

Among the MV steel knives, if price is factor #1 I'd start by trying some Narihiras from Amazon given the ease of returns. If you want a knife as thin and light as possible, the Mac. If you want a tried and true maker in a traditional style, if 210 is long enough I'd lean toward the Misono. If you'd rather have 240mm, the Fujiwara.

(5) Tojiros are the classic VG-10 starter knife. They're just very good all-around. Some people find the handles a tad wide, but... it's hard to know what to make of that not having your hands and not being able to hold one. It's not *way* wide, it's still in the normal handle range I find.

(6) The Yahiko is a CKTG exclusive line and the site owner strongly suggests that they're rebranded Tojiro DPs but that stay at $59.99 at his website. There's a whole load of internet drama over that vendor and while I don't like censoring reviews I also have only had very positive experiences buying form there so I think it's all stupid internet drama and I don't care. Seems to be a very solid knife "identical in every way" to a DP.

(7) Personally, if I had to give a gift of an $80 gyuto to someone, or if a single $80 gyuto was going to be my lone knife pride-and-joy for a while, I would buy a Yaxell Mon. The design is less traditional but more special looking, and I have another Yaxell VG-10 gyuto, and all the other knives I've had that were as sharp out-of-the-box as the Yaxell were $200+. Fit and Finish was second only to the Misono MVs, which had a slightly more rounded spine for me. The handle is also a different shape in that it is a bit thinner but taller, and it is a material that is a bit more grippy than the others.

(8) Some people will balk at recommending something as corporate as a Shun, but it merits mention. I had one for a while. It was truly very sharp. It also has a different profile than anything else here, and different from anything else in Shun's catalog -- there is a bigger flat section before transitioning up to a very short and agile tip. I actually really liked this profile in use. The VG-10 is braze welded onto the edge rather than being a thin layer all through the in the middle as it is on the other knives. Theoretically maybe that means after enough use and sharpening that might be an issue, but honestly I think that would take 100 years of use. The big downside is the handle. The handle is grippy but irritatingly cheap feeling. It feels like hollow plastic. But it does work as a handle. And Shun will re-sharpen your knives for free for life if you send them out to Shun by mail, so that might be a plus.

Among the VG-10 knives, if I wanted the classic handle look, I'd buy a Tojiro or Yahiko (probably a Yahiko and save a few dollars). If I wanted to be impressed when I open the box and feel like I had a unique real Japanese knife or I wanted the ultimate in (initial) sharpness, I would get the Yaxell. If I really wanted a big really flat flat spot (for an 8" gyuto), I would get the Shun. That profile is unique...

• Ah this is actually a big topic.
  
• For a hone, you have three options. A basic grooved steel, a ceramic rod, or a diamond coated steel. The grooved (most common) and the diamond will hone your edge but will also sharpen for better and for worst your edge at the same time due to the courseness of the grooving / diamond coating. The ceramic will do the same, however because it's smooth, it's usually designed to give you a very fine grit at most in it's "sharpening" process ie removes as little metal as possible, maybe at most polish the edge a bit which favors most nicer knife owners. For a western style knife such as yours, and especially stamped blade with a low hardness, your edge usually will roll and fairly often and thus a hone is actually best for you to own and use on a somewhat daily basis. I recommend any non diamond, grooved steel although I find that diamond steels grind far too much metal at inaccurate angles (due to the very wild free hand motion of steeling) but does help give you a quick toothy edge. My personal one of use is ceramic.
  
• As for sharpening, while I don't like pull through or machine sharpeners at all and personally use stones, I don't exactly recommend them for you. The reason is I just don't see the time spend hand sharpening on stones worth the blade/blade material. That is, your knife isn't designed to hold an extremely keen edge, nor is it designed to hold an edge for an insane amount of time, thus for me, when I use a nox or a stamped blade a pull through or a machine sharpener is fine by me. As recommended the accusharp , or any of the decent chefchoice sharpeners will work very well for you. However if you want to progress and learn, then I recommend a low to medium grit combo stone. Say 600 and 1000/2000 so that if you feel like it, you can reset the bevel and then give your knife a decent working edge.
  
• Now say if you upgrade to nicer blades, then by all means stones is the way to go if not an Edge Pro system. Reason for it is that your paying for very nice metal on your blade and thus the very aggressive grinding actions of machine and pull thru sharpeners hurts your investment far more than helps it. Further more, you control the angle and the fineness of your blade. Have Super Blue core steel? Hap40? Bring that sucker down to 9-10 degrees a side with a 20k mirror polished edge. I like to see a machine do that. Plus, usually, with these 'nicer blades' your often running into Japanese knives. J knives are usually made with pretty hard metals, hrc 60+ which does not work with many steels on the market since J knives aren't designed for that to begin with. J knives are designed to have keen, hard , steep edges that are meant to be held for a long time and most likely to chip than roll so whenever it's time to touch up, it's by stones only.
  
• Anyways thats likely more than you ever wanted to know, so to answer your OP, for a steel I recommend the Tojiro Sharpening steel, if you prefer the ideal of a diamond steel giving you a toothy edge while your hone then a DMT fine will suit you. If you want your hone to just hone and not sharpen, then the Idahone fine is pretty much everyone's favorite.
  
• For sharpeners the AccuSharp is my favorite pull thru sharpener, the Spydero sharpmaker wasn't too bad and any of the common electric sharpeners will give you a working edge pesto pesto "pro" or get a basic combo stone

Entire article with spam/referrals removed

Please report this post and user u/mnluxury11
to the mods for breaking the rules for personal profit.

Mac MTH-80

The best chef’s knife for most people

>With its super-sharp edge, its sleek, tapered shape, and its comfortable handle, this knife will make your everyday dicing and slicing tasks smoother and quicker.

>Every kitchen should have a chef’s knife — it’s the most versatile piece in any cutlery set, and it will make food prep on Thanksgiving and every other day faster and easier. The Mac MTH-80 has been the top pick in our guide to chef’s knives since 2013, a choice backed by 120 hours of research, interviews with experts and chefs, and tests that involved chopping more than 70 pounds of produce. The Mac is universally comfortable, and it has proven that it can stay sharp through regular use, even in our busy test kitchen. Other knives to consider for preparing a Thanksgiving meal: a paring knife for delicate tasks, and a serrated knife for slicing bread, root vegetables, and even meat.

Price: $145 (17% OFF)


Proteak TeakHaus Rectangle Edge Grain Cutting Board with Hand Grip

The best wood cutting board

>This beautiful, eco-conscious teak board requires more careful cleaning than a plastic board, but it felt better under a knife and was easier to maintain than the other wood boards we tested.

>If you want a hefty wood cutting board (which looks better and is easier on your knives), we recommend the Proteak TeakHaus Rectangle Edge Grain Cutting Board with Hand Grip. It’s thick enough to stay in place and resist warping, but it isn’t so heavy that you can’t easily move it around. It can also double as a serving board for a cheese spread before dinner. For carving the Thanksgiving turkey, check out the Proteak Teakhaus 24-by-18-inch board, a larger version of our pick that has a juice groove.

Price: $85 (12% OFF)



Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup Food Processor

The best food processor

>With just pulse and on buttons plus a single bowl, this is one of Cuisinart’s most basic models, but it consistently chops, slices, and kneads better than any other food processor we’ve found for under $250.

>A food processor is the best tool for quickly performing a variety of chopping, slicing, and shredding tasks, something you’ll be doing a lot of when prepping for Thanksgiving.

Price: $156


Lodge 6-Quart Enameled Dutch Oven

Best Dutch oven

>With big handles and durable design, this Dutch oven aced every test, rivaling models four times the price. A nice Dutch oven is indispensable for preparing all kinds of hearty Thanksgiving sides, and it looks nice enough to double as a serving dish.

Price: $59



All-Clad Stainless 12″ Covered Fry Pan

The best skillet

>With its superior heat conduction, durable construction, and comfortable handle, the All-Clad 12-inch skillet is a workhorse that will last beyond a lifetime.

>A 12-inch skillet is an essential kitchen tool: It’s perfect for stir-frying, pan-frying, making one-pan meals, and searing steaks and other hunks of meat. At Thanksgiving, you can use it for everything from toasting nuts to creaming spinach.

Price: $99 (50% OFF)


Bayou Classic Aluminum Turkey Fryer Stockpot

The best turkey fryer pot

>Part one of our suggested turkey-frying kit is a 30-quart aluminum stockpot that heated up quickly and stayed warm in our tests.

>Our pick for the best turkey fryer is the 30-quart Bayou Classic Aluminum Turkey Fryer Stockpot along with the Bayou Classic Single Burner Patio Stove. The affordable, quick-heating stockpot kit has everything you need to get the job done except the oil, the turkey, and a heat source. The separate stove is solidly built, powerful (enough), and designed with the four-legged stability you want when you’re handling 4 gallons of bubbling oil.

Price: $58

Congrats! It's the tool that'll make the single-biggest difference in your cooking: a good knife can be used for many more tasks than a bad one, you'll be more accurate with your prep, and you'll just be more effective in the kitchen because you get more enjoyment from using it!

Re: your other post about the chef's knife, there are obviously a billion options at every price point, but there are also some sure-fire safe places to start. German knives like your Wusthof that use Solingen metal are deservedly popular. Solingen is a city in Germany that's famous for making knives, swords, scissors, razors, everything. Seki City is the Japanese equivalent. You can nerd out about this stuff all day long, but the only important bit is that Seki steel holds a sharp edge just a little longer than Solingen. Anthony Bourdain recommended Japanese knives for home chefs for this reason; not because they're better, they aren't, but because casual cooks are less likely to take frequent care of their equipment than cooks who use it every day for their job. You take care of your German knives? They're wonderful.

Wushtof and Henckels are the most visible German brands; Global is probably the Japanese brand most US shoppers are used to seeing. Moving up a bit in price, but without getting unreasonable, are Shun and Mac, two very good Japanese brands. I have knives by both—an 8" santoku-style Shun and a 10" French-style Mac. You'll almost certainly be able to find both on deep sale for Black Friday, if you need to give your parents a hint ;). At the other end of the price spectrum, possibly the single-most popular chef's knife in the US that didn't come in a set as part of a wedding present is the Victorinox Fibrox 8" or 10". Professional cooks who don't bring their personal knife collections to work use these. They cost about forty bucks and they're awesome. They don't look awesome. The handles are molded plastic, the blade tangs don't have a sexy reveal all the way down like any of the other knives we're talking about here, and if you let yourself get bothered by this sort of thing—which is OK, people do—they can feel like something you'd use if you were working back of house at The Golden Corral. But. Like most staples in any industry, there is a reason that everyone, everyone uses them. They're sharp, reliable, inexpensive and easy to replace if needed. I honestly recommend that every home cook have at least one, even if you also have a fetish-level artisan kitchen knife collection, because you never know when you're going to need to break down a raw chicken and finely slice a head of fennel at the same time. In fact I tend to compulsively order their 3.25" paring knives anytime I need to bump a purchase over the free-shipping threshold on Amazon, because I know you can never have enough of the damn things. They're like flashlights or AA batteries.

That's a lot of text in defense of a cheap knife, but those other knives sell themselves, and TBH a lot of it's overkill. Between my Shun santoku and my Mac, I recommend the Mac for two reasons. One, the Shun is just way thicker than the Mac, and regardless of which knife you go with that's something to consider. If the top of the knife is more than a couple of millimeters thick, then it doesn't matter how sharp it is; it's going to give you a headache when you try to slice something that's taller than it—like a large squash or a really big sweet potato, for instance. The Mac is a much slimmer knife, which makes it more useful. Two, the santoku thing is kind of a fad. Blame the Food Network, I guess. Santoku knives attempt to sit the fence between French-style knives and Chinese chef's knives. Chinese chef's knives are cleavers and are, to be fair, the Swiss Army Knife of knives. They do everything. They are badass. But unless you're going to go full-tilt with a proper Chinese knife (just about anything that Dexter-Russell makes, by the way, is legit) then just get a French chef's knife. It's worked the way it works for as long as it works for a reason. The santoku's height is meant to simulate a cleaver, meaning in practice that you can safely turn it on its side and bang it with your fist to smash something like garlic. French chefs have been doing that just fine for centuries.

Depending on the size of your hands (you said you're a teenager, so you're probably still growing) I think an 8" knife is probably great for you. 10" is more the norm in a professional kitchen, but even 7" is usually more than enough for anything you're going to come across at home. If you don't feel like waving around a sword, go with one of these.

Welcome to your new addiction!

TLDR: I made a shopping list at the end.

​

I think most people who are serious about having a good set of knives would advise you to not actually buy knives in a set. It is useful to keep in mind that most knife sets, especially at your budget range or lower priced, are sets for marketing reasons and not a value buy. Certain traits like the number of items included in the set make them seem like you are getting a lot of items for your money, and then shortcuts are taken to increase the number of items versus the quality items. This is a marketing trick. It sounds like you are getting more value the higher the number of stated pieces there are.

For example of typical cost saving shortcuts used in sets: you typically want a bread knife to be 9 or 10 inches, or a 8 inch chef's knife, but shorter lengths will be typical when in a set. You probably don't need to be concerned about having the 6 or 8 steak knives of low quality (again, to increase the number of pieces in the set to make it seem like a good value). In fact, just 3 or 4 high quality knives will perform everything you need of them. For the most part, you can get by on 90% or 95% of what you might do with just a workhorse chef's knife if you need to.

​

My recommended path therefore is to build your own set. This also has the benefit of letting you pick and choose for each specific piece rather than being locked into one brand or one style, and can allow you to budget things out to pick up a quality piece when you can afford it rather than thinking you should have everything all at once.

In order of how you should acquire your pieces:

First, knives are tools that are subject to degradation in performance as they are used. It is important that you mitigate this by investing in protecting the edge of the knife when not in use and that you are able to regularly maintain the edge. You will want either a good wood block or knife edge guards or a good drawer holder to keep your knives safe from non-use related damage. I would lean towards definitely having a wood block or wood drawer holder. It is probably worth planning for the future here, so get what you need. This item should last for a long time so the money will not be wasted.

Look for something that will hold everything you eventually need. Make sure there is a slot that will hold a honing rod. You might want a kitchen shears in the future, so a slot for that is good, too. Ideally, there will be more than one slot that will handle a larger knife (2 inch wide or larger, for more than one chef's knife, santoku, etc.) and if it is an angle block the high positions will be long enough for 10 inch or longer knives. I really like the 17 slot options from cutlery and more. These are normally $50 or so, but can go on sale multiple times per year. Again - this will last you for your lifetime so find what you want for your ultimate plan and go for it.

Again, since it is not worth having a knife that doesn't work, you will need to maintain the edge. You do not need to be an expert sharpener, as you can find this as a service, but regular honing is a good way to only need this service maybe once or twice per year. Keep in mind that a sharp knife is safer than a dull knife, because you can stay in control and not need to use excess force with a sharp knife. An ER visit because of a dull knife will cost a lot more than what you spend on a good knife that can be kept sharp. You can shop around for this, but I would still look for something of quality. The Shun honing steel has a nice feature where it has a built in angle guide (this is at 16 degrees, but that is very close to common for a lot of knives).

So now that you are finally ready to look at knives, you want to start out worried only about 3 good knives: A chef's knife, a bread knife, and a paring knife. You do not need to spend a lot on the bread or paring knives to get you going, in fact some of the options at low price ranges for these are really good performers.

For a bread knife, the Mercer Millennia 10 inch wavy can be found for about $15. (as mentioned before, you'd likely get a shorter length in a normal set in a big box store). For a paring knife, a Victorinox 3.25 inch will be just a few dollars. It's nothing fancy and perhaps the handle seems small and thin, but for getting going this works great.

The chef's knife will be your main workhorse, easily taking care of 90% or more of what you are doing in the kitchen. It is very worthwhile to invest in this piece.

It is also worthwhile, in my opinion, to have more than one chef's knife (or mix with other workhorse knives, i.e. a nakiri or santoku, etc.). I would recommend making a long term plan to save for a quality piece in this category eventually (and with my approach of your knife block being able to handle more than one of a main type of knife you will not need to worry about storing it safely). Eventually you might want to look at the $130+ options in this category, but that is for the future.

In the meantime, with the budget range, I would go for the Victorinox Fibrox Pro 8 inch chef's knife. Usually around $35-$45. I have knives 3 times as expensive but still grab this if I need to swap to a clean knife or think I will need to be a bit more rough with the chopping.

​

Current Shopping List (prices subject to change with sales/economics):

• Knife Block: $30 if you choose an option on clearance https://www.cutleryandmore.com/cutlery-and-more/universal-knife-block-p135276
  
• Honing Rod: $35 Shun Sora https://www.cutleryandmore.com/shun-sora/combination-sharpening-steel-p129103
  
• Bread Knife: $15 Mercer Millennia Amazon Link
  
• Paring Knife: $7.50 Victorinox 3.25 Inch Amazon Link
  
• Chef's Knife: $35 Victorinox Fibrox Pro 8 inch Amazon Link
  
• Chef's Knife Alternative: $80 Yaxell Mon 8 inch https://www.cutleryandmore.com/yaxell-mon/chefs-knife-p136251 (If you want to max out your budget)
  
  This would fit in on the low range of your current stated budget and set you on a good path towards adding pieces (because of the knife block choice) once you can determine what you want and save towards them.
  
  Keep in mind that if you can set yourself up to cook at home more and enjoy cooking and all of that, you will automatically shift your budget towards being able to keep improving your home cooking experience as you save from not eating out and wasteful food practices, etc.
  
  ​
  
  Good luck!

It's definitely enough for a nice knife, though you might want to go a bit higher for a great knife. The KaBar BK2 is actually designed with things like batoning (hammering the knife through wood as a kind of faux hatchet using another piece of wood against the blade of the knife as the hammer itself) or chopping. It's a bit over $60, currently available for $69 to be precise, but as long as you don't flat out abuse it (prying heavy things, for example) it'll serve you well and quite possibly for the rest of your natural life.

At a lower price, you can get the Condor Bushlore, which at $35 is a perfectly valid choice that will serve you well indeed.

For an even lower price yet, the Mora Heavy Companion is from one of those few cheaper knife companies that does incredible work. I wouldn't baton with it, honestly, but even if you did it'd probably hold up just fine.

At a more expensive range, the Ontario Rat-5 is an amazing bushcraft knife. The Fallkniven Pilot Survival Knife is also an amazing knife. The Benchmade Bone Collector is spectacular knife made in D2 tool steel, one of the better steels available at that price. Another amazing knife is the Spyderco Bushcraft made in O1 tool steel. Finally, the Benchmade 162 is a pretty amazing knife.

One thing you'll notice about all of these knives with the exception of the Pilot Survival knife and the BM 162 is that they're all carbon steel knives. Carbon steel is a lot tougher than stainless (with a few very, very rare exceptions I'd never trust a long knife to be stainless steel) with the trade off of being a lot more of a hassle to take care of, since it needs to be regularly cleaned and oiled.

If you want a fire starter, carry a magnesium fire starter. With the carbon steel knives, you can probably strike it against the back of the blade to create the sparks you'll want and if not (like with some of the coated ones) you'll be carrying the striker anyway.

For sharpening, you'll want to get a decent sharpening setup and start stropping. A couple of easy sharpening systems would be the superior Spyderco Sharpermaker (usually available on Amazon around the $50 mark) or the Lansky Sharpening system which while cheaper isn't as good. You could take the time to learn how to free hand it, but most casual users don't care that much because it takes a long time to get proficient at freehand sharpening. Stropping is running the blade against something like smooth leather (usually smooth leather, actually) to remove burrs along the blade of a knife made by use and sharpening and the restore a blade to a better edge without removing metal. Stropping allows for a level of sharpness unachievable by sharpening alone and extends a knife's lifetime by allowing sharpness to be achieved for longer without removing metal from the blade. To learn how to strop, watch videos on YouTube or check out guides from the sidebar of /r/knives.

Finally, if you want a whistle, just carry a whistle. If you want a mirror for signaling, carry a small signaling mirror or mirror polish the knife you buy (a process where you sand the blade with increasing grit level sandpaper until it shines like the sun and you can see yourself in the blade).

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

Hey, sorry to hear about your house getting broken into. That's a really tough deal and I wish you the best in bouncing back.


On rebuilding your roll, I have a few suggestions. I know I'm in the minority here, but I think carbon steel is less essential to have in a knife roll than stainless. Carbon steel knives are sharp as hell so you don't need to sharpen them as frequently, but even though I sharpen my knives every two days or so, it doesn't actually make a big difference to me if I only have to sharpen every third/fourth day... but again, that's just how I feel. Carbon steel knives also sometimes leave residue on food, so it's essential to have a stainless for some projects anyways. For rebuilding a budget roll, it's important to first have a few (3-4) beater knives for service. This is because you want to have knives that you can use for things like food allergies without having to drop everything to wash off a knife, which can put you in the weeds if you get a lot of allergy/aversion tickets coming in at once. I keep a set of these in my bag as well as a Mercer beater knife, although I like Fibrox as well. My main prep knife is a Tojiro 210 DP Gyutou. It's great for doing fine veg prep like brunoise and I even use it to portion raw fish (but I would definitely get a deboning knife if you're going to be breaking down fish). I definitely understand having one or two knives that you can be proud to keep in your roll, but at the end of the day, it's probably better to prioritize having the cheap essentials in your bag first.

​

If you've read this and your mind is still set on getting one of the gyutous you posted, I would recommend getting something with a little bit of a curve to it. Japanese steel tends to have a straight edge and some hybrids will be straighter than others. This is useful for motions where you're sliding the tip around the board, but having a curve is important for things like cutting chives where you want some rock to it (like the kanetsune you posted).

​

As far as sharpening goes, having a gyutou and a fibrox will teach you the difference in how you want to move the blade across the stone for different blade shapes, which I think is a pretty essential sharpening skill to have. I personally own two double sided stones, but since I sharpen my knives with some frequency, I only ever use the 3000/8000 grit.

​

Make sure you consider all the other things you need in your roll! Get a steel, a few peelers, like 6-8 spoons, tweezers, cake testers, maybe even a mandolin.... it can add up, but all these are essential to have before you buy that awesome aogami. I'm pretty confident you can have an awesome and versatile knife roll and stay under your budget so that you can focus on rebuilding and replacing all the other things that were taken. Best of luck to you!

You're new to the industry, and new to cooking. Quite frankly, your skills are at the point where you won't really have a huge preference one way or the other, and you won't perform any differently with a 50 dollars knife versus a 5000 dollar knife. Similarly, fancy whetstones, glass stones, sharpening systems, etc won't make a difference either.

Right now, get the basics. Good solid stuff that's relatively cheap so that you can figure out what you like, and don't like. You have 1300-1500 to spend-- Good. Save it for now. Industry doesn't pay much. Here's the basics to start you out that has the best bang for buck, and gives you some different styles and feels to try out, so that you can figure out what you'll eventually enjoy the most. If you want more information on any of the knives, let me know.

https://www.amazon.com/Tojiro-DP-Gyutou-8-2-21cm/dp/B000UAPQGS

This is a knife that's full tang, VG-10 steel(same as Shun), and has decent heat treat. Western style handle, with a westernized santoku Japanese style blade. At 60 bucks, it's a steal.

https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Fibrox-45520-Frustration-Packaging/dp/B008M5U1C2

Ubiquitous western style knife. Steel is the same as the more expensive Wustofs, Mercers, and anything that claims to use "German Stainless Steel". It's all x50crmov15, with slightly different heat treats. Victorinox does it right.

http://www.chefknivestogo.com/kohawagy21.html

HAP40 high speed tool steel. This is the high tech stuff used in blade competitions. Japanese style handle, maintains a really sharp edge for a really long time. A little more expensive, but that kind of steel for that price is really, really worth it.

https://www.amazon.com/Winco-Chinese-Cleaver-Wooden-Handle/dp/B001CDVXUK/ref=sr_1_7?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1485154695&sr=1-7&keywords=cleaver

Look, a cleaver's a cleaver. You don't need fancy steels or anything-- You just need a whole lotta force behind a whole lotta steel. Hone and sharpen often, and this'll do great for you.

Speaking of cleavers, though...

http://www.chefknivestogo.com/cckcleaver2.html

Chinese cleavers are awesome. They're not actually cleavers though, don't use them on bones and the like-- They're the Chinese version of the all purpose chef knife or gyuto knife. Chinese chefs are expected to be able to do everything with this knife, from fileting to tourne to peeling to chopping to brunoise, so they're actually quite versatile. Speaking of which-- This also fills in for the Japanese Nakiri role. Tons of fun to use.

https://www.amazon.com/King-Sided-Sharpening-Stone-Base/dp/B001DT1X9O/ref=sr_1_1?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1485154779&sr=1-1&keywords=king+1000+6000

This is a fantastic stone, one that Master Bladesmith Murray Carter uses. I ran a knife sharpening service, and this is the one I used for most knives as well. Since you won't have to deal with weird recurves and tantos and nightmare grinds and the like that can show up on folding knives, this will serve you very well.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004WFU8/ref=twister_B010SQ9IXK?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

This is in case you get some gnarly chips on any knives. This'll get it out quick and easy. Bonus-- Use it to flatten and maintain your King stone. This and the King stone is all you really need for sharpening. You can easily get a shaving edge with it.

Besides those, stick with what you got in the Mercer kit for the specialty knives. You really don't need fancy versions of those. You also really don't need a serrated utility knife at all. In the professional kitchen, the three knives that saw the most work were the overall chef knife(even for fileting and some light butchering), the 4 dollar Victorinox paring knife(quick and easy to sharpen), and the Mercer tourne knife.

Buying all this will amount to 431.31, giving you a combination sharpening stone, a flattening/reprofiling stone, and 5 fun knives of all different kinds to play with, at a fraction of the cost. You'll notice I didn't put any Super Blue or White #1 steels in there-- That's because A) They're more difficult to take care of, and B) They're really overpriced for what they are, simply because their "japanese" moniker makes people think they're super laser swords from a land of secret steels(they're not). The HAP40 steel beats these steels in pretty much every category.

Hope you found it helpful! Have fun with whatever you decide to choose.

Epicurious is a good source for recipes online. You'll want to stick with recipes that have a lot of reviews and have 4 to 5 stars, so you know that the recipe is a good one. One common frustration for new cooks is that they fail to make good tasting dishes, but don't realize that the main problem is that they're working from bad recipes. Keep in mind that you'll want to stick to dishes with 4 to 8 ingredients and not too much prep work when you're first starting out.

Make recipes from Mark Bittman's minimalist column on the New York Times web site. There's a printed recipe and an instructional video for each one. He's entertaining and most of the recipes only have a few ingredients, they're also delicious. His cookbook, "How to Cook Everything" is a great all-purpose cookbook to have around.

You need to get past the pay wall to print the recipes from the New York Times, but that involves hitting the "X" or "Stop Loading" button in your browser window a second or so after the page loads.

Learn the basics of using a chef's knife, to make your slicing go more quickly and safely. When cutting with a chef's knife, use a pinch grip and protect the fingers of your "guiding hand" by curling the tips of your fingers inward, as shown here:
http://culinaryarts.about.com/od/knifeskills/ss/knifegrips.htm

One of the most frequent things you're going to do, if you don't hate onions, is to chop or mince onions as prep work for your recipes. This is the best way to do it:
http://startcooking.com/blog/64/How-to-Mince--Dice-and-Chop-Onions

Good tools are important because they won't get in your way and they'll help you cook efficiently, I'll go ahead and mention some of the things I use in my kitchen that I'd have a very hard time doing without.

As for knives, I'd recommend a Forschner Victorinox Chef's knife with a Fibrox handle in the 8-inch or 10-inch size, they're under $30 and very good. You can do just about everything with a Chef's knife, you do not need expensive knives, please trust me on this one. You'll want to have it sharpened every 4 to 8 months or so if you're cooking about three or four times a week. Once you can no longer slice into the skin of a tomato easily, it's probably a good time to get it sharpened.
http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-40520-Fibrox-8-Inch-Chefs/dp/B000638D32

These spatulas are great, they're made of very thin, very flexible heat resistant nylon:
http://www.oxo.com/p-564-nylon-flexible-turner.aspx

These are perfect for moving things around in the pan when you're sauteing or stir-frying, also great for scraping stuff away from the bottom of a nonstick pan so it doesn't burn, for instance risotto, polenta, a cornstarch-based pudding or scrambled eggs:
http://www.amazon.com/OXO-Good-Grips-Wooden-Turner/dp/B0000CCY1M

I prefer to use teflon-coated thick aluminum pans like this one (they often come with a blue heat-resistant removable handle, and can be found at restaurant supply stores and some discount stores, like Job Lot in the Northeast), never (never ever) touch them with metal utensils and they will last for a long time, I have a 12", two 10", and one 8":
http://www.webstaurantstore.com/12-vollrath-arkadia-n7012-non-stick-aluminum-fry-pan/407SEW1030.html

Chef's knife, paring Knife, bread Knife, and a honing rod. A utility knife is a nice bonus. If you do a lot of heavy veggie prep you may want to look into a vegetable cleaver which are awesome for cutting large veggies quickly, though not essential. It's sometimes called a Nakiri in Japanese.

- Note that with Chef's knives there are sometimes what's called the French or Western style, which is curved and kind of the most common one you're used to, and then Japanese style, which is also often called Santoku, which tend to be a little shorter (7"ish) and much less curved, sometimes flat, and with these little divots designed to prevent food sticking to it. Some manufacturers nowadays are creating a hybrid best of both worlds, so you can get the longer curve of a Western style with some of the features of a Santoku.

- I never recommend getting a set, always buy them individually because sets tend to be bundled with inferior quality knives.

- You're going to want to look for stainless steel and avoid carbon steel for what you're doing (carbon is actually amazingly sharp but very fussy to maintain for a home cook and rusts easily).

- You want a knife that is "forged" and not "stamped". This, among other things, has to do with build quality, and a forged knife goes all the way through the bolster (handle of the knife). You can almost always tell the difference when you pick one up, stamped feels lightweight and cheap, a forged knife feels heavy and balanced in your hand. I won't say this is the only barometer of quality (there are shitty forged knives out there and decent stamped ones), but starting with a forged knife for an investment purchase is the way to go.

- As for brands, Wusthoff is a classic that makes quality knives you can't go wrong with. Lately, though, I'm a huge fan of MAC Knives, especially the professional series. Incredibly well made, amazing feel, and razor sharp. They are a little pricier but not terrible - the chef's knife runs for around $140ish on Amazon (and it's got about 5 stars from 300 reviews!) ... it's also kind of a hybrid style as I mentioned earlier. Their paring/utility/bread knives should be cheaper at around $50-100. But as others suggested, it's also very important to get a knife that feels right in your hand as you'll be the one using it. If you have a cooking or knife store in your town I recommend going to try out different ones to see what fits you best– and many stores will carry both MAC and Wusthoff.

- With the honing rod, learn how to use it properly and understand it's not a sharpener as it's often confused to be. Ideally I recommend you simply get your knives sharpened professionally about every 6 months (usually about $5-10 per knife) and then use the honing rod quickly before you cook or at least once a week to maintain a nice, sharp edge and upkeep your knives. There's lots of videos on youtube explaining how to hone your knives correctly.

- And when you get your knives, also be sure to dry and store them correctly. I'd avoid putting them in a dishwasher and NEVER toss them into drawers— unless you have sheaths for them to protect the blade edges. I have a knife block on my wall and I love it, my knives are safe, easy to reach, and plus it looks pretty cool!

Good luck, hope this helps.

Okay. Welcome to the wonderful world of chemistry and fire that results in yummy! Hopefully this is going to be a nice, little primer for the absolute essentials for a working kitchen.

The equipment you absolutely must have:

A 10" skillet. Thick-bottomed (the thin ones just warp and get unusable)

An 8" skillet. Sometimes you've gotta cook two things at once.

A quart pot, with lid. A second one is a smart idea, but it can wait.

A spatula.

A wooden spoon.

A liquid measuring cup. I'd get a 2-cup one first, and a 4-cup one later.

Measuring cups. Don't try to get away with measuring liquids with your dry cups. It always ends in tears.

Measuring spoons.

The New Best Recipe. It's like The Joy of Cooking, except more comprehensive, based on the chemical science of food, and half the price. Also, the recipes are frickin' DYNAMITE.

A quality 8" chef's knife. This is a great first knife, and will last you many happy years. I know the 6" one is cheaper. Trust me--you'll be glad for the bigger knife in the long run.

TWO cutting boards of a reasonable size. Mark one as being for raw meat only.

A pair of tongs.

A vegetable peeler

Your basic cooking staples that go into making more or less everything:

Salt.

Pepper

Garlic powder. NOT Garlic salt.

Chili powder

Oil. Olive Oil tastes better, but Canola is more forgiving to learn on.

A cheap-ass bottle of Cabernet. Some of your food's chemical compounds are alcohol-soluble, but not water-soluble. A little cheap booze will liberate them.

Onions

Canned tomatoes. I go with diced. No salt added is a plus.

Flour. All purpose is good.

Sugar

Eggs

Rice

Milk

Boneless/Skinless chicken. Breasts or thighs, your choice.

Chicken stock. The granulated or powdered stuff keeps well and is easier to work with than the cubes.

So, I'll get to a starter recipe in a minute, but before I do, I want to talk about a couple of kitchen axioms before we get there. Follow these guidelines across the board and you'll have an easy time of things.

Read the whole recipe before you start cooking. Always! Every time! Seriously! You'll fuck it up otherwise!

When you're cooking on the stove, if you think you're at the right temperature, decrease the heat. The most basic screw-up is cooking your food at too high a heat.

Never, ever, ever cut raw meat on the same cutting board as anything else. You'll make yourself and others sick.

Do your prep work before you start to actually cook. That means cut your veggies, measure your spices and liquids, and so forth.

Keep your knife razor-sharp. Most kitchen injuries come as a result of dull knives. If it feels like you have to work to cut something, your knife needs to be steeled (don't worry about it for now) or sharpened.

Clean your gear as soon as you're done eating.

The chef's knife NEVER goes in the dishwasher. Dish detergent will screw up your blade.

And now, a recipe to get you started: Parmesan Chicken Risotto.

Ingredients:

1 chicken breast, thawed and patted dry with paper towels.

2 Tablespoons of oil

3/4 Cup of rice

1 cup of chicken broth

1/4 cup of cooking wine

1/2 cup of SHREDDED Parmesan. The grated stuff doesn't work quite right.

1 onion, diced fine.

2 teaspoons of garlic powder.

A carrot, peeled and chopped fine.

1 teaspoon of dried thyme. You can skip this if you really have to, but it's better with.

Salt & pepper, to taste.

Step 1: Put a tablespoon of oil in a quart pot and turn your stovetop to medium-high (a 7, at most). When the oil looks kind of shimmery, but isn't smoking, put the chicken breast in. Let it sit and cook for about 6 minutes. Flip it over with a pair of tongs, and give it another 6 minutes. Take it out and set it aside for now.

Step 2: Turn the heat down to medium-low (like, 3 or 4) and take the pot off of the heat. Let the pot cool down some, then add the other tablespoon of rice. Once it's warmed up, add in your onions and garlic powder, and stir to combine well. Once the sizzling sound has died down, put the pot back on your burner and cook for 8 minutes. If the onion starts to brown at all, take it off the heat and let it cool down. You're looking for translucent white onions with no browning at all. (BTW: This is called sweating, and it's a fundamental cooking technique. Learn it and practice it, because it's the key to almost any dish you cook with onions, celery, peppers, garlic, and a wide variety of other vegetables.)

Step 3: Add in the thyme, carrot, and the rice, and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon. Scrape up the brown stuff on the bottom of the pan that's leftover from the chicken. It's tasty. Cook the rice for about 3 minutes, stirring very frequently, but not all the time.

Step 4: Add the brother and wine, and stir to make sure that no rice is sticking to the bottom of the pan. Lid the pot, bring to a slow boil over slightly higher heat (4, or 5 at the most), and set a timer for 10 minutes. Stir it three times during the 10 minutes.

Step 5: Put the chicken breast on top of the cooking rice, put the lid back on, and set the timer for 15 minutes. Stir it four times during this period. Move the chicken around as needed.

Step 6: Take the pot off the heat, remove the chicken, and stir the Parmesan into the rice. Take two forks and shred the chicken, then put that into the rice. Let it sit for a couple of minutes for the cheese to melt and everything to come down from scaldingly-hot to pleasantly warm.

Step 7: Eat.

I have several knives.

My most used knife, and the one I like the most is a 8 inch Wüsthof classic. I really like the balance and the grip of this one.

I also have a Mac Chef's Knife, 7-1/4-Inch. This is stamped, not forged, but for just a few dollars more than the Victorinox you get a knife that actually sits and balances well in your hand and it's made of much better steel. I actually bought it in a brick and mortar store for about $20.

It's not as well balanced as the Wüsthof, but I like the fact that it doesn't have a full bolster. It's much easier to sharpen. If I would start anew I would get half-bolster designs for my expensive knives, but it's really no big deal at all.

I also have Tojiro DP Gyutou. The price varies, now it's a few dollars more expensive than the Victorinox, but I bought it cheaper. This is an excellent knife with better steel than the above knives. The grip is fantastic. The balance is good, but not quite as good as the Wüsthof, nothing really gets there for me, but it's good. Again the lack of a full bolster is a great feature of this knife.

Personally now I think that the Wüsthof Ikon lines are better than the classic series, because of the half-bolster design, but I didn't know this years back when I bought my classic.

Also, I keep saying that these knives feel so good in the hand compared to the Victorinox but this is a very subjective thing and people should try for themselves. I know some people love the Victorinox, if that's the case, go for it; personally, I can't stand it. PinchGrip4Lyfe.

I also have a J.A. HENCKELS INTERNATIONAL Forged Synergy 8-inch Chef's Knife. This is cheaper than the Victorinox. The balance is pretty good, but the grip is not as good as the knives posted above. It's still light-years better than the Victorinox grip though.

If I had to buy a cheap knife I would get Kai 6720C Wasabi Black Chef's Knife, 8-Inch. This is way cheaper than the Victorinox. That being said, I haven't tested it.

My goal here is not to convince anyone that the Victorinox is awful. I know some people really like the grip, but to make clear that at around the same price point there are many knives, and you should get which one feels best in your hand. Victorinox is not the only option for cheap knives, unlike what the reddit gospel says!

Oh goodie, I get to banter on about my preferences first.

My thoughts on the three sets you linked to, don't get them. If you absolutely must get a set of knives, you picked a great brand, but in my opinion all sets have knives you likely won't need and weird sizes to boot. I like a larger Chef and bread knife than is offered in any of those sets.

If I were to start over from scratch on a budget these are the knives I would absolutely have to get, in order of importance.

1. Victorinox 10-Inch Chef's Knife ($27)
   
2. Victorinox 3 1/4-Inch pairing Knife ($6)
   
3. Victorinox 10 1/4-Inch bread Knife ($27)
   
4. Victorinox steel ($17)
   
   If you are a meat eater, I am not, you probably will want a fillet knife as well ($20).
   
   If I had only these knives I would be able to do 100% of the things I need to do. I use these knives nearly every day at home and in a professional setting. They have few drawbacks and many wonderful qualities. I have large hands and love the handles, so I would imagine that would be a non-issue. However getting your hands actually on a knife is a great thing to do before you buy one a.
   
   The only caution I have about Victorinox is that their santoku knife isn't all that wonderful. I use a wusthof santoku and it is ok for limited things, like intricate carving of vegetables where a pulling cut is useful, but a rarely used knife in general.
   
   I would recommend putting them on a magnetic, wall mounted knife holder. I searched for one that I thought looked cool, and the magnet works almost too well, but I love the thing. Alternatively, if you really have to take up counter space, you could go with one of the Kapoosh Universal Knife Blocks that will help you keep your knives sharp and allow your collection to grow and change over the years.
   
   For keeping those knives sharp I would recommend skipping the professional sharpener and getting one of these for $10. If you use your steel every time you use your knifes you should only need to sharpen them 2-4 times per year with heavy home use, more for thinner knives.
   
   I do not like straight wood for a number of reasons. First and foremost after a long period of usage the wood will get shitty. It will splinter, possibly separate from the tang, etc. if left in water or just after a period of washings. Once it gets in this shape all sorts of fun bacteria creep into those crevices. Plus they are more expensive. The only wood handled knives I have are some sort of composite wood with plastic and they are ok. Like the handle, if you can get your hands on some it would be a good idea.
   
   All of the aforementioned knives and accessories could be had for a total around $130-ish on Amazon. You could supplement them with a few things like a santoku, a shorter Chef's knife, or shears (Here's a santoku/shears combo that would be good).
   
   I think the above should cover all your bases, but feel free to ask if you have any further questions. Congrats on the engagement, you poor bastard.

1. An Instant Pot above everything else. Because it cooks food super fast even for fall off the bone tenderness. And is really easy to clean and operate.
   
   
2. Buy microwavable steamer bags. You want to cook potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, or just about any veggie? Cut it into chunks, shove it into a steamer bag with a sprinkle of water, seal it, and microwave it for 3-4 minutes, and you have perfectly cooked veggies. No mess to clean up, and you can't get faster than this. Even if you want to sautee or stir fry veggies, it is often a good idea to parboil or part-cook the veggies in a steamer bag, and then just get your pan ripping hot, add oil, and toss the half cooked veggies for a minute, with spices and herbs.
   
   
3. Meal prep on weekends. The biggest pain of cooking is actually in the prepping and the cleaning up after. Prepping or "mise en place" can also be done on the weekends where you can chop all your veggies and put them in airtight containers. Cooking then becomes super easy because everything is chopped up and ready to go. I chop my onions, garlic, ginger, tomatoes, cilantro, bell peppers, carrots other veggies like cauliflower or broccoli on Sundays. Buy a bunch of mid-sized airtight storage containers and store your mise en place in that.
   
   
4. For the weekend meal prepping, the chopping gets tedious. I've been experimenting with various labor saving devices. A mandoline works really well for large scale chopping. You can slice everything in a mandoline and then fine dice the slices into really small dice. Or keep them as slices. But this onion chopper is super useful too. It will dice an onion in seconds. I also use it to dice bell peppers and tomatoes.
   
   
5. Buy a box of peeled garlic and freeze it. When you need garlic, just take out a few cloves of the peeled frozen garlic and chop it directly. Bonus is that frozen garlic doesn't stick to the knife like fresh garlic. And frozen garlic tastes exactly like fresh garlic so there's no loss of flavor either.
   
   
6. Buy a handheld stick blender. It comes in super handy to make sauces and soups. Buy one that has a reasonably powerful motor. i have a 500W overkill one but 200W should also be fine.
   
   
7. Buy an tabletop toaster oven, not a toaster. A toaster oven is super super versatile. It takes only a few minutes to preheat to 350F or 400F if you need to use it as an oven. It also works great to reheat pizza and fried chicken. And of course, it will toast.
   
   
8. People tend to get overly fussy and pendantic over knives. I say this as someone who has close to 10 knives. Look, you can go the whole shebang and get a honing rod and whetstones and expensive knives and all that. But the truth is that you need a chef knife (240mm ideally), a smaller utility knife (180mm), a paring knife, and a good peeler. And you need to keep the knives fairly sharp at all times. And you can do this buy buying a popular recommended value for money knife like Victorinox Fibrox or any other. My favorite is a Richmond Artifex gyuto made with AEBL steel from ChefKnivesToGo. But you can buy any knife that you find comfortable in your hands. And if you're not going to geek out on knives but use it as a tool, just get a $5 knife sharpener like this one and ignore the honing steel and sharpening stone recommendations. It does the job fairly fine and takes seconds to keep the knife reasonably sharp.

Which is better really comes down to what you prefer and what you will be using a knife for. Classic European cooking, for example, really benefits from being able to rock chop as Jacques Pépin does in this video. Of course you don't have to do any of that to process garlic but rather its just one set of techniques and styles. In this realm, Wusthof and knives like it do very well. There's also Messermeister, Zwilling, and more. The caveat is while they all offer good quality knives, they also offer some very poor quality ones. Make sure you do the research and go for top tier products if you're going to get one.

On the other end of the spectrum we have French and Japanese style knives like a Sabatier and a gyuto which can rock chop but you're not going to be able to come close to what Jacques did to that garlic. Of course there are santokus which you mention. These don't rock chop at all but are great for slicing, dicing, and mincing. I find a classic Wusthof nothing but a pain to mince with. Even santokus come in different styles. On one hand you have this Tojiro DP santoku with a big of a curve compared to this Kohetsu which has very little.

Somewhere in the middle we get things like this Victoronix 8" which is one the best values available. The profile is not quite European and not quite Japanese.

So, back to your original question: which is better, the Shun or Wusthof santoku? If I had to choose one I would go with the Shun simply because it is a Japanese manufacturer making a Japanese knife with Japanese steel. The steel used its harder than the Wusthof which pairs very well with how a santoku is meant to be used. You get all the benefits of a harder steel (ie. edge retention) while not having to worry about its toughness which can be an issue while rock chopping since it can cause twisting. However, I would also recommend you look beyond the Shun if you have other options available to you. Not including any import tax, the Fujiwara Santoku on japanesechefsknife costs about the same and has a much better steel (though it is reactive). Its fit an finish might not be as good as the name brand's but other than that I personally think is a better knife in every way.

I don't have time to make sure it's comprehensive and everything but I can throw some stuff together real quick:


Knives

You really only need 2, a chef's knife and serrated knife. A pairing knife is occasionally useful but rarely necessary. If you really like sharp knives, buy a whetstone and learn to sharpen, cheap knives can get just as sharp as expensive ones.

• https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Fibrox-Chefs-Knife-8-Inch/dp/B008M5U1C2
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Update-International-KP-05-German-Offset/dp/B0029SMITC/
  
• If you want a pairing knife, just buy an ultra cheap one, it's not something that really needs to be sharp
  
• Here's a cheap and decent whetstone if you want to learn to sharpen knives. Def recommend doing that, there's a million Youtube vids about it, not that hard really https://www.amazon.com/Sharpening-Whetstone-Non-Slip-Sharpener-Waterstone/dp/B074YJRL7T
  
  ​
  
  Pots and Pans
  
  You need four or five things here. I'd say your mainly looking for a large saute pan, a stock pot, and a sauce pan. If you cook eggs you can grab a non-stick saute pan too. Don't use non stick pans for things that don't stick to pans. They wear out fast and they're garbage when they lose their coating. Oh and a sheet pan.
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Finish-Aluminum-Frying-Commercial/dp/B002AGY7OW/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=aluminum+saute+pan&qid=1563996953&s=home-garden&sr=1-3
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Cooks-Standard-12-Quart-Stainless-Stockpot/dp/B01M7RNBZA/
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-719-16-Classic-Stainless-Saucepan/dp/B00008CM69/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=sauce+pot&qid=1563997129&s=home-garden&sr=1-3
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Cooks-Standard-02569-Nonstick-Anodized/dp/B079ZLDG14/
  
• https://www.amazon.com/New-Star-Foodservice-36831-Commercial/dp/B009LA10OA/
  
  ​
  
  Other Shit
  
  
• Possibly the most useful cooking thing ever https://www.amazon.com/Rubbermaid-Commercial-Products-FG1962000000-Silicone/dp/B0000CFO2S
  
• Cheese grater, garlic press, zester all in one https://www.amazon.com/Microplane-40020-Classic-Zester-Grater/dp/B00004S7V8
  
• A wooden spoon, like any wooden spoon
  
• A spoon with holes in it, you probably have one already
  
• A sturdy metal spatula, like this https://www.amazon.com/Winco-TN719-Hamburger-Turner-6-Inch/dp/B001VZAKGM (fucking lol at calling that a "harmburger turner")
  
• Any type of cutting board is fine as it long as it's not glass or marble or something (those are probably the best example of conning rich people with an actively horrible product)
  
• This is better than any colander out there and has other uses too https://www.amazon.com/New-Star-Foodservice-34127-Perforations/dp/B009LLIJCA
  
• Some kitchen scissors, any are fine but these are nice https://www.amazon.com/Joyce-Chen-51-0621-Unlimited-6-25-Inch/dp/B0009XYW9
  
• Any knife steel, a cheap one like this is fine https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Steel-Knife-Sharpening-Rod/dp/B07J1TZ4DK/
  
• A ladle and a whisk, you probably already have them
  
• A cheap immersion blender is a great alternative to ridiculously expensive food processors/blenders
  
  ​
  
  This is just suggestions if you don't have the stuff already, I think the real bottom line is that the stuff you already have is likely fine, and being a good cook is about knowledge and technique and putting effort into tasty food for people you care about, not gear.

I know I'm a bit late to the party, but my advice is 100% to try to hold the knife before you buy it. I'm a knife nerd and I have a blend of Japanese and German in my collection, and I chose each knife for how it felt in my hand. The knife you enjoy using will get used the most! It doesn't have to be the most expensive one. (In fact, in many cases it's not.)

Japanese steel is excellent for much of your meal prep, and especially veggies. However, it can be super brittle. Shun is in my experience one of the big culprits for chipping. Such hard steel holds an edge super well, but the trade off is fragility. (Also, as someone who sharpened knives professionally, Shun cutlery can be tough to sharpen.)

I think if you're looking for a workhorse I'd go more for the middle of the road. I personally own this knife and it's my favorite. It's a German style handle, has a sharp Japanese feel, but is made of steel just soft enough that chips aren't a huge issue. I also use the pinch grip and it's very comfy for me, but you cannot know until you get your hands on it.

In general it's better to choose your knife, and then choose your stone. You shouldn't need the stone for a while if you're honing regularly.

You'll want a couple stones or one with two grits (one on each side). This is the sharpening system all the local chefs always came to buy. It's a great choice because you have a course, a medium and a fine grit. Always end on the fine grit, and if you do end up getting a Japanese knife you'll be spending most of your time polishing on the medium and fine. Choose oil or water as your lubricant, and don't switch back and forth. I have always just used water.

Practice. Watch some youtube videos, and then practice some more. Use cheap knives to practice. Practice finding your angle over and over again and listening to the sound of the edge as you move it down the stone. It can be super zen. Have fun and happy cooking!

Yeah, cooking seems scary, but I swear it's not. I went from "I don't know how to do this and I don't want to and this is scary" to "well, let's see what I can do!"

It can feel incredibly defeating to read a cookbook which tells you you need this and that and that and you go "I have maybe... half of this." You can absolutely substitute items when cooking. Just take a moment and think about the flavors.

Being a good cook is always a +1 to impress a significant other, guy or girl. Even if you can only cook a few meals well, wow them once or twice and you will forever be "that date who can cook."

Just make sure you have a reasonably sized pot, a good non-teflon pan (cast iron is good, but so is any stainless steel one with a nice core), a spatula, some tongs, and a nice set of steak knives.

Finally, if you do splurge on one thing in your kitchen, a good kitchen knife can go a long way. I have a fancy folded carbon steel knife gifted to me, and I love it, but I went a long time with this guy http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000638D32 and I love it. A good sharp knife (and a cutting board!) makes you feel significantly more competent, and that helps.

I do a lot of sharpening, and have used many kinds of stones, jigs, and gadgets. Many of the jigs and gadgets are junk, or slow, or high-maintenance.
For basic kitchen knife maintenance, it's worth it to learn to sharpen freehand with inexpensive waterstones. If you want to spend more money for better tools, spend it on nice big diamond stones. Don't spend money on sharpening machines, jigs, or gadgets. My personal sharpening setup is three 3x8 EZE-Lap diamond stones (Coarse, fine, and super-fine), and a leather strop with chromium oxide buffing powder. With this I can turn pretty much any piece of steel into a long-lasting razor blade. EZE-lap makes some nice double-sided diamond stones too that look great for kitchen use. Knife steels have their place (touch-ups between real sharpenings), but are not a complete solution on their own, and can be bypassed entirely.

For knives, anything that's not super low-end is good. It should feel great when held correctly. Most home cooks who've spent $200 on a fancy chef's knife would be just as well off with something like a $55 Henckel's Classic. Knives like that are good steel, easy to sharpen and easy to use. Most good knives require thoughtful maintenance. If someone needs a cook's knife but will not take good care of it, get them a Victorinox Fibrox. They're cheap, good-enough knives with handles that can survive the dishwasher. I also like knives from Wüsthof, Global, Shun, Mac, and many others. Modern knives are mostly excellent. As long as you avoid ultra-cheap options and exotic gimmicks, it's easy to go right.

A good knife is a very personal thing, like a religion. Some people belong to the church of Whustoff (like me), others the Church of Henckel. Even some will claim no church allegiance and say that This Victorinox is the best chef's knife. Really though, it's a straight matter of personal preference.

Most high quality knives don't differ all that much. They manufacturing and forging methods are basically the same. What's left is looks, weight, feel, and other things. There is no objective answer to the question "what shape handle is preferable" as it will depend on how big your hand is, what kind of grip you use, and other things like that. My chef's knife is a Whustoff Classic 8" wide Chef's knife. I bought it after going to a local cookware store and personally holding and trying out every chef knife they had in stock. For me, the 8" size is good, but the extra width gives the knife a good heft that I really enjoy, especially because my primary knife before that was a large butcher's knife. I also like the way the handle is shaped, as it feels good in my hand.

Being of the Church of Whustoff, I will recommend the Whustoff Classic line of knives. But to be honest, the blade will be very similar to the comparable Zwilling Henckles chef knife. These are both very traditional knife designs, and your preference will likely be decided by how they feel in your hand. Other brands exist, though, I don't know too much about them. Global, for example, makes extremely sharp, extremely lightweight knives. I tried some out at the store, but didn't really like they way they felt. Not enough heft for my purposes.

For size, I would recommend getting the standard 8" knife. It is the most common size, and it is probably the most versatile as well. I liked the feel of the 10" knives I tried, but I think their length is not for everyone.

TL;DR go to a store where you can try all their knives and get the one that feels best for you.

For knives, the same rules apply. With even more emphasis in the safety aspect of it. A lot of people think that with sharper knives, you'll cut yourself more while cooking, but the truth is the exact opposite. Since the cook should let the knife do the cutting. If you're using strength, your knife is either dull or bad. Which is why you should buy good knives (and an okay whetstone) learn how to hone them and do so every 3 uses (I personally sharpen my knives before using and after washing).

Some people will tell you to buy Shun, others will tell you to buy Miyabi or Yaxell (personal favorite). But you don't need these, these are overkill and most chefs don't even use them on a professional kitchen (they might do so in events, but in a normal kitchen you wouldn't want to wear such an expensive knife)

So, all in all you could either go the cheaper way and buy Victorinox, which is a GOOD knife, nothing amazing about it, but reliable and that will get the job done. Also, it is very easy to sharpen.

If you want the mid-range price I'd say either Global, Henckels(If you chose Henckels, choose the forged, not the standard piece) or Wüsthof. I like all three, all of them will last you upwards to 20 years if you properly maintain and wash them buy hand (very important, a great deal of the damage done to knifes is while washing).

A good knife is a companion for the rest of your life in the kitchen. And these three are the best for heavy and professional use. Though the more expensive ones cut better, the wear on them is not worth it for a professional cook.

And lastly, don't buy a kit with 8 to 12 knifes. You won't use that. That is a piece of decoration, on which you'd be wasting money. You only NEED 1 good knife. It is best to have two or three, but no more.

Start with one, I think the best model to start off is the Chef's 8 inch. In either brand. If you enjoy it, go ahead to the chef's 8 inch and the utility and that's it!

Also, don't rule out Victorinox if you're just getting started, they make very good knifes for starters, and you don't need to worry much when sharpening them, since they sell a tool which can re-cut its edge to the proper shape, so if you mess up, you can actually "Reset to factory settings"

I'll link here the 8 inch chefs of the knifes I mentioned. You might find them small at first but even I rarely need to take out my 10inch or the 12 inch.

Global: https://amzn.com/B00005OL44

Henckels (forged): https://amzn.com/B00004RFKS

Wüsthof: https://amzn.com/B00009ZK08

Victorinox (weirdly, the bettex one [Fibrox] was 4 cents cheaper then the most basic. I am linking both, but i don't know if you can "reset" the blade of the better one)

Victorinox Fibrox: https://amzn.com/B008M5U1C2

Victorinox basic: https://amzn.com/B0061SWV8Y

Victorinox tool (this is not a sharpener, this literally CUTS the blade back into shape): https://amzn.com/B001X5A998

Alright, others are helping you out with recipes, but let's talk about something a bit more important to your question: How the hell do I cook?



Cooking is all about two things: Prepping and time management. Time management being the hardest thing for people to do. We get distracted by kids, our phones, the television/internet/etc., and we lose focus. Sometimes we get so absorbed in other things we forget that shit is heating up and might be burning! Teach yourself time management by not getting too distracted or by using a timer. Also use your nose. Not only is your nose extremely important to detecting flavour (e.g. the citrusy taste of lemon. Taste is done by the tongue and would embody the sour taste of the lemon), it's also a good indicator that something is burning! Make sure you remain close to the kitchen at all possible times.



Also don't just focus on making one thing! Use your time wisely! It's time management, after all! Get yourself your main course and make some sides too. Use the time that you're browning some onions or boiling pasta noodles to work on prepping and making something else as well. It'll keep you focused in the kitchen and not distract you from the stove.


--------------------------
Invest in a sharp knife, if your current knives suck. You can find some pretty good knives for really cheap, too! Here's a chef's knife for about $30. Also you don't need three thousand different knives. The best options to get are:


Chef's knife

Serrated knife (for cutting bread and soft items)

Paring knife

The paring knife is like what would happen if a scalpel and a chef's knife got drunk, had some fun, and ended up spawning a child. It can be used to cut smaller objects if using your chef's knife is too difficult for some tasks, or for making intricate details for food when it comes to plating.


On the matter of knives, let's talk about cutting. Do your knife skills suck? That's quite alright, you're still learning! First of all, when you hold the knife, wrap your pinky, ring, and middle finger around the handle of the knife. Take your index finger and thumb and grip the blade of the knife (note: the blade is the large, flat body of the knife. The edge is the cutting portion. Don't touch that!). When it comes to cutting, you want to lift the knife up from the back, keeping the tip of the knife on the cutting board. Then, push forwards and downwards to make a cut. For visual support, check out this: How to use a chef's knife


Also important, like in the video, is making your hand a "claw". Do not have your fingers extended, curl them up to resemble a claw! The reason being that when the knife gets close your fingers, the flat top of the fingers will help keep the knife straight. Also if you were to slip, you'll only knick some of your skin instead of cutting off part of your finger(s) and having to be rushed to the hospital.

----------------

What about cutting onions and stuff?

No problemo, let's get a few more videos in here to help you out!

Basic Knife Skills (Note: They also go into depth about the three knives I told you about, so you know I'm not yanking your chain)

How to dice an onion

How to dice and julienne (for just about everything else, like potatoes and stuff).

• Julienning is cutting the item in question into strips, like if you were making french fries from potatoes.
  
  
  ----------------------
  
  If you've got anymore cooking related questions, feel free to ask me! Also /r/cooking and /r/AskCulinary are great sources. I'm sure plenty of people will be willing to add in and help out as well.
  
  
  Oh, and if you're really worried about the claw technique and stuff (because it can make objects, especially round and slippery objects like onions, difficult to keep a static hold of), you can invest in a finger guard. Happy cooking!

I recommend the Victorinox Fibrox, it performs well, it's comfortable and it's very durable. If you find the Fibrox handle too ugly, they offer the same blade but with a rosewood handle.

Care wise, touch up the edge with a hone to ensure it performs the best it can before you begin preparing food. Eventually however the edge will wear down, at which point you will need to sharpen it. For this I recommend the Shapton Kuromaku 1000, for guidence on how to use a whetstone check this playlist out.

The whetstone itself will also need to be maintained, as you use it you will wear it down unevenly and it will need to be flattened. Most people use a diamond plate but there is a more cost effective option that I use which is lapping the stone using SiC powder on glass, which is done like this (be aware however, that this method is MUCH louder and a bit messier than lapping with a diamond plate).

If all of this sounds like too much and you want a more simple care solution then you can get by very well by just using a ceramic sharpening rod. It combines the ability to touch up the edge quickly before use with the ability of a whetstone to remove material from the blade.

I got by with just a ceramic rod for a long time, but eventually bought whetstones when I wanted more control/better long term maintenance.

According to knife center the brand
>Magnum Knives are made for hard work with sleek designs and fantastic prices. Affordable performance. A well known brand with attractive designs, impressive quality and an outstanding price-performance ratio. Manufactured in Taiwan and China.

I looked at a similar discontinued knife from Magnum, it had 440 steel. I think it should work good, but I haven't had a great history with 440 steel holding a very sharp edge long. However 440 tends to hold a good edge for a while.

This is my favorite pocket sharpener It is very reliable and gets a great edge. The serration sharpener also works wonders if you have a serrated blade.

I think you got a great gift. I wouldn't trust the knife with heavy duty work, but it should work great for what you need it for. If you are looking for another knife I would recommend Kershaw, it is my favorite knife brand. They have good steel and are at a good cost.

There's a lot of different directions that you could go in, depending on what you want. The best sharpening is done on bench stones, but they have a learning curve. You can also use a jig system like the lansky and get good results. These are great because you can set an angle and keep it, but you are limited in the number of angles you can set (bench stones obviously are not).

I wouldn't recommend either of the sets you list, as they each have three pieces but all of them are basically the same grit. What is your price range?

I really think the best bang for your buck is the basic lansky system: https://www.amazon.com/Lansky-Standard-Coarse-Sharpening-System/dp/B000B8L6LI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1493602647&sr=8-3&keywords=lansky+system

It's pretty inexpensive for the basic set (the diamond set is worth it if you want to spend the extra money), pretty easy to use, and works well for most knives.

There are lots of videos on youtube that show good sharpening technique for bench stones. Murray Carter (master bladesmith) has a good dvd series on sharpening if you want to go down the free-hand route.

ill weigh in here too. i strongly recommend doing it yourself, if for no other reason, the sense of accomplishment. it got me into hunting even more when i was able to see the meat from field to plate, the whole way.

there are many levels you can butcher on... you can sub out as much as you want. you can get a grinder, or you can send it out to someone to do the burger. you can do your own sausage too if you have a grinder...

for me, if it is warm, ill do it that same day. if it isnt, i do it when convenient. honestly, ive tried aging it, and i cant taste one iota of difference... so i do it the easiest way i can. if i let it hang for more than a day, i make sure i pull out the tenderloins immediately.

tools you will need....
a good knife... preferably 2 so you can have someone help you. i like one with a gut hook, but its not the end of the world if you dont have one. youll want a small pocket sharpener, which you should probably have anyways... if you use a gut hook get one that can sharpen a gut hook. im a fan of this one

a gambrel. you can get by with ratchet straps, but a gambrel is way easier. i like one with a 4:1 lift ratio, but 2:1 is fine too. this is the one i have


a sawzall to cut off the head and legs are nice, but at our cabin we regularly forget to bring ours, and a regular hand saw actually works better in a lot of ways.

trash bags to store your meat in... at least 4. one for backstraps, one for front quarters, one for burger meat, one(or 2) for rear quarters.

so that will get you quartered. deer skinned, backstraps out, 4 legs(quarters) removed, and burger meat cleaned off of the rest of it.

at that point i generally get the meat into a cooler and get some ice onto it so i can quit for the day... in a day or 2 ill bring it all inside and debone it. for that, youll need a good fillet knife(i actually use a fishing fillet knife), and a big cutting board. again, i prefer 2 of both so i can have help. id rather do 2 deer with someone else, than 1 deer by myself. then all youll need is a vacuum sealer and bags.

there are a ton of different techniques out there. there is a learning curve. if you can have someone teach you that would help massively. but even if you do, watch tons of videos. especially for deboning. youll find your own technique that you like best.

youll also realize how much of the deer goes to waste. in the beginning you are going to want to try to save every tiny morsel of meat... after a couple deer youll realize what you have to let go. and that is different for everyone. some people cut the meat/fat from between the ribs... some people let that go... some people cut off the ribs and make them like beef ribs. some people turn the neck into a roast... some people cut what meat they can off of it, and put it in a roast.

some people are ok with tons of deer fat and connective tissue in their burger... some people want clean meat in it. some people cut all their hind quarter meat into steaks, some people keep everything as roasts.


edit:
this video shows the way i quarter the deer. except it takes me 10x as long, haha. follow up to the 10 minute mark. im not a fan of his deboning technique. i am, but i prefer to do it on the table, not hanging, and i prefer to clean all the outer silver skin off of it before i separate the muscle groups. and he also leaves a biiig chunk of burger meat on the lower leg bone.

With modern metallurgy, a cheap stainless steel blade is plenty good enough for kitchen use - provided that you can give it a proper sharpen.

The incremental improvement from a basic, hardened, stainless steel blade (420 or such) to a top of the line stainless (like N690 or S30V) are, in my opinion, not going to be worth the money for general kitchen usage (unless you're a pro-chef and using them practically all the time. And even then I'm not 100% sure on that).

The fancy steels all have better edge retention - i.e. longer time between sharpening. The other features of advanced steel (stronger and/or tougher, so could be lighter etc) really are not relevant; and basic stainless steel is 'stainless enough' - the few cases where the fact steels have higher environmental resistance are not going to be common in the kitchen [0].

The problem with better edge retention - is that it's not perfect, and therefore you still need to be able to sharpen them. Reglular steeling of the blade will stretch the time between sharpening (and improve the edge in use too - well worth getting into that habit) - but not eliminate it.

Even a ceramic knife will need sharpened eventually - although that can be long enough you could just replace it (but if it chips, then you're sunk). Sharpening them is not easy either - needs diamond tools to do so. (And they're not always perfectly sharp from the manufacturer either. I've touched up a fair few 'new out the box' ones in my time).

Perhaps I'm biased; given that I do a fair bit of wood and metal work, and thus sharpening things is second nature to me; but I really think that getting a jig based sharpening set is probably a better use of time and money. Something like https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lansky-Sharpeners-Standard-Sharpening-System/dp/B000B8L6LI/ only take a little practice to use; one doesn't need a lot of experience to get consistent results, and it will transform your existing knives amazingly. (I have a kit like that, and use it as a small 'travelling set' - mostly I use stones freehand, but that takes a fair bit of practice to get good results). My kitchen knives are all 'cheapest full tang from the supermarket', but visitors are often amazed how good they are - just because I keep them sharpened.

Anyway, there might well be other reasons to replace your existing knives; but given that sharpening gear is non-optional (in the long run), then that's where I'd recommend to start. Not quite what you were asking for, but I figured giving you a different way to view the situation might be a helpful insight; whatever you do.

[0] Compared to, say, a dive knife for sea used.

Don't buy a knife set. You don't need those knives. All you need is the following;

One chef's knife: Victorinox Fibrox 8-Inch Chef's Knife 40520, 47520, 45520, 5.2063.20 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B000638D32/

One pairing knife: Victorinox Cutlery 3.25-Inch Paring Knife, Small Black Polypropylene Handle https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0019WXPQY/

The basics of a chefs knife and pairing knife is $50. Those are good knives. I have two of the chef's knives and three of the pairing knives. The chefs knives hold their edge very well and are sharpened to 15 degrees.

These two knives are all a basic home cook needs. The rest of the kit is filler to get the piece count up. You won't use the carving fork. You don't know how to use the carbon steel honing rod. You don't filet your own fish. You are likely eatting wonder bread so you don't need a bread knife. Unless you plan murder a roommate you don't need a clever. You ain't eatting steak so you don't need steak knives. Heck I eat steak quite a bit and I don't think I need steak knives You need a knife for delicate work and work horse. That is your pairing knife and chefs knife respectively.

After that I would add the following (mind you I am not happy with the price on the sharpener, but it's a fairly good one, just make sure you get one to sharpen asian knives or 15 degrees);

One pair of kitchen shears: Messermeister DN-2070 8-Inch Take-Apart Kitchen Scissors https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B000VS6CAS/

One knife sharpener: Chef's Choice 463 Pronto Santoku/Asian Manual Knife Sharpener https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B002JIMVS0/

One bread knife: Mercer Culinary 10-Inch Wide Bread Knife https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B000PS1HS6/

I consider these the next purchases because eventually you need some scissors dedicated to kitchen use, and maybe ones that will cut small bone and are easy to clean after use on raw meat. The shears are amazing. Blew me away.

The sharpener because you need to maintain your knives. Keeping your knives sharp is safer and makes them a joy to work with. The above knives come razor sharp and will last you a while before needing a proper sharpening. I don't own that particular sharpener but it ranks high in reviews. I have a more expensive automatic sharpener from chef's choice which I used to regrind my sister's knives to a 15 degree edge. I can't recommend it to everyone because it's $200. It was a splurge on my part and not needed. A manual sharpener is all the average person needs. It takes the guess work out of getting the angle right. Again if you have the knives on this list make sure you get a sharpener for 15 degrees or it might be labelled as Asian style.

Eventually you will be off the wonder bread and maybe baking your own. You need a bread knife then to slice in nicely. A bread knife is also handy for cutting cake and other delicate things you don't want to smoosh. That bread knife is solid. You want a knife that will glide through bread without crushing it or tearing it. The key to that is tooth spacing. I think this one is just about perfect.

Other knives are useful in the kitchen. I would get your specialized knives next, such as a carving knife or fillet knife. The above five things I consider core before you get other stuff. You can carve and fillet with a chefs knife. I cook way more than the average person and get away with the above five items. In fact before I would buy specialized knives I would get another chefs knife and another pairing knife. The only other type of knife I own is a santoku style chefs knife which I prefer for chopping vegetables because in school I owned a keep shitty one and got used to the style.

As always do your own research, check the prices on Amazon with camelcamelcamel and check the reviews with a tool like review meta.

Paracord is good survival type thing and can be used for pretty much anything. The galaxy is the limit with this one, use your creativity and imagination and paracord can get it done.
https://www.skilledsurvival.com/paracord-uses-for-survival/

My shoulder light has a red light, white, and yellow, and I can adjust them all individually or have all of them blinking at the same time (like a cop light). It’s extremely useful for when you are dealing with people at night, no more holding a flashlight in your mouth while you write!
https://www.guardianangeldevices.com/m/law-enforcement-safety-light/

Our work has a gerber brand as well, I got a leatherman when I was 15 and still works amazing 10 years later. I carry that instead because the work multi-tool isn’t upkept very well and is super dull over the years.
I am not sure if they still make mine but it is similar to this one: https://www.swissknifeshop.com/shop/leatherman/multi-tools/leatherman-surge-multi-tool-black-4-pocket-nylon-sheath

I sharpen my SpyderCo knife (use it all the time!) and multi tool with this: Spyderco 204MF Triangle Sharpmaker https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000Q9C4AE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_whL1Cb8PQK0H8
It is pricey but will last a long time. Good quality in my opinion.

As far as money goes, really have to ask yourself how long you will use the item and how much use you will get out of it. Especially things like safety, I’ll buy a pair of Oakley’s over buying a lower-end brand. I personally like spending money on quality I know I’ll use a lot and having it last than to have something I’ll need to replace every few years. But there are cheaper options that work just as good.

We just have a standard toolbox, top swings open and there is a removable tray- so 2 levels of storage. Med bag is almost like a duffel bag but square. Brochures are in an organizer bag that straps onto a seat. Fee envelopes and other smaller paper items are in a small storage tub with clasps.

My personal stuff I carry a small Osprey bag that holds everything real well. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019TQPL4A/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ExL1Cb2BVDB4S

I do want to note that many items were gifts, I am by no means rolling in money. I also don’t want you to feel like you need all this stuff. I really like being prepared and I go camping a lot as well so I get a lot of use from them, so for me it is worth it.

My 8" chef's knife is a MUST (I have a set of Wustofs, which are amazing, but I reach for this knife. It's highly recommended on /r/cooking and for good reason!

I don't think you need an immersion blender for many things -- I only have used mine for potato soup and broccoli & cheese soup. I cut a lot of my ingredients by hand and just add them in, but I certainly use my food processor and blender (Cuisinart all the way) a lot to make sauces (hello, home-made salsa -- chuck ingredients in blender, pulse a couple times and serve with chips)!

Also, some other solid investments are good silicone tongs, a firm spatula, a cast iron skillet (/r/cooking can tell you how to care for it [mine is Lodge] -- I make everything in mine, from steak to breakfast), a cast iron dutch oven (also Lodge, I make chili to baked, whole chicken to bread in mine), a wooden spoon for breaking up meats, some cooking scissors, a pearing knife (I use mine just to clean small things, like the icky white bits in peppers), and some cookie sheets (good for cookies but also roasting veggies or making kale chips -- MMM!).

I also recommend reading some food blogs that strike your fancy. I love Pioneer Woman's. It'll inspire you to cook!

Oh, and last thing -- CURL YOUR FINGERS WHEN YOU CUT THINGS. No laying your fingers flat on things unless you want to risk cutting your fingers off! And remember a dull knife is not as safe as a sharp one.

Good luck! I love cooking. I always turn on some Spice Girls (don't judge me) and dance around the kitchen while I cook. :x

Okay so as far as drinks go, check out this recipe for [color changing mad scientist drinks] (http://www.squidoo.com/mad-science-party-drinks)! and of course [these flasks] (http://www.amazon.com/SEOH-Erlenmeyer-Flask-Set-1000ml/dp/B0018OL4A2%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAIAA4MWUJXHBYFRNQ%26tag%3Dsquid923629-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB0018OL4A2) to prepare/serve them!

[these cupcakes] (http://melissabernal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/sci.png) are also super cool, and if you don't have time to make them I'm sure your local bakery could whip em' up at a fairly inexpensive price. But, in all honesty, they don't look super difficult.

of course everyone needs [safely glasses] (http://www.amazon.com/Safety-Glasses-Intruder-Multi-Color/dp/B002KA00KS/ref=sr_1_9?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1404307076&sr=1-9&keywords=mad+scientist) for this party; and they come in a set of 12! how perfect!

for the walls, or doorways, you could put up this [party biohazard yellow tape] (http://www.amazon.com/Big-Mouth-Toys-Biohazard-Crime/dp/B003PM8ROG/ref=pd_sim_indust_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=16K74JMMCG67PABM8KMC), coupled with this [bloody table cloth] (http://www.amazon.com/Halloween-Party-Zombie-Blood-Tablecover/dp/B00C7Y23CK/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1404307186&sr=1-1-fkmr1&keywords=fake+zombie+blood+stickers) and this [centerpiece] (http://www.amazon.com/Centerpiece-Tableware-Supplies-Halloween-Birthdays/dp/B00EFGP3LG/ref=pd_sim_t_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=0A5R2P4RS07P7GBKM34C) you could absolutely bring a zombie element;

ooo! for fun, you could have a scavenger hunt around the house/yard that's like CDC/zombie themed! If you're good at making up stories you could totally tie it into a mad scientist thing.

"It was the experiment gone horribly wrong".

damn, this is gonna be my next birthday theme.

If you're really into that zombie topper there's a whole line of [plates] (http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Dessert-Paper-Plates-Count/dp/B00E59PN0E/ref=pd_sim_misc_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0YEHM1WREXVDXWYSPS6B) and [cups] (http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Party-Paper-Cups-Count/dp/B00E5ABZ8M/ref=pd_sim_t_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1DJZ21X2W9NGCPMT8520) and [napkins] (http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Party-Paper-Lunch-Napkins/dp/B00E5A9UDE/ref=pd_sim_t_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=18E9JR2R0B0GN70SEKG3) just like it.

ooo and here are some hand-shaped [cupcake picks] (http://www.amazon.com/12-Halloween-Monster-Cupcake-Picks/dp/B005J6RA7Q/ref=pd_sim_t_12?ie=UTF8&refRID=0DQJPRJ2SWGJDN9144KD). I'm clearly getting carried away.

Honestly, it would be super easy to tie zombies and science together. haha. Best of luck! Let me know if you wanna brain storm!

For the contest, this [knife sharpener] (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001CQTLJM/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=187CHN9S4I1LO&coliid=I36GYDHZ9M8GCI&psc=1) would be super cool :)

Knife sets are really convenient and fun, but more often than not all the knives don't really get used.

I'm not going to tell you to skip getting one because I don't have much experience with them and I don't want to overreach. However I will tell you that for me, I appreciated being able to pick out each knife on their own.

The one that pulls the most work will be either your chef knife or santoku depending on preference. The standard is 8", but I like my 10" one. You'll want to look for a full tang, and a forged blade instead of stamped. The tang is for stability since it will be one piece, and a forged blade keeps an edge better. For specifically the chefs knife, styles include Japanese and German (and French). Japanese style is thin, sharp, and light. Usually both sides are sharpened at different angles. They can need a little more effort to care for but they are sharp and reliable. German and French are more of the powerhouse, bone chopping types. They are heavier, rugged, and can take a beating. Think samurai sword vs. hunting knives. Americas Test Kitchen gives this knife a good rating, but keep in mind the testers are not the cooks and they use specific metrics. If you understand their testing circumstances it could be a good knife for you. Personally I think it feels like a toy.
Major quality brands beside that are Wusthof, Shun, Henkel, Global, maybe a Bob Kramer if you want to pay for quality and design.

A paring knife is your next used knife (depending on who you ask). These are for smaller tasks, fine knife work, and peeling (although peelers are in fashion now if you aren't in culinary school). Generally around 3.5-4", and basically a mini chef knife. Same as above apply here.

Next a serrated bread knife is useful. I'm not even going to beat around the bush. I really really recommend this one in particular and I'll give you the reasons why: light, durable, sharp as all hell, cheap, perfect, saves African children, cures cancer.
Jimmy John's sandwich shops use these and one of my friends gave me one when they got new ones and I fell in love. Seriously a good knife.

Those three knives make up your base collection, however other things you may need are a slicer, a boning/filet knife, or other specialty specific things.

Lastly learn good maintenance! Never use the dishwasher on a knife, sharpen or get it sharpened regularly (at least once a year), and always use a honing rod!

Let me know if you need anything clarified.

You don't need a set, you only need a few decent knives: a chef's knife, a paring knife, and a serrated knife for bread. Maybe a fillet knife but unlikely.

I use this chef's knife, which is high-quality and inexpensive. The Victorinox Fibrox 8-inch also has a very strong cult following. However, you can also easily spend $100-200 for a good German or Japanese knife like Wusthof, Henckels, Global, etc.. The two most important things however are:

1. It feels good in your hand. If you're going to spend that kind of money I would definitely recommend going to a store (like Sur La Table or Williams Sonoma) and trying out a few to see what feels right. For $35 I was willing to take my chances on the Mercer and it worked out well.
   
   
2. Keep it sharp! I noticed you said it feels "dull and unbalanced". Great that you noticed those are two different but related things. Every time you use your knife, you should be honing it on a honing steel. Honing it trues the blade, meaning aligns the edge down the knife's centerline. Eventually, even honing it won't be effective, because the knife edge itself is dull. This means you should have the knife sharpened, which is typically done once every 6 months-1 year. Sharpening removes material so it shouldn't be done too often. I recommend going to a professional hand sharpening service which will typically do it for about $10-15 per knife. Some people do it themselves at home with a stone, but in my opinion this is not worth it and too easy to screw up.

Stay at home Dad here. I cook for six every night. Prior to about four years ago the most cooking I did was on the grill. I started with the Betty Crocker Cook book. Literally. Red book in binder format. It has simple comfort food and the recipes are simple. I now have 30+ cookbooks, some better than others. (Giada's are only good for the pictures.) Once I started cooking, I then started watching Alton Brown for other ideas and other techniques, but without a firm base of at least six months of trial and error, it won't help much. Without that, it'd be like watching a Michael Jordan video having never even picked up a basketball and thinking you could play like him. Get used to the environment first.

Start simple. Do a chicken breast and a vegetable from a can. Maybe rice. But note what works and what doesn't. Get a feel for what a "done" chicken breast looks like and feels like. Same with a pork chop. Same with some pasta. Get yourself used to the chemistry and physics of cooking first, then work on more complicated techniques and dishes.

Starter Supplies:

• One good frying pan - nonstick
  
  
• One good Chef's knife - [$25 on Amazon]
  (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008M5U1C2/182-6325493-8824318)
  
  
• Cooking Thermometer - $14 on Amazon - Cook all meats to 160 degrees F to start. You can get fancier later. To start don't poison your guests.
  
  
• Flexible cutting boards - $5 Amazon This makes it easy to chop and then dump straight into the pot/pan.
  
  Clean while you cook.
  Salt and butter are always your friend. And cheese. If something sucks, add cheese. Good luck!!! Report back please.
  
  
  TL;DR Just start cooking. Keep it simple, but start cooking.

I LOVE HOMEWARES. This is so exciting! I looked at your wishlist and I think you've nailed it in terms of picking things with good storage. That's really important - things with hidden storage. So the coffee table with drawers is awesome. I have a bed with drawers.

I would get a good chefs knife. This one has great reviews! http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Fibrox-8-Inch-40520-5-2063-20/dp/B000638D32/

And a good cutting board, like this one! Plastic boards breed bacteria, so I always use wooden ones. This one looks great. http://www.amazon.com/Extra-Large-Bamboo-Cutting-Board/dp/B00FQ7ICHU/

And this epic kitchen timer will go perfectly with the R2D2 wastebin on your wishlist!

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Kitchen-Timer-Countdown/dp/B00KCQVB1O/

Good luck! Have fun!

Knives are things people to get pretty fetishistic about. In practice, pretty much anything sharp and approximately the right size and shape will work just fine in a home kitchen.

This is my workhorse knife:

https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Fibrox-Chefs-Knife-8-Inch/dp/B008M5U1C2

It's a good weight, easy to maintain and comfortable in the hand. I use it every day, sometimes a LOT. It makes quick work of whatever I need it to do.

But it's not fancy, and it's not pretty. It looks and feels cheap, because it is. But cheap doesn't mean bad. It's an excellent knife in utilitarian terms.

So to answer your question, you should buy whatever knife…

1. You will actually be comfortable using every day
   
2. You will actually maintain so it stays clean and sharp
   
   Do you need a $100+ knife? Absolutely not. But if it would make you happy to own one (including enjoying how it looks) and you will actually use and maintain it, then by all means buy it. Cooking at home should be a fun thing to do, not just a chore you have to slog through. It's entirely okay to own tools that make cooking fun for you, even if those tools aren't strictly worth the money in pure utilitarian terms.

It's possible to buy a knife with a good blade and a good handle, you know. The Victorinox above is like getting a Ford Mustang GT350. It's perfectly capable, but it's not going to compare to Porsche Turbo, Ferrari, or Lambo as far as desirability. The same goes for a plastic phone. But some people want a phone that feels good in the hand and solid and more than just plastic.

So yea, that Victorinox will work. It cuts things and does a good job at it (aka serviceable). But as far as having a NICE knife that does all that, plus feels good in the hand and looks look, then you need to look elsewhere.

Here are two perfectly good knives that have equally sharp blades and are used by professional chefs out there:

• http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004RFLI/
  
• http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00009ZK08
  
  At a minimum, if i were to buy the Victorinox knife over again, i would have bought the wood handle version.
  
  http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-8-Inch-Chefs-Rosewood-Handle/dp/B0019WZEUE
  

I am far from the most knowledgeable person in the world on knives, but I do read about them quite a bit. Knives are probably the one of the most fundamental tools in a kitchen. The difference that a sharp knife can make when cooking is astronomical. A sharp knife is far safer than a dull knife will be, because it will cut smoothly, and will go pretty much exactly where you point it.

As For the dimples, they will assist you when cutting large pieces of meat, by reducing the amount of meat that sticks to the blade. It will not make much of a difference with garlic, potatoes, and etc.

These are some high quality knives, and they are pretty as fuck as well. They will last you a long ass time.



One thing to take into consideration with chef knives, santoku, and such, you need to try them out before you buy them. Go to a local Williams-Sonoma, or another store that has high quality knives on display, and ask if you can try it. You need to make sure that when you make your cutting motion, that your knuckles will not slam into the board. I have used some very nice Shun knives, that when I would get into my cutting rhythm, I would start punching the cutting board. This is annoying as all fuck, and I couldn’t imagine dealing with this every time I went to prep a meal.


There is also the fact of sharpening. You are about to throw some good money down on a knife, that you want to last you for a long time. You need to learn how to sharpening, which isn’t that hard, or you need to go find yourself a shop that will do it for you. This is probably one of the best guides to sharpening a knife.


As for what you should buy to sharpen your knife:

1. A SMOOTH honing rod, do not buy one of those rough honing rods, because they are built on the thought that you will not sharpen your own knife. The rough honing rods are made for people buying someone a wedding present, or buying a friend a house warming gift.
   
   
   
2. A sharpening stone(aka whetstone, wet stone, water stone, and so on). I would suggest a 200-400 grit stone, and a 600+ or 1000+ grit stone. These would be going on the cheap end of things. If you want to get a little more expensive(about 250 bucks or so), I would go buy an Edge Pro Set. Learn how to use this system, and now you have a new hobby, and you can charge your friends to sharpen their knives.
   
   
   Washing: DO NOT WASH IN YOUR DISHWASHER, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. If you want to keep this knife for a long time, you need to wash it by hand, with a sponge. The agitation of the water will dull your blades, the prolonged exposure to steam and heat will damage the handles, and holy fuck it will demolish a carbon blade. Seriously, wash it by hand, and if you are truly knife crazy oil it up.
   
   Cutting Board: Do not use a thin plastic cutting board. Get a nice thick plastic one, a Sani Tuff, or go and get a decent quality wooden cutting board. You gotta keep that board well oiled, and do not place it in the dishwasher. Again, there are entire websites devoted to taking care of a cutting board.
   
   HERE THERE BE OPINIONS:
   
   
   I really dislike Globals, they use a steel known as chromova 18. It is a stainless steel, harder than the Euro style, but softer than the Japanese style. I draw my dislike for it from that. They’re pricey, forged knives, that use a softer steel. They kind of mark a midway point beween Zwilling and Tojiro DP, yet cost more than both in some instances. I also really hate the handles.
   
   
   If you do not have a lot of experience with knives, then I highly suggest you get yourself a Victorinox 8" chef knife. They are great knives, and will last you a decent amount of time. It will run you 25 dollars, and is worth every penny. This one would work great, and would let you try out a sharp knife, that is made of a good material. Ignore the fact that it says dishwasher safe.
   
   
   If you have any more questions, please ask away. Also, sorry about the giant wall of text, I am not sure how to format this any better.
   

I would grab an 8" Victorinox fibrox chef's knife to start, tough to go wrong with that one. Most would then recommend grabbing a smaller knife like a paring knife or utility knife, and a 10" bread knife. If that sounds good and you don't want to think too hard about it, this should do the trick. If you want to think about it a little more, read on.

The chef's knife is almost always a must-have and the Victorinox is pretty tough to beat for the price. I like a heavier bread knife because I find mine useful for large, tough things like cabbage, but if you don't see yourself doing that type of thing, the Tojiro F-737 Bread Slicer is really nice and really inexpensive. For something a little heavier, the Mercer Millennia 10" bread knife won't be as graceful but should tackle anything and is equally inexpensive. Finally, the small knife. I'm not the biggest fan of traditional small paring knives because the only things I use them for, like hulling strawberries, coring tomatoes, and eyeing potatoes, is better done with a bird's beak knife and they're too small to do anything else. I find a 5-6 inch utility knife is more useful for when I want to handle small things. So the set I would get would look something like:

Chef's, $34.99

Bread, $13.39

Bird's beak, Wusthof because the small Victorinoxes can feel a little flimsy, $9.95

Utility $25.50

That comes out to the beautiful price of $83.83 which leaves a little room to get the perfect set of edge guards if you don't already have a block, or a smooth honing steel for that perfect edge. Now, someone please drag me through the mud for recommending a bird's beak in a starter kit.

I spent nearly 20 years as a cook-then-sous-then-exec in fine dining kitchens. I've bought cheap knives, and I've bought expensive knives. I finally found my sweet spot split between Misono Swedish Carbon and Misono UX10s. I have a few different styles of knives in each, and they each have their ups and downs. The downside to either of those is that they're not exactly cheap (but you can spend way more if you're so inclined).

On the cheap side of things, this series of knives form Victorinox is probably the best value out there. For a home cook, these are absolutely bifl, but they're not exactly sexy.

My recommendation when anyone asks me a question like this is to go for the Mac Professional Series. They're fancy enough to be a little special, but not so special that you're afraid to use them. Full disclosure, I still use a Chef Series Mac 5.5" utility knife. In a professional kitchen, your utility knife gets so much more use than you'd imagine, so having a cheap one without the bolster is nice in case someone drops it in the fryer and kills the temper, or kicks it under the dish station etc. For home, I'd get the nice (pro series) version.

Anyway, for a first investment in nice knives, I'd go for an 8" chef's knife, dimples or not, it makes no real difference, and a 5.5" utility knife. The second addition would be 10-12" carving knife. Of course, a serrated bread knife and a small paring knife are necessary, but that's where those Victorinox knives I linked above are perfect.

I'm sure the bifl crowd here will crucify me for recommending stainless, but unless you're using your knives every day for hours a day, it's way too easy to get lazy and you end up with pitting and rust on all those fancy carbon knives, and that makes you less likely to use them.

For sharpening, get a 1000/6000 grit whetstone. When I was cheffing for a living, I hit the 6000 every day, and the 1000 once a week. Now, I cook dinner maybe 4 times a week, and I hit the 6000 once a month, and the 1000 like once or twice a year. Keeping the knives in cases helps with this. Drawers will kill the edge. Youtube has plenty of tutorials on how to use a whetstone and keep everything straight.

As far as "sharpening" steels go, it's nice having one around if you're doing a ton of knife work and need a quick touch up, but slapping a knife on a steel is not the same as sharpening it, and if you let the edge get truly dull (by hitting the steel instead of sharpening it), you'll have a bear of a time getting the edge true again.

Anyway, if you buy something made by an ancient Japanese craftsman who's older than the volcano he forges in, sure, it'll be cool and have fancy wavy lines. If you buy garbage it'll be garbage. Whatever you do, just know that nothing screams recent culinary school graduate than a Shun santoku.

note: I've written "you" a bunch in here. It's less pretentious than saying "one may sharpen..." and less clumsy than referring to your partner at all times . I hope you'll forgive me.

edit: tl;dr get the Macs

Here's what's in my kitchen: http://i.imgur.com/CAQ3xUv.jpg

Left to right:

• Kramer/Zwilling 8" chef's knife in FC61 steel. An amazing knife, with a thin blade, excellent balance, perfectly proportioned. A bit pricey as far as production kitchen knives go, though.
  
  
• Fujitake 7.2" chef's knife in VG10 steel. Picked this up recently in Japan. It is not available anywhere in the states, which is pretty cool. Hida Tool has some Fujitakes available, but not this one. Even thinner than the Kramer, with a completely different design and feel. It cuts like a laser, and might permanently replace the Kramer for me.
  
  
• An old, inexpensive KAI bread knife. Excellent for what it does (cut bread).
  
  
• An old L'Econome paring knife. Its combination of a slightly rounded tip and thin blade make it perfect for things like prying the green sprouts out of older garlic gloves, or scraping the skins off young shallots. I use this thing a lot.
  
  The sine qua non, however, is a good sharpening setup. Without it, it's not even worth thinking about getting a kitchen knife. If I were you I'd buy this:
  
  
• Spyderco Sharpmaker
  
  
• Victorinox Fibrox
  
  
• Opinel Paring Knife
  
  Total price: $105.45. The Fibrox is a great entry level chef's knife, and it would be extremely easy to keep sharp on the Sharpmaker. The Opinel is cheap and effective as a paring knife.

Here's a few basic kitchen supplies that'll make your life a bit easier:

• Two really good quality chef's knives, one large and one small, and a steel to keep them sharp. These seem to be well rated if you can't afford the really expensive ones, and there's a nice guide to using a steel there too.
  
• A heavy wooden chopping board. Bamboo is nice, but whatever you can find, as long as it's solid. Non-slip feet are a good addition.
  
• A reasonably priced, reasonably heavy frying pan. Cast iron is cool, but takes more work to look after than a non-stick one. However, avoid the $2 pressed aluminium versions.
  
• A rice cooker. Note that red beans and rice are an awesomely nutritive combination, with lots of different possible recipes - I particularly like vegetarian chilli with rice.
  
• One large, one medium, and one small pot/saucepan.
  
• Not a necessity, but an excellent addition for really easy one-person meals is a small slow-cooker. Put it on in the morning, delicious dinner ready when you get home.
  
  
  Other things:
  
• Make sure you have smoke detectors fitted, and know how to check them.
  
• Make up a small card of things you always buy or often need from the supermarket (milk, bread, rice, TP, soap, etc...), and keep it in your wallet as a reminder for when you're wandering around there in a daze, forgetting what you came in for.
  
• If feasible, get to know your neighbors so you know which of them you can ask for help in an emergency.
  
• Do at least one cleaning task per day (dishes, laundry, cleaning toilets...). It can get out of hand really quickly if you're not in the habit.

Here is a decent knife for cheap Keeps a great edge and is everything you need for maki and anything else really.

I have learned a few things that really stuck with me over my sushi career.

Everyone does the same thing. The rice is all the same, the cucumber is the same. All of the ingredients are the same. However, it's your attention to detail and small variances in skill that determine the quality of your end product. For example; the rice gets washed of starch always, but what are you looking for? What makes the rice you make have that fluffy nice texture? Are you just washing until the water runs clean or are you checking the saturation of the grains of rice? What level of saturation makes for the best end product?

Sushi requires you to always be moving. Each movement matters, there is no down time. I guess this is more for restaurant work than at home but is crucial to understanding the art. You want to do the most work with the least amount of effort.

Food is subjective. If it's good to you, then it's good food. Find those small details that you like that make your product the way you like it. Make weird stuff, try and taste everything.

Always buy the best products. Always use English cucumbers. Always always use kewpie mayo for your sauces. Always have a sharp knife. Always mix a little kewpie into your sirimi instead of using the sticks.

Just keep making sushi and have fun!

That is a really beautiful knife. I really appreciate the handle.

My first Chef's knife that was a gift to myself when I graduated college was a Victorinox Forschner which I still have. It is nothing special, but it has survived ten years of constant use, and it is close to my heart.

I have recently done a complete sharpen and polish on it. I enjoy maintaining my own tools. It gives me a great deal of satisfaction and pride.

Actually I think yours is better for this kind of thing; it looks like your handle is replaceable, whereas mine is a simple injection molded plastic one which I cannot figure out a way to replace, and it's a bit worn out now.

I expect that a lot of people are going to comment this, but you really cant go wrong with the spyderco sharpmaker. It's the device I use on all my knives, great for beginners and intermediate collectors alike. It only takes a few tries to get the technique down, and there are ways to sharpen both straight edge (obviously) and serrations.

Once you start getting more into knives, some other great systems that I've been researching are the edgepro and the wicked edge. These will run you a lot more money- hundreds for the best wicked edge- but these are the kinds of sharpeners that the pros use to get ridiculously sharp edges on their knives.

There are a ton of excellent videos on youtube detailing how to use these products to get a great edge. Check out jdavis882 if you are interested in the edgepro.

Sorry for the ranting post. Hope you find what you're looking for, and tell us what you get and how you're liking it!

Virtually any knife can be made sharp, but some will hold their edge better than others. Sharpness is partially about steel quality, and partly about blade angle (Japanese knives are usually sharpened at a more acute angle than, say, German knives, and thus are sharper but dull more quickly).

This Victorinox chef's knife is an awesome value. Durable and good quality, yet very inexpensive. You'll see them in professional kitchens, or knives like them.

Not saying it's the best knife ever, because it's not, but it is quite good for the price. I own it and love it, and I can sharpen it easily.

I think the best advice I ever got on cooking was from director Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Desperado, Spy Kids). Pick 3-4 of your favorite meals and learn how to cook them from recipes or youtube tutorials. Just cook them over and over again. From there at least you will get some basics down.

Speaking of basics, I have really enjoyed Basics with Babbish on youtube. Good Eats with Alton Brown too.

Something that will make the learning process a lot easier is to learn some good knife skills. Buy a bag of onions and get to chopping. If you don't have a good chef knife available, get one of these it will hold you over until you decide you need an upgrade. Good knives make cooking a lot more fun. Once you get the chef knife the other things you should think about getting down the line are a bread knife, paring knife (although I rarely use mine), a good cutting board ( I like my bamboo one).

Other basics to learn according to Anthony Bourdain are:

• Cook an omlette
  
• Make a stew (beef or otherwise)
  
• Roast a chicken
  
• cook a burger
  
  Most of all have fun! Mess around with different seasonings? My first adventures into cooking was adding different spices to instant ramen noodles during the summer for lunch. You have to eat all your life, you might as well eat well. Plus, the ladies love it!

Here are 4 things that I think will allow you to cook about 90% of everything you see on the internet.

A decent 8" kitchen knife. The Victorinox is a heavy lifter without breaking the bank.

A solid dutch oven. Here I recommend a Lodge, but Le Cruset is fantastic as well. A dutch oven allows you to do tons of one pot meals, braising, frying, soups, sauces, baking bread etc..

A 12" fry pan. This is for proteins, sauteing, all kinds of breakfast applications (eggs, homefries, shakshuka, etc).

A 3 qrt saucier. This one is pretty pricey, but you can get other good, cheaper options if you do a little research. This can double as a pot to boil water, make sauces, curries, and candy. A sauciers smooth sides are much easier to clean and can serve as a good compromise between a saucepan and a saute pan.

I've listed them in order of importance. A knife and a dutch oven can do a ton by themselves. I'd also recommend a pair of kitchen tongs, a handheld fine mesh strainer, and am immersion blender. In fact, I'd try to get those before the fry pan and the saucier, they open a lot of doors for you.

Let me just say, knowing how to cook in college will help you get laid. I said it.

Now then. Try Jamie Oliver's first book, The Naked Chef It's dated, but it's filled with "high value" recipes -- those that look and taste like they're crazy complicated, but they're not. The asparagus with anchovy butter recipe is amazing and literally has 4 ingredients and literally can be made in the microwave. The Best Roast Chicken recipe is still brought up by my friend. I made it for her once 13 years ago.

Also try Martha Stewart's Everyday Food blog. Minimal ingredients, not a lot of skill necessary, good results.

General recommendations. Follow the recipe to the letter the first time. Buy one good knife and learn how to sharpen it. Volunteer for your local meal-providing nonprofit and help them prep. Invest in some good Rubbermaid food storage because you will have leftovers. Invite someone you like to eat with you and even cook with you.

• Chef's knife 1 [2] (http://www.amazon.com/Henckels-International-Classic-8-Inch-Stainless-Steel/dp/B00004RFMT/ref=sr_1_3?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1335026275&sr=1-3) me gusta
  
• Paring knife (victorinox is good if you get a few. If you want just one, get something with solid construction. You can find them for pretty cheap)
  
• Cutting boards (ikea is a good place for these. 2/$1)
  
• French Press (Mmmm, coffee)
  
• Spices (oregano, basil, salt, pepper, yellow curry powder, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder)
  
• A few nice microwave safe bowls
  
• A mixing bowl
  
• 1 nice, heavy saute pan (8" coated works well for 1 person, though you may want to get something a bit bigger if you'll be cooking for 2. Also, use plastic a wood utensils. NEVER use a fork because it's easier. You will ruin your pan if you do not heed my warning.)
  
• 1 nice, heavy pot (1 or two quarts should do. Try Goodwill or somewhere similar for this)
  
• Spatulas, wood spoons, tongs, etc.
  
  A well fit kitchen is really important. I like to go with a minimalist style and just wash as I go. It keeps the clutter down and makes cooking pretty damn easy. Good luck!

Hmm, a lot of times trouble with cutting things is mostly an equipment issue-- aka, a blunt knife. Is your supermarket an Asian one? They often have really good, sharp knives for not very much money. If not, it may be worth getting something like this. There's a bit of a learning curve, but with a sharp knife you'd improve rapidly!

I'm an amount-eyeballer too, so that makes it easier to give you some of my recipes, haha. This one is a nice alternative to a tomato sauce that doesn't require a lot of chopping and comes together very fast:

• Put your salted water on to boil for the pasta.
  
• Slice 1 medium onion: Halve the onion lengthwise. Cut off the tops of each half and peel back the skins to the root. Holding onto the root, slice thinly crosswise, so that the slices are ~1/8" thick. Basically, follow up to step 4 of this image, making thinner slices and not cutting off the root ends because they make a nice handle.
  
• Smash 4 garlic cloves: Bash each clove with the side of your knife. The papery skins will fall right off.
  
• Take a 12-inch skillet and pour in ~3 tbsp of olive oil, just to thinly coat the bottom of the skillet. Put over medium heat. (Meanwhile, start cooking your pasta as soon as your water is boiling). Once the oil is hot, throw in the onion, the smashed garlic cloves, a filet or two of anchovy (the kind that comes in a tin packed in olive oil), ~2 tbsp of drained/patted-dry/lightly smashed capers, and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Salt and saute until fragrant and the onions are softening and the anchovies have started to dissolve.
  
• Add about half a glass of white wine to the pan and then add ~3 large handfuls of roughly-chopped kale or other hearty green. It should take about 5 minutes for the kale to wilt down, during which time your pasta should be finished-- again, undercook it by 1 minute. BEFORE YOU DRAIN YOUR PASTA, save about a cup of the starchy water.
  
• Add your pasta to the skillet with ~1/3 of the pasta water, a handful of fresh-grated Parmigiana cheese, and a pat of butter. Turn up the heat. Toss until the pasta's done, adjusting the consistency of the sauce with additional water if you need to. Take off the heat, adjust seasoning (salt and pepper), and add the juice of one lemon, stirring to coat.
  
• Serve with additional cheese and cracked black pepper.
  
  Good luck with your pasta voyage!

For something you'll really love and suits what you like best, go down a YouTube rabbit hole and watch a bunch of reviews if you haven't already. You'll find something you want I'm sure, and probably something you want but can't afford.

But if you want cost effective quality, Victorinox fibrox and Dexter seem to be well used with no regrets in the $40 range. Knives can get much better in the idealized sense, but above that is where the practical benefits don't seem so huge compared to just getting away from the knives made for people who don't even care.

America's test kitchen likes this one if I'm not mistaken:

https://www.russums-shop.co.uk/i/q/KV214/victorinox-fibrox-cooks-knife-22cm

Some day I might have the money to get something like a Kramer but that is even more expensive than the £150 budget.

I love my wusthof classic, £73 here.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00009ZK08/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_KNkLBbFHS1M0J

But i don't know, i could spend weeks reading and watching videos without ever making a purchase. The wusthof was a gift.

America's Test Kitchen, cookbooks or the PBS show (your local library may have the DVD's to check out).

Cook's Country magazines or cookbooks-also very likely your local library will have available to check out.

They both have nearly fool-proof recipes that are pretty basic, everyday American-style recipes with color pictures. Sometimes they do stir-fries or other sort-of ethnic cuisines. Good instruction on WHY you are doing something and points out essential techniques/ingredients/equipment. You will generally have good success with their recipes, which will be satisfying to make, and teaches you how to cook at the same time. Cook's Illustrated magazines/cookbooks are also very good, but they don't contain photos, and tend to be either more complicated recipes, or require things a new cook probably doesn't have--however they are an EXCELLENT source for equipment ratings.

I also like Alton Brown, but don't have any of his books. He explains the science behind cooking and his recipes are very good.

James Kenji Lopez-Alt's The Food Lab is excellent, another "science of cooking" guy. His pancake recipe is my all-time favorite.

Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything books are good, and quite comprehensive, but lack the "why" that the above sources provide.

I do not recommend Pinterest or All Recipes or other online recipe aggregates, they are chock full of bizarre untested recipes that typically utilize "cream of crap" in everything. You will become frustrated with their recipe failures.

This knife is essential: Victorinox Fibrox Straight Edge Chef's Knife, 8-Inch https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008M5U1C2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_wIsFxb1T24ER2

Cooking is one of the most satisfying hobbies! Good luck!

I have a $5 pairing knife that takes an edge well but looses it fast. I have a $25 stamped wusthof that takes an edge well and keeps it pretty good. I just bought my little brothers (2 of them) Misen chefs knives (a kickstarter thing) and they are pretty dang nice.

 

I can sharpen an axe to where I can shave with it by hand. Showing off is all that is good for. I have used water stones, diamond, the top of a car window, and even a plain ole rock. But once a month or so, I sharpen them with on this.

 

But every day, I hone them with one of these I bought at goodwill.

 

My advice to anyone is learn to use and sharpen the tool before geeking out on expensive stuff. Knowledge and practice will bring you a lot more satisfaction. I would rather hear a great guitarist on a crap guitar than a crap guitarist on a great guitar.

It's made for my hand specifically but frankly it's an incremental improvement over my $150 Wusthofs. So it doesn't make that much a difference. The handle is in New Orleans Saints colors though, so there is that lol

It's super light weight though and has a good 1.5 inches on the Wusthof, the extra length with my hands does actually help when I'm doing a lot of chopping but I've bigger hands. For someone smaller I wager the 8" Wusthof Classic would be perfect, I've used them for years and they last forever. I think I've had one for at least 15 years and it's still as good as day 1. The cheaper ones are NOT the same by the way. Classic all the way, that's their original forging recipe and it shows.

This one specifically. Wait for it to go on sale at some point, it's rare, they've been $150 for over a decade: https://www.amazon.com/Wusthof-Classic-8-Inch-4582-20/dp/B00009ZK08/ref=sr_1_8?keywords=wusthof+classic&qid=1550174388&s=gateway&sr=8-8

Sharpening is one of those weird topics that's really simple at the surface, and which gets really complicated as you dive in.

I'm mostly allergic to complication, so I'll give you the simple stuff that will get you 95% of the way there.

Generally speaking, the desired end result is to grind the edge of the blade to a nice V. It wants to be even and regular, and reasonably smooth. Complications involve things like compound or micro bevels, convex bevels, smoothness vrs microserration, and bevels which vary in angle across the length of the blade, and discussion about just what that angle ought to be anyway.

Start with simple. A nice even V.

This can be done well enough by hand, and it's not terribly hard to learn, but it's hard enough to learn that I don't think people should start there. A guided rod system, like a Lansky sharpener, will take the hardest part of it out of the equation, allowing you to focus on doing everything else right. Once you get good with it, all of your new knowledge and skills will transfer over if you'd like to learn how to do it by hand later.

Other systems involve angled abrasive sticks, more sophisticated guided rod arraignments, and even a little belt sander. They all work very well and all have their advantages and disadvantages.

The Lansky is simple, and cheap. You can have everything you need for under $30:

https://www.amazon.com/Lansky-Standard-Coarse-Sharpening-System/dp/B000B8L6LI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1504615867&sr=8-2&keywords=lansky+sharpener+coarse

https://www.amazon.com/Lansky-LM007-Pedestal-Mount/dp/B000B8FVZU/ref=pd_sim_200_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=2HSWHHQRKAC55K1WVEAC

Like any sharpening system, there is a learning curve. Start with a cheap knife or two that you don't care about, and expect to come back here with a question or two. Then, once you get it, you're on your way.

Then we can talk about cutting technique, storage and maintenance, and knife selection, all of which matter more in actual use than the details of blade steel. I have a comfortable, well-designed, well-suited kitchen knife I use for everything and it's made out of garbage steel, and it's razor sharp right now. But that's another discussion...

I would highly recommend the victorinox as a first knife. It's a great knife and it's cheap. There are better knives in the world, but none I've met give you a better quality:money ratio. Learn with the victorinox - your first knife will take some abuse as you learn how to control it, and it's better to ding up a $30 knife than one that costs $100+.

Keeping your knife sharp is also a high priority. I would also recommend getting a knife sharpener like the Accusharp. You can run this over your knife a few times after each use and it will stay in top condition. This will take the guesswork out of sharpening. For a pricier knife, I wouldn't recommend actually sharpening a knife after every use since it takes off a tiny bit of metal each time, but the victorinox is cheap enough that this is not a major concern; you could sharpen it after every use for a few years before destroying the knife, which is more than enough time for you to learn knife skills.

Once you have more experience, you can buy a butcher's steel and a sharpening stone to perfect your sharpening technique which will be easier on your knife, and eventually you can splurge on a fantastic knife based on what feels comfortable to you. But starting off, the victorinox and the accusharp are a great, affordable kit that will put you leaps and bounds ahead of what most people actually have.

I am grateful to have such an amazing sister. She is younger than me but she is seriously a sweetheart and fun to be around. I am also grateful for my husband! =] stitchinbitchin loves me

this is 5.09 if that is okay

Thank you =]

Victorinox Fibrox Pro Chef's Knife (8 inch)

The Fibrox series is the classic chef knife series. Known for good quality and able to keep a good edge for a while. Can't go wrong here. Like other comments have said they also have paring knives and bread knives, all at reasonable prices.

Mercer Culinary M22608 Millennia 8-Inch Chef's Knife

The Mercer Millennia series is great if you're really on a budget. I own one of these but I will say that after about a good 6 months of use it is losing its edge quite a bit (also possibly due to roommates chopping stuff on the hard metal table. I'm a little bitter about it.) Came sharp and will stay sharp with some care.

Mercer Culinary Genesis Forged Short Bolster Forged Chef's Knife, 8 Inch

Same company, forged blade. Little nicer, will most likely keep an edge a little longer.

As far as chef knives go, these are some budget picks and probably what most people would recommend unless you want something much nicer! :)

Edit: Also if you are looking for something much nicer, jump down the rabbit hole that is /r/chefknives

It's a steep slope lol

okay, so... as far as cheap sharpening goes, stay away from pull thru sharpeners they give a mediocre edge and take years off the steel.
a cheap-ish way is to get a stone but learning to free hand sharpen is a pain and can take years to truly get the hang of. also chosing grits and a good stone that wont crumble and scratch the shit out of your knife.

you can get a lansky for 35-40$

or you can get a spyderco sharpmaker for 50-60$

i use one of these for rough stuff, really bad edges and reprofiling. i would recommend this because if you arent going to be sharpening often and dont need a razor edge itll be fine.

a good strop can get expensive but honestly you can just pick one for 15-20$ and some buffing compound for 3-10$

you can also use one of these to get a mirror edge, closer to finishing, freehand sharpening again has a larger learning curve, practice on a crappy knife. seriously. you will fuck up at first. you should see my first knife, gross...

if you decide in the freedom of freehand sharpening, check out atomedges guide in the sidebar. pretty helpful.

I agree that you should buy the best you can afford, but you don't have to shell out for top of the line knives or any of your kitchen stuff all up front. I have been assembling my kitchen since I left for college years ago and now I am pretty well setup. I initially found a lot of great stuff at thrift stores. Also check Ross/TJ Maxx/Marshalls for deals. People gave me a lot of stuff some I have since replaced, but it was a start. Do get a good knife, you might just start here Amazon. These knives get pretty good reviews on the cooking forums.

My most used cookware is (in order)

• a 12 in SS skillet,
  
• two 3.5qt sauce pans,
  
• a 3qt SS saute pan,
  
• a tall 8qt stock pot,
  
• 6qt enameled cast iron pot/dutch oven,
  
• 10 in non-stick fry pan (for pretty much eggs only)
  
  I have a boat load more, but this is where I would start. I also prefer cookware without plastic handles so they can be used in the oven.
  
  EDIT: I have no clue why my list items are not coming out with bullets.

Knives are pretty personal. Your best bet is to go to a kitchen store with a good selection and try a few in your (her) hand to see what is comfortable. There are two general styles, stamped and forged: stamped is generally cheaper as it is easier to mass produce. However, if you're only interested in performance and not looks, a decent stamped blade will perform just fine (I use a Victorinox Chef's Knife for most day-to-day cutting tasks).

A full set is generally overkill, all you really need is a decent chef knife or santoku (personal preference, a western chef's knife is a little more versatile), a paring knife and a serrated bread knife. Depending on your eating habits, you may also want a flexible boning knife and a heavy cleaver, but I wouldn't spend a lot on either of these as heavy usage of either will tend to wear these out a bit, to the point where aesthetics you enjoy from a fancier forged blade are somewhat wasted. Any knife beyond this is generally overkill.

Do a little research on materials as well. Most knifes these days are some form of stainless steel alloys of chromium/nickel that give it extra shine/durability/rust resistance. You will also find carbon steel knifes, which hold an edge very well but discolor over time, and ceramic, which are incredibly sharp and light and don't need honing, but must be sent to a specialized sharpener (usually the factory they were created in) to be sharpened once a year or so.

In addition to the knifes, you'll need a steel, which is used to hone the knife. This is different than sharpening in that it doesn't remove an appreciable amount of material from the blade, but is very important to keep your knifes in good condition. Additionally, you'll want to get your knifes sharpened once or twice a year; paying an expert a few bucks per knife is best.

When considering cutting surfaces, wood or soft plastic is it. Never use knives on a stone, glass, ceramic or hard plastic surface, as it can damage the blade. Generally stick to wood for veggies and a softer plastic for meats. A quick sanding and oiling of your cutting block will keep it in good condition for years.

Finally, for storage consider instead individual sheaths for the knifes. Knife blocks are OK; sheathes are just a little safer (no kids crawling up and grabbing a knife handle) and don't suffer the issue of aesthetic mismatches if you don't own an entire matching set.

The steel in the victorinox is definitely softer. Here's my current suggestions for people thinking about buying cheaper knives.

(Copy and pasted from something I've posted before, but with some updates)


TL;DR: In the category of budget knives. For longer lasting edges, Tojiro DP Santoku or Gyuto for $43 and $52 (now $62) respectively, or the Augymer for $30. For easier maintenance, Kai 6720C or Henckels Forged Synergy for $32 and $35, respectively.



As a caveat, budget knives of all sorts are not going to have the fit and finish of higher priced knives. For Knives that are easy to obtain lump you into two categories that have pros and cons, German hardness and Japanese hardness. Which is mainly a trade off between sharpness/edge holding vs durability/ease of maintenance. Although you can sharpen really soft metals to be stupid sharp and a really acute angle, it will not last long at all. But when the edge gets rolled over from a cutting session, it can be easily honed back into place. Harder knives can still be honed back into place, but techniques and tools are slightly different--I would never touch my harder knives with a grooved steel.

German hardness is usually around 56-58 hrc. Hard enough to hold an edge for a bit, but soft enough to not chip and easily steel/hone back into place.

The Victorinox Fibrox at about 55 hrc used to be suggested all the time when it was $20 and even when it was about $35. But now that it is $40-45, that's just too much for what is a very cheap knife.

A couple knives still in this range, which are better quality than the fibrox anyway are:

Kai 6720C Wasabi Black Chef's Knife, 8-Inch at 57-58 hrc for $32

https://www.amazon.com/Kai-6720C-Wasabi-Black-8-Inch/dp/B000YL4NY4


So this one is actually made with Japanese steel by the same company that makes Shun. But, because it's hardened to only 57-58 hrc, I'm lumping it in with the german steel category.

and The Henckels International Forged Synergy 8-inch Chef's Knife at about 57-58 hrc for $32

http://www.amazon.com/HENCKELS-INTERNATIONAL-Forged-Synergy-8-inch/dp/B000FMVS4A

Henckels International (not regular Henckels) used to be really bad because they made their knives to 53-55 hrc, which is way too soft to hold an edge to get through a cooking session without nearly constant honing. I've heard their international classics are still being made w/ the crappy steel.


So your choice between these two are having that big bolster (which I'm not a fan of) and general aesthetic.

Japanese hardness is usually at least 59 hrc, with a good chunk in the 60-62 range. This means potentially better, longer lasting cutting performance between honing/sharpening. The tradeoff is that it becomes more difficult to get to this stage without specialty tools or sending it to a professional sharpener. At this point I personally don't even consider knives under 59 hrc, unless it's something that really takes a beating.

For the cheapest price point, while still having quality. I would really only recommend the Tojiro DP at 60-61 hrc. It used to be about double the prices, but the grinds also used to be more even. Either way, it's still a great buy.

The chef/gyuto is $52 (now $62 hopefully it'll come back down soon)

http://www.amazon.com/Tojiro-DP-Gyutou-8-2-21cm/dp/B000UAPQGS/

And the Santoku is $43

http://www.amazon.com/Tojiro-DP-Santoku-6-7-17cm/dp/B000UAPQEA/

So the main difference here is whatever knife shape you prefer (and the price). I've gotten some cheaper harder steel knives, but I've had to do way too much touching up to be recommended.

There's also the Augymer 8" "Damascus" for $30 allegedly hardened to 62 hrc:

https://www.amazon.com/Augymer-Japanese-Professional-Stainless-Sharp-Damascus/dp/B01H6KWUWC/

I'd be really afraid of fit and finish problems, and generally lower tolerances throughout the process of making this knife. You can even see the uneven grind on the Amazon page. I'd also assume that the hardness is a tad lower than specified (maybe 60 hrc), but it should still be a pretty good knife if you want to pinch your pennies. This could be a great knife with some TLC, especially if you send it to someone who knows what they're doing.

I'll give you the same standard advice which was given to me:

1. Chef's knife: Victorinox fibrox 8" chef's knife, $40. It's a great workhorse knife. Unless you're really serious about cooking or knives, it's more than adequate. Do watch for price fluctuations, though. Right now it's at $40, which is a good price.
   
2. Paring knife: Victorinox 3.25" spear point paring knife, $8. It's very lightweight, and the blade has some flex, but those aren't really big concerns in a paring knife. It's good enough for plenty of professionals, so it's good enough for me. Stays sharp well and is cheap and well-designed. The handle is on the smaller side if you have large hands.
   
3. For the serrated knife, I went with the Mercer 10" bread knife, $13 over the often-recommended Dexter-Russell one. I think it was the right decision, because it came quite sharp, solidly built, and has a very comfortable and grippy rubberized handle. The steel isn't very high quality, but who cares? This knife is much cheaper than a single sharpening service on a serrated knife. When it gets too dull, throw it out and get another one. Don't get an expensive serrated knife. You'll be disappointed.
   
   So there you go, for 60 bucks and change, you'll have a set of knives that's equal to or greater than the stuff most professional cooks are using on the line. If you want, add in a honing steel or ceramic rod to keep them sharp. I would also recommend getting some sort of protectors or holders, not only for your safety, but for the knives' safety. No knife in the world will stay sharp after banging around uncovered in a drawer or sink for a month. And for God's sake, please get a nice, large wood cutting board. Glass, stone, or ceramic boards, or cutting directly on a plate, will ruin your knives' edges in two seconds. Even bamboo and plastic boards can sometimes be too hard, so I recommend real hardwood. Edge grain is fine, end grain is possibly better. Just make sure it's big enough, at least 16" x 20" or so.
   
   You should be able to get all of this for well under $200.

Yeah I'll just post em here if that's alright. I'll try not to overwhelm you since I know learning new stuff like this there's always SO MUCH to try. Also a lot of slow cooker recipes can have a lot of ingredients, but most are spices that you'll re-use in other recipes. and most ingredients are as simple as "buy this and put it in the pot".

I have this slow cooker, does great, and has a timer (the cheapest models do not). I'm sure if you go a model up you can get wifi stuff. Instant pots are more expensive and basically cook slow cooker meals much faster and have a couple extra features. Basically slow cookers are a little harder to schedule around (most meals require between 4-8 hours of waiting).

I always come back to Masala
You can buy giant gars of preminced garlic, you can buy ginger spice, so basically the only thing you have to do is buy all the ingredients, chop one onion, simmer some things for a few minutes (you can even skip this step the first time if it's overwhelming) then dump everything in a pot. Overall if you like masala / curry there are TONS of recipes online.

Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken is great. If you buy pre-cut broccoli, again no cutting. Do this recipe, but add broccoli at the end - if you like softer broccoli, 1 hr before the end. Harder broccoli, 30 min. The great thing with slow cooker meals is there's a ton of leeway. Overcooking 30 min won't really affect it. If you like more of something, toss it in.

One last one - if you need shredded chicken for salads, take some chicken breasts or thighs, add in 1 tbsp of butter, a little salt and pepper, and cook on the low setting for 6 hrs. Shred it with a fork or cut it up. Nice n juicy. Most recipes are 6-8 hrs on low or 4-6 hrs on high. Either is fine, just whichever setting is more convenient that day.

If you're unfamiliar with cutting veggies, start with these recipes. Then maybe try to find a recipe where you cut one new vegetable (an onion and something else). These recipes are decently healthy but the really healthy ones are when you're willing to chop up a bunch of vegetables, which really doesn't take that long once you know what you're doing. Always check youtube for cutting tips, and a sharp knife makes it a way smoother process! I reccomend this one.

If you try these out and want more lmk!

The King 1000/6000 stone is all you need to get started. The 1000 is coarse enough that you can fix chips in a reasonable amount of time, and the 6000 is fine enough to get a shaving-sharp edge. You don't need a stone holder, a damp kitchen towel will do. You don't even need a nagura. Look up Murray Carter on YouTube—he's a really cool knife maker who uses 1000 and 6000 King stones on his crazy-expensive hand-forged knives. He's got a nice way of rigging up a sharpening station over your sink with a 2x4, although I just use a cutting board that happens to fit nicely in my sink. Carter's videos are more geared toward traditional Japanese knives, so I wouldn't use his exact technique, but his equipment setup is inexpensive and easy to use. Anyway, learn how to use the 1000/6000 to get a shaving-sharp edge (Carter calls it "scary sharp") and you can move on from there to more exotic gear.

All that said, I don't know if whetstones are the best choice for most people. If you really want to get into it for fun, by all means, go nuts. It's a nice relaxing ritual and you can get incredible results if you're willing to put in the time to practice. But if you're only interested in having a reasonably-sharp knife, then there are better options that can get you there with less fuss. A decent two-stage pull-through sharpener (i.e., one with two slots) will get you a knife that can slice paper and cut onions just fine. It won't shave your arm or slice ribbons of newspaper, but it's totally usable. I have a Wusthof one that cost about $30 but it seems Amazon has some higher-rated choices for the same money. They even have a single-stage sharpener that people rave about for $10.

A lot of people are going to recommend the Spyderco Sharpmaker. I don't have one yet but I will be picking one up shortly, based on all the stellar reviews it gets. Supposedly it's a very versatile and effective system, especially for beginners. Something like this would be good to start with, and can be your go-to sharpening system. Meanwhile, do some research on sharpening stones and techniques (tons on YouTube) and eventually you can learn to sharpen freehand and do reprofiling if you need to. Reprofiling just means changing the angle or grind of the edge bevels. People will often do this to tweak the peformance of their knives (thin the edge for better slicing, thicken the edge for chopping, etc). It's not something you will likely need or want to do right away. Better to get some experience in basic sharpening first. Hope this helps, good luck.

A good knife is always a good idea. That being said, there are knives out there that are cheaper than the one you're looking at. I have the Victorinox Fibrox 8" and I love it. From the first cut I made with it, I knew I had a good knife. It's a solid knife for a home cook. If you still want the santoku style blade, Victorinox also makes one with a Granton blade for about 1/4 the price.

One other point: if you do get a good knife, make sure you have a good place to store it. You don't want to just put it in with the rest of your cooking utensils; it will get all beat up and blunted very quickly. The best option is a heavy wood block with slots to put the knives in. But you can also get something like this. I have one that has slotted foam at the end to stick the knives in. Other maintenance items like a honing steel and a whet stone are good to consider as well.

OK. I had the same living situation when I was in college.

My advice to you

1. Go to a thrift store or flea market and pick up a used cast iron dutch oven (WITH A LID) and cast iron skillet (at least 7"-9"). Don't pay more than $3-5 for this. It's nice if the lid to the dutch oven matches the lid to the skillet It doesn't matter if they are rusty, as long as they are good and solid you are OK. You can google how to recondition one.
   
   
2. Obtain a good knife - this one is excellent for the price. Probably beats anything up to $100-150.
   
   
3. Cook bacon in your cast iron skillets as much as possible, this will keep them non-stick.
   
   What do you like to eat? One of my favorite go-to meals is as follows:
   
   Chop up 3-4 slices of bacon, cook it until crispy and then remove from the skillet.
   
   Salt and pepper some bone in skin on chicken thighs (cheap!), then cook them skin side down for 3-4 minutes, then flip and cook another 3-4 minutes. Remove from pot and set aside.
   
   Throw in some chopped onions, peppers, whatever seasonins and spices you like (ground cumin, black pepper, oregano are my favorites) and cook until the onions are translucent. Then throw in a whole bunch of chopped greens - collards, kale, whatever. Let that cook down, you may have to keep adding it in batches.
   
   Throw in some chopped tomatoes, fresh or canned doesn't matter. Throw in some chicken broth if you have it, water is OK if you don't. If you want to go Asian-y you could throw in some coconut milk and a touch of soy sauce. Put the chicken back in, simmer for 25-30 minutes to cook the chicken all the way through.
   
   Serve garnished with grated cheese of your liking AND the chopped up crispy bacon bits you reserved from part 1.

Get this knife. It's not my best knife, but dollar for dollar it is. When you have more money you can invest in a nicer one.

Find a knife shop next to you, they can sharpen it for you every once in awhile. My guy charges 1.75 an inch, unless you want to do it yourself.

If you want to make stuff that's cheap and easy and will feed you for awhile, learn to make: chili, japanese style curry, and big rice dishes. I like to make more complex meals, but if I want something simple and easy I'll make one of those 3. Spanish rice is obvious. I like Spanakorizo too, it's even cheaper because you don't have to make the initial investment in spices (You have to have lemon and feta with it, it's mandatory). That rice they have at Chipotle, you can make that very easily, put butter in a pan, then add the rice with some fresh lime juice and cook it a little until the juice is almost gone. Then cook it like normal (you put the right amount of water, bring it to a boil, then simmer covered) with some sugar, butter, and salt. Dump some chopped cilantro in there when it's done. It's delicious.

Japanese curry is awesome, it's maybe 3 bucks for a box of the curry, a couple bucks of vegetables and a cheap meat. It'll feed you 3 big ass dinners.

I have a basic arkansas stone that works very well at what it does... but I'm not necessarily a pro at what I do. Hand sharpening on a stone requires you to hold the knife at a very constant angle while working it through a relatively complex motion. Very difficult to get a good edge but if you practice and get the skills it's the cheapest and most versatile method of sharpening. Most people (definitely myself included) also need a decent preexisting edge to sharpen as they can 'set' the knife on that flat. Much harder if the existing edge is crap.

What I have for quick and dirty sharpening is a Lansky set. A bracket clamps to the knife and holds a rod (attached to the stone) at essentially a constant angle to the blade. It has some issues so I don't use it on the knives I really care about but it's good for really quickly bringing a beat knife back to a decently usable edge. I use my Lansky set on kitchen knives.

However, if you're willing to spend a bit more money, the Spyderco Sharpmaker is a very well reviewed product. I suppose this is my 'Everest' tip as I don't actually have one but I'll buy one eventually, when I have a particularly profitable feeling month. The idea here is that it's much easier to hold a knife vertical than at some obscure angle like 27 degrees. The put the sharpening stone on the angle then essentially do a 'chopping' motion along the stone to bring an edge in. It solves a lot of the problems of the Lansky but doesn't require as much skill as just a stone. These are rather well regarded in the knife community, though those guys still go after hand sharpening.

If you've watched the videos, how are you always readjusting the food? They clearly show it.

I'd get an easier knife if you're slipping though, maybe the Victorinox Fibrox. I'm just a home cook, who's gotten more into cooking the last couple years, but doing prep work and watching videos really helped me.

Besides a sturdier easier to hold knife, maybe look at your cutting board. How big is it? I'm always awkward when it gets small. I just got a custom ~24x22" board and it's frakking heaven.


But if you're constantly readjusting, accept that nothing will be perfect just keep going. I doubt cooks worry about getting the last little slice of something, or the perfect cut every time. Yes, they're better than you and me but probably through repetition. Cooking isn't a slow paced job, my neighbour who's a cook used to always laugh at me about how perfect I would try and get things. I'm more precise now, while caring less[ Edit].

I think what's helped here is that by not being so stressed, but still concerned, I've gotten into a rhythm or flow with cutting things.

As a new chef, here are a few places to start:

1. Before you learn specific recipes, it's important that you have the right tools and you know how to use them. For a beginner, I think you can get by with the basics: A good chef's knife (this is a good starting point), a decent cutting board, a frying pan, a larger pot, a saucepan, and some basic measuring equipment (measuring cup and measuring spoons). If you can afford it, I'd splurge a bit on the knife and pots/pans. Quality tools will last a long time and make your life a lot easier.
   
   
2. Once you have a knife and some tools, maybe spend some time practicing your knife skills. Find a cheap grocer and buy a bunch of veggies and practice different cuts. Learn to hold your knife properly and how to use it safely (there are plenty of videos on this).
   
   
3. Once you know how to use your tools safely, find a recipe and follow it as closely as possible. As you grow, you'll learn how to adapt recipes to your tastes, but starting out it's easier to just copy what other people have done.
   
   
4. Some of the recipes I think are beginner friendly are things like stir-frys (great for practicing knife skills, but very forgiving with mistakes), pasta/sauces (dried pasta is simple enough to cook, and you can explore a lot with sauces), simple baking stuff like pancakes (practice measurements and dealing with wet/dry ingredients), and tacos (plenty of flavor options, but hard to get wrong).
   
   
5. While you cook and as you eat your food, try and pay attention to what's going right and what's going wrong. If you're having trouble getting the ingredients on heat at the right times, maybe you need to improve your prep. If things are overcooked or undercooked, maybe your heating vessel has its own traits that you need to learn. Try and taste each ingredient to see how it adds to the whole; that information helps you build your own recipes.
   
   ____
   
   To answer your question about what to cook -- cook what you want to eat.
   
   The basics of cooking don't really differ from recipe to recipe. Barring some of the extravagantly delicate recipes, you're going to be using the same skills over and over again. Sometime it's a longer process, but in general you're just taking ingredients, cutting them or combining them into the right shape and size, putting them in the right cooking vessel, applying heat at the right time, and plating.
   
   Others have mentioned eggs, and that's an okay place to start. As I mentioned above, stir frys, tacos, pancakes, and pastas/sauces are all easy and adaptable.

On the lower end, check out victorinox

pretty comfortable to use, fairly sharp and durable, this is the knife I recommend for most situations

learn how to sharpen and maintain it, and you'll be good to go for a while

Once you get some good use out of it, you might want to upgrade to a nicer knife, and this is where you get stuck with a lot of opinions about who is the best

Japanese, european, hybrid

European knives (wusthof, henckle etc) will have more of a wedge shape (thicker at the top, narrower at the edge) and tend to be heavier

Japanese knives in general have a thinner angle than european ones

I personally like hybrid knives

I recommend going somewhere like Sur La Table and asking them if you can try out their knives, find something comfortable (they will all be very very sharp)

also, read this for reference: http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/12/equipment-the-best-chefs-knives-gift-guide.html

get good equipment it makes all the difference, here are your best friends:

1. a 5 gallon stock pot: 100 times better than a rice cooker, you can make stocks for soups and just in general these are fantastic. http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=6-quart+stockpot&tag=googhydr-20&index=garden&hvadid=4083891805&ref=pd_sl_47i8irnd0g_b
   
   
2. A good chef's knife. You don't need any fancy tools, and food processors are really really expensive and have less utility. Global is the best because they're long lasting and cheap, with a high carbon alloy: http://www.amazon.com/Global-G-2-8-Inch-Cooks-Knife/dp/B00005OL44
   
   
3. A cast-iron pan with a metal handle. The reason you want to avoid the kind with the wooden handle is that you can't stick them in the oven. The cast iron pan can be heated up to really high temperatures in the oven and then be used to make perfect steaks on the stove-top. In addition these require very little effort to clean. http://www.google.com/products/catalog?client=safari&rls=en&q=cast-iron+pan+with+metal+handle&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=7601885138312536187&sa=X&ei=PpLyTp3eFoeuiAL7362yDg&ved=0CJ4BEPICMAc#ps-sellers

• Fire extinguisher
  
• a good kitchen knife (it doesn't have to be expensive, this is a standard in pro kitchens; this guy is also great )
  
• a huge container of white vinegar, because it's great for cleaning stuff (especially glass and mirrors), and great in the wash too
  
• LED lightbulbs. They are incredibly energy efficient, and have come down so much in price and are said to last for 20 years.
  
• Carbon monoxide detectors
  
• Inexpensive cotton dishtowels (there are both great and an incredible price)
  
• A plastic bucket/basin/bin/box: useful for moving stuff, to help clean stuff, for handwashing delicates, and good to have by your bed or couch if you are ill (though I don't wish that on anyone)
  
  
  ALSO RENTER'S INSURANCE

here's the thing with knives, you can spend as much as you have, (and more) on knives. and everybody has their favorite,

if you just want something that works, and works well, go with knives from victorinox with the fibrox handles, they're comfortable in the hand, the textured grip gives you secure control even if your hands are wet, (unlike some of the prettier smoother handles) and they're recommended by cooks illustrated, under 30$ for a chefs knife that's as good and works as well as 100$ knives that are 'fancier'.

I say, buy the "works well" knife, keep 'em sharp, and spend the hundreds of bucks you'll save on other stuff.

from amazon and cutlery and more (where I got mine.)

they're not 'oooo' pretty, (though there is a simple elegance about them) they don't have wavey patterns from hammering and folding... they just work, and are reliable.

My honest opinion: If you can read, you can cook. Literally. Basic cooking is simply reading instructions and following them. Once your comfortable with how things taste together, timing, and what spices taste like, then you can move on to more advanced dishes.

I think a fun part of learning to cook is gearing up. Since most people here will give you a grocery list, I'll give you a list of helpful items that I use daily.

• 1 large, sharp kitchen knife and basic sharpener
  
  The knife if a bit on the pricey side, but trust me when I tell you it's worth it. You only need 1 and as long as you hand wash and dry regularly, it can last forever. Sharp knives won't cut you as often as a dull knife that sometimes slips.
  
  
• crock pot. This is good because it doesn't require any sort of culinary skills. Mostly just mix and wait.
  
  
• Liquid Measuring cup
  
  
• Dry measuring cups
  
  
• Flat spatula
  
  
• Other spatula (for stirring and wiping out sauces/batter/etc.)
  
  
• Tongs
  
  
• Very basic non-stick pots and pans I have a cheap set I bought from Costco that has lasted me 8 years and counting. Be sure to ALWAYS use wood or plastic utensils with non-stick or you risk scratching the non-stick surface and fucking it all up.
  
  
• Wooden Utensils These are nice because you can leave them in a pot of sauce and not worry about them expelling chemicals or melting.
  
  
• Also a holder for your kitchen items
  
  I assume you have basic dishware and silverware, so I've only included common cooking items.
  
  Hope this helps! I'll update if I can think of anything else you'll need.

A perfect chef's knife is the first place to start (that's my preference, the Wusthof Ikon Classic 8", $160). Go to a kitchen supply store, or even Bed Bath & Beyond, and test drive some steel - see how comfortable it is in your hand, how balanced it feels. If you want to save money for other things, you can't go wrong with the Victorionx Fibrox 8" chef's knife, at an extremely reasonable $40. The chef's knife is an impossibly versatile tool all on its own, but if you want a smaller knife for detailed work, grab a paring knife from whatever manufacturer you choose for your chef's.

A huge, heavy cutting board ($88). For most of my life, I went with the $20 3-packs of plastic OXO or other cutting boards, ranging from small to extremely small - nothing will slow down your cooking more than an inadequately sized cutting board. Things roll off, you pile up your chopped veg and run out of space, you feel constantly crowded, and you can never carve a whole chicken or roast. Buy a piece of non-slip material (usually used for carpets) ($9), place it under the cutting board when you use it, and it will never slip or slide around - more convenient and safe.

A Thermapen. Expensive - it's $100, but it's the fastest and most accurate kitchen thermometer money can buy. A less expensive alternative would be the Lavatools Javelin at $24 - not quite as good, but a damn sight better than any other digital food thermometer you'll get your hands on. This is essential for cooking any meat, deep frying, baking - it will change your game.

An All-Clad Sauté Pan ($129). Also expensive, but an absolute essential tool for everything from sautéing to braising to deep frying. Do not go cheap with your stainless - you can do cheaper than All-Clad, but even heating, comfort, and build quality are absolutely essential.

An inexpensive but awesome nonstick set($164 for 11 pcs). Alternately, you could get a very versatile 12" TFal Professional Total Nonstick, an impossibly stickless, oven safe, dishwasher safe wunderkind.

A 12" Cast Iron Skillet ($34). These are kind of a pain to take care of, but are invaluable for searing, baking, even serving. It'll last you a lifetime if you take care of it.

Hello /r/knifeclub !

TL;DR: I got given a knife and it doesn't want to hold an edge, can anyone identify it / the steel. Is it worth keeping and re-profiling or is it trash?

I have googled and I can't find any information on this knife. It was given to me by my other half's mother. I took it to the sharpener and put a nice 18° per side edge on it and within less than a week it was blunted. My ceramic rod did nothing; I grabbed my loupe and looked at the edge and it looks like a god damn mountain range.

I'm not hard on my knives, my regular 8" chefs knife is the excellent but famously soft steeled Victorinox Fibrox and that lasts me a good 2 months between needing maintanace.

I have since taken it to the Worksharp because I didn't want to waste my time re-working it without gathering more information first (new edge picture is the last of the 4, you can see the new edge the Worksharp put on it). It's sharp again for now but I have no idea if it'll last.

Can anyone tell me anything about this knife? Do I need to put a steeper edge on it? the blade is stamped "Japan", I had my fingers crossed that maybe it would be a solid VG-10 blade but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm happy to sit down and take the time to work the edge into something robust if it's worth it.

Help me /r/knifeclub, you're my only hope.

There are many knives I would recommend. Personally, I swear by my shun ken onion chef's knife, but if you don't feel like spending around $300 for a knife...
wusthof pro has a decent blade for a few bucks
And the CIA Masters Series has a very nice chef's knife for $100. These were the knives they gave us as students at the Culinary Institute of America, some of them are very nice and some are pure shit, the chef knife, slicing knife, paring knife and bread knife from this series are very nice and a great value. If you're looking for good quality, everyday practicality, at an affordable price stick to the wusthof pro series. As my cooks advance through the kitchen, I reward them with knives. The first knife everyone gets is the wusthof pro cook's knife.

It took me 30 minutes to find thisagain, so I hope you enjoy it. Best video of this type I've ever seen, and gives the best way to chop an onion. (Don't do that cut horizontally crap! Good way to cut yourself!)

Also, here is the link I saved for the best all around knife.

And here's the video that convinced me that's the best knife.

We have a few posts linked in the sidebar here, but after reading them myself a few times, I do have a recommendation.

https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Fibrox-Chefs-Knife-8-Inch/dp/B000638D32/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1518124897&sr=8-3&keywords=victorinox+knife

This knife is the standard beginner knife that I always see recommended here. If I were you, I would just buy this one knife. Pay attention while you're cooking with it and you will be able to ask a more specific question.
"I have this knife and I love it, what would be a direct uprage from this knife?"
"I have this knife, but the blade is way too thin and it hurts my hand. What knife is similar, but with a thicker blade?"

You should also pay attention to how well you can do everything you need to with that one knife.

Can you chop an onion with it? Probably.
Can you clean a fish with it? Probably not, but how many fish will you be cleaning in the near future?
I went out and got myself an 8" chef's knife, a boning knife, a bread knife, a paring knife, and so on and so on. I really only use the one chef's knife and I work in a kitchen 6 days a week. If you feel you need a smaller handle, or thinner blade, or shorter knife, or some wild ass mongolian bbq sword, then buy them one at a time.

Be careful on amazon though. Sometimes they will jack the price of a knife up for a month, and then discount it down to what it usually is to try and sell a bunch. These knives are garbage made in china. If you don't want to spend any money, just get whatever from walmart and sharpen the hell out of it.

I keep trying to close out this post, but more keeps coming. Don't go out and spend a few hundred dollars on a knife that you don't know how to take care of. I got this same Vic a few years ago and I still use it. I REALLY want a nice $300 - $400 knife that I can use forever, but I don't feel confident enough yet with my stones to maintain something like that. I'll practice on my $50 knife for a while first.

Good luck.

Start simple with just an 8" chef knife and a stone for maintenance.

Recommend like a MAC Chef Knife or a Victorinox Fibrox (with a honing rod). good for value, robust, forgiving knives which is great for your first time.

For maintenance, Suehiro Cerax 1k or King 1k/6k stone - he'll need to learn how to use the stone, maybe check out Burrfection or other people.

​

Key notes:

Honing rod is recommended for western knives to maintain sharpness.

Stones is needed to sharpen the knives when they blunt with use.

When you develop more experience or love for knives, then start buying your other stuff like serrated, paring, utility, nakiris, santokus, higher grit stones and whatnot.

check out /r/chefknives

From someone casually interested in learning the craft, using cheap sharpeners on cheap knives is ok. I had this for a while with a $20 knife set and it kept them from being dangerously dull, but they weren't particularly sharp.

With good knives you don't want to run them through that, because it will change the geometry of the knife and make it harder to sharpen later. Getting them professionally sharpened is the best way to go if you don't want to learn yourself, and getting them professionally sharpened by someone that does whetstone sharpening is better still. If you want that edge to last there are a few things you can do: always use a cutting board, always clean and dry the knife off immediately and by hand (very important for high carbon, still important for stainless), and pick up a honing steel and learn how to use that. That way you can limit how much you have to spend on professional sharpening.

Most of the manual sharpeners will make your knife sharp enough to slice paper with draw cuts fairly well. They won't make your knife razor sharp, and are usually preset to a pretty wide angle, meaning they'll never make your knife as sharp as the Japanese styled knives. That being said, they are more durable.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B001CQTLJM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5c4IKhtlic

This one is very cheap, sturdy and comfortable and makes knives sharp enough for kitchen work. They'll be about 80% of factory sharpness. Just look up the proper technique of applying almost no pressure and hone your knives before doing this.

If you have a Breadknife, consider this one instead:https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B000O8OTNC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It is less comfortable to use, but comes with a diamond rod that sharpens the scallops in a breadknife.

Now if you want to make it razor sharp, you'll need a bit of practice and a finer grit sharpening stone or tool.

If you have the patience, you can just use the smooth(yes smooth glazed) part of a ceramic object to refine and polish the edge. Remove the burr on a piece of cardboard then finish with a strop.

Done that, and you can make it sharper than factory, but isn't really necessary, I did it for fun XP

You can also go old school and learn to use a whetstone. a 200-800 Grit stone costs about $5. These will help completely redo an edge.

1000-3000 grit stones get you to the knife sharpener sharp. Costs around 10$

8000 grit stones get you razor sharp edges, around 10$, all available on Aliexpress, be mindful of the size, some may sell you a teeny tiny one.

Strop I find is absolutely necessary though if you want a clean, and especially a razor edge.

I second the kitchen knife. It's a game changer and makes meal prep fun, which kind of pays for itself. Victorinox makes a great 8 inch chef's knife in that price range; I personally opted for the Frosts by Mora of Sweden which was around $50 as well.

Edit:

Highly rated Victorinox 8" chef's knife for less than $40

Same knife with nicer Rosewood handle for $42

Swedish made Frosts by Mora that I opted for based on previous experience with Mora and am very happy with

Edit 2: Here is a pretty good article with some basic care instructions for your quality knives.

OP, I had the exact same concerns about sharpening my own knives. I have great hand eye coordination and can definitely be very delicate with my hands, but I know I'm still going to struggle to hold the proper angle with a flat stone line like that. Takes a lot of practice to get good and consistent at that sharpening motion.

Solution: I bought a Spyderco Triangle Sharpmaker from Amazon. What this style of product does is handle the angle work for you by design, offers a 30 degree and 40 degree edge. You simply take the triangular stones and slide them into the base so that they make a "v" shape, and then you sharpen the blade by keeping it verticle and dragging it towards yourself across the stones, alternating between sides stroke by stroke.

Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2DDpB8Pjho

I really can't recommend this product enough. Although, to anyone who is interested, I found that I got the best results when I purchased an additional set of triangle stones that are the "ultra fine" grit. All told I think I spent $70 and now I don't have to focus on maintaining the exact angle with a whetstone.

Get a knife, a good one. I recommend this one. It's cheap, has a nice edge, and will become the love of your cooking life. Mine sees hard daily use and still cuts beautifully. You may also want to invest in a honing steel to keep the edge in good condition.

Other than a knife, I recommend a few cutting boards and at least one heavy-duty, oven-safe and stovetop-safe pan. Stainless steel or cast iron are both great. Lodge cast iron skillets are about $20 a pop and will last a life time with minimal care.

I've never had a Victorinox, but I really enjoy my Mercer blades. At $30 for the 8" blade styles, they are great beginner knives. Had mine for 4 years now and have never had a complaint.
Couple of the prep cooks at the restaurant I worked at had Mercer sets and also loved them. Great quality for the price.
8" chef knife
Mercer Genesis collection

As everyone is/will be quick to answer, one of the best values out there is the Victorinox Fibrox.

http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Swiss-8-Inch-Fibrox-Straight/dp/B008M5U1C2

It's not flashy, it's not forged in the blood of peasants, but it works great and does exactly what you want/need it to. I've worked in restaurants and I use a fibrox half the time at home.

The next level I guess would be a Wusthof/Henckels/Global/Shun, which are made a little better, look nicer, and have some personality to them. They are in the price range you mentioned, but there are definite differences to them that are best explained by you trying them out rather than me saying Wusthofs are "rounder" than Henckels, Globals are light and slippery, etc.

After that you start getting into the more high-end stuff, usually $150 and (much) up. My starting point (and one of my favorites) in this would be a Misono UX10.

Of course, everyone's opinions will vary... but not really on the Victorinox. I don't think I've seen anyone NOT like that knife yet. And it's $40 or less.

I own this set of sharpening stones: http://www.amazon.com/Smiths-TRI-6-Arkansas-TRI-HONE-Sharpening/dp/B00062BIT4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1421454826&sr=8-2&keywords=Sharpening+stones

They do fine for me. It takes a little bit of time to learn to freehand sharpen your knives but it's worth it. Your edge will turn out ten times better than that of a pull through sharpener. These stones are also cheaper than most sharpening systems out there. I also prefer a good freehand polished edge better than a mirrored edge on any sharpening system. It just feels better to me. I've had some really sharp mirror edges, but I've had even sharper polished edges.

This sharpening system also comes with a 23 degree angle guide. You may want your edge thinner than that, but it's a good place to start.

after having spent somewhere around 1000 bucks on knives, what I really use frequently:

• Wusthof Classic Santoku
  
• RH Forschner/Victorinox 10" Chef's Knife
  
• Some german 5" paring knife
  
• Serrated tomato/bread knife
  
  I cook a lot of fish, and I always reach for the chef's knife. Skip the Shun, skip the fancy names, just get the Victorinox. Razor sharp and ridiculously good at holding an edge, and cheap as all get-out. You won't impress people who are impressed by expensive things, but you'll get a great knife. A 10" chefs, a santoku, a paring knife, and a serrated knife from them would run you under 100 bucks, and last you quite a time.
  
  I would also add a chinese cleaver from some chinatown store. It'll be like 10 bucks, heavy, and last forever. Also, this thing for sharpening your knifes: accusharp 001. Skip the 100+ dollar sharpeners and whetstone, just get this thing and use it once a month or so, depending on usage. It's just so unbelievably good, I've pretty much tossed (or put into a box and tossed into storage) everything else.
  
  But seriously, a 10" chefs knife, kept properly sharpened, will let you do everything. And you can get the victorinox for under 30. Start there, and use it for EVERYTHING for a while. you'll get really good with it, and see that you don't need many more knives :)

I got a Wusthof set as a wedding gift 20 years ago. It's used daily and has outlasted my marriage.

That said, before you invest in knives, learn to care for them first!. Know what surfaces you should and shouldn't use them on, and learn how to sharpen, clean, and store them.

No serrated knives. Period. Serrated knives can't be sharpened and, once dulled, you might as well be using a hacksaw. The only possible exception to this might be a good bread knife.

Unlike others here, I actually think knife sets are a good BIFL choice. E.g. Something like this Wusthof set should last for many years to come.

The reason I dislike the individual-knife option is that you need a place to store them. So you have the hassle of finding a block that fits them. And you end up wanting one or two other knives, and a steel. And, oh, scissors would be nice too... so you end up with this hodgepodge mix of stuff that works, sure, but it looks a mess.

And, here's the thing - you won't be the only one using these knives. At some point you're going to have a husband/wife who uses them too. And for better or worse, a good well-rounded set of knives is what's going to work best for the two of you. And it'll look good on your kitchen counter, which may not be important to you, but it'll matter to that other person.

And don't forget to invest in a good sharpening stone. FWIW, I've tried just about every sharpening system out there and I keep coming back to a good 'place double or triple stone. My current preferred setup is this Smith Tri-Hone system. Fast, easy, and (if used properly) gives a wicked sharp edge. Seriously. I can shave with my kitchen knives.

How much cooking do you do? Do you prefer Japanese or Western knives?

The best bang for your buck is the Victorinox Fibrox knives. America's test kitchen rates them as highly/higher than most $100-200 knives.

If money is no option, I prefer the Misono UX10 series.

There are lots of big brands and differing opinions on what knives to get. I have owned Global, Shun, Misonono, Victorinox, and MAC knives. They all have their positives and negatives. It comes down to what you like and what you are willing to spend.

In terms of what knives you need, a good Chef's knife, a pairing knife and a bread knife is all you need for 90% of daily cutting tasks. If you are just starting out I would get the Victorinox Fibronox series. If you decide you like knives and want something that gets ultra sharp, I would be more than willing to share what my personal preferences are.

The other thing I would invest in is a sharpening system. I prefer DMT diamond plates. They stay flat and will cut through any blade material. Plus they are really fast. Some people love the edge pro system. I haven't used it, but I like the feedback stones give you over other systems. Stay away from cheap automatic grinders, they don't get blades nearly as sharp.

There is a deep rabbit hole when it comes to chef knives and sharpening, in the end it comes down to what you love to use. Search locally and see if there is a chef supply or knife store you can go to see what you like the feel of.

There was a great suggestion earlier in this thread about a Victorinox knife that was recommended by Consumer Reports.

Here are a few that are slightly outside your price range (By about $15) that I wouldn't have any issues with using in my own cooking adventures :). All prices are listed in Canadian dollars.

[Victorinox 8" Chef's knife - $36] (http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-40520-Fibrox-8-Inch-Chefs/dp/B000638D32/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top)

[Kai 6" Santoku - $51.38] (http://www.amazon.ca/Kai-Wasabi-2-Inch-Santoku-Knife/dp/B000YL4NYY/ref=sr_1_7?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1380663533&sr=1-7&keywords=santoku)

[Calphalon Katana 8" Chef's knife - $59] (http://www.amazon.ca/Kai-Wasabi-2-Inch-Santoku-Knife/dp/B000YL4NYY/ref=sr_1_7?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1380663533&sr=1-7&keywords=santoku)

[Calphalon Contemporary 8" Chef's knife - $29] (http://www.amazon.ca/Calphalon-Contemporary-8-Inch-Chefs-Knife/dp/B000V6ROPC/ref=sr_1_16?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1380663579&sr=1-16&keywords=8%22+chef)


For any and all of these, the first thing you'll want to do is go to a store that sells knives, and try a few before you find what you like. Hold them by the handle, and then hold them where the handle ends and meets the blade. Check the balance - When you're holding it by the handle, is the knife weighted evenly, front to back? Is there more weight towards the back or the front? If you were using this for 40 mins-1hr of prepping veggies and meat, would you be comfortable with it? Does the handle fit your hand, does the whole thing feel like a natural extension of your arm when you're chopping, slicing, etc?

Learning to cook for the first time in college, my standard was:

2 pots (1 big, 1 small w/ lids), 2 pans (1 big, 1 small), tupperware (super important!), a spatula, 2 tongs (1 big, 1 small), measuring cups, cutting board, can opener, peeler, oven mitts, colander, dish/kitchen towel, paper towel rolls and holder, baking pan, a chef knife, and a knife sharpener. You can upgrade your kitchen as you improve/explore your cooking venture.

Keep in mind none of this has to be top notch quality when starting out. Most of my kitchen stuff was from Dollar Tree and lasted throughout my 8 years of college and graduate school. I actually still use the same peeler now I think about it lol. Anything Dollar Tree didn't have, thrift stores, garage sales, and HomeGoods clearance like everyone else suggested!

My one suggestion to splurge on is the knife; it will be your best your friend. I LOVE this affordable one from Amazon for $31. Or you can do what I did and buy a decent $10 one from the local Asian store. Both have lasted me many years with good maintenance. Get yourself a cheap knife sharpener and never let the knife get dull to the point of no return. Again, you can get more/better tools as you improve.

Last tip: All the basics you need to learn can be taught by YouTube.

Hope this helps!

When it comes to knives; invest in a few good ones. Learn how to sharpen them. Wash and dry them straight after use, take care of your knives. Good knives are like babies, they will last as long as you take care of them. Go Japanese, take a look at Global. Global's bread knife also does the job pretty fucking well, also good for butchering down some meat when the going gets tough.

If you're feeling like a big boy, go for a 10" Masahiro - this will keep you sorted for all your veggie needs forever and ever. This small peeler from Fiskar is also an underestimated legend in my kitchen.

There are two different approaches that I would recommend, which is better for you would be down to your personality. The option are:

A. a good block of knives
B. two very good knives

If you're a little unsure option A will be pretty good and will last 4-5 years. Example: http://www.amazon.com/Mundial-Series-7-Piece-Knife-Block/dp/B00004RBSV/ref=sr_1_4?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1409773431&sr=1-4&keywords=mundial+knife+block

If you like good stuff and care for your tools then option B might be the go. With care these should last 20 years and - as noted by /u/icecow many come with free professional sharpening for the life of the knife. Add a smaller very good utility knife and a sharpening steel and you should be right. An example of the higher end: http://www.amazon.com/Wusthof-Classic-8-Inch-Cooks-Knife/dp/B00009ZK08/ref=sr_1_1_m?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1409773723&sr=1-1&keywords=wusthof+chef+knives


I'll also note that I've bought both of the examples I've used here. Check about the sharpening service before you buy on option B. I know that Wusthof have the free sharpening in Australia, but I don't know about elsewhere. The Mundials are surprisingly good for the price.

Amazon. I know it's a sin to actually order stuff off of teh Interwebs instead of physically going to a store, but you can find almost anything there that would be next to impossible to find in most stores -- and you can usually get then at a discounted cost far less than Williams-Sonoma, plus free shipping with Amazon's "super saver shipping." Some of the things I've ordered from there that simply could not be found in a typical store: Bayou Classic 16-quart cast iron dutch oven, Reddit's favorite Victorinox chef's knife, the Lodge "double dutch" oven combo, and two cast iron items that were far less expensive at Amazon than you'd find at Williams-Sonoma -- the Lodge cast iron wok (purchased with a 2010 Xmas gift card) and the Lodge cast iron pizza pan (purchased with a 2011 Xmas gift card).

You can get a knife professionally sharpened for a few dollars. I usually take our knives to the farmers market, and there's a guy that will do it for $1 per inch of blade. My main knives are in the $150 range, but a talented sharpener can make just about any knife better than it was new. Typically, less expensive knives come with an angle that's too low for easy cutting (especially delicate foods). A good bladesmith can fix this. When freshly sharp (and for a long time after), my 9" chef's knife will easily slice tomatoes without crushing; the knife simply floats through the item.

You won't need to spend $100 to get a solid knife. The Victoronix Fibrox is a nice blade for under $50. I keep that as a backup and for use at the grill/outdoor kitchen.

Once you've had a knife professionally sharpened, you'll wonder why you didn't do it before.

I purchased the Chef's Choice Knife Sharpener 4643. I know that the trendy way to sharpen knives right now is with a set of stones, but I just can't be assed to do that. When my knife dulls, I spend 5-10 minutes using the sharpener and honing the blade. Note that the 3rd notch says "Serrated".

Here are some general recommendations for picking a knife.

I recommend just going to a store like Williams Sonoma, Bed Bath and Beyond or Su La Table and just trying out knives. I know that many of them will have some vegetables around that you can practice on.

I personally prefer a slightly heavier knife because I can rely on gravity to help push a knife down through whatever I'm cooking. I like a wooden grip because the weight helps distribute the weight closer to the center of the knife (the grip point) rather than making it more front heavy, which can be tough on the wrist. This means that I usually avoid plastic grips.

I have a grand total of 5 knives. 95% of my cutting is performed by a relatively large, 7.5" Santoku (essentially a Japanese chef's knife). I have a cheap chef's knife that I use for cutting things that might damage the blade (such as casseroles in a glass dish). Beyond that, I have a Wuhstoff bread knife, a paring knife (for very small cuts and peeling) and a utility knife (when I need to cut smaller items or I'm cutting a small amount of food).

I'm, personally, absolutely in love with the Japanese knives and would totally recommend a Santoku for a first knife, but I also recommend you find the time to try holding it and determine if it's for you. The straight vertical edge next to the handle can be cumbersome to first time users.

Beyond a chef's knife, I recommend holding off until you find yourself needing something else. It also means you can spend a little extra on your main knife rather than buying a set of cheap knives.

Avoid carbon steel knives. They rust easily. Ceramic knives cannot be sharpened with the sharpener I linked above.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000Q9C4AE?pc_redir=1407052478&robot_redir=1

It's the spyderco 204 mf get some diamond stones on it and boom you'll never need a razor again

Here is a video with a pretty good explanation. http://youtu.be/-MHe_8wTHmg it does take you about 15 minutes but you will have a mirror edge, and You can widdle hair with it.

I've have used that chefs choice sharpener, it is pretty good but the diamonds (or steel) run out pretty fast. Of I could spend that money again I would definitely gone for the spyderco.

And if you get it don't be cheap! Give yourself that razor edge for the extra $35 http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0019JTNDQ?cache=48955fd73064588b9d00d11d1b3b957a&pi=SY200_QL40&qid=1407287673&sr=8-1#ref=mp_s_a_1_1

Don't be fooled they are sold per 1

Okay, if you really like Cutco's bread knife, all the power to you, but I'd like to give you an alternative point of view.

I actually have the Cutco bread knife. I bought it lightly used through Kijiji a few years ago on the cheap.

But last year I discovered America's Test Kitchen and started geeking out on their equipment review videos. Here's a link to their video about serrated/bread knives.

Last Summer I bought their winner, the Mercer Culinary 10 inch bread knife (currently $27 on Amazon.ca), and I must say I prefer it compared to the Cutco. The Mercer's handle is much larger and more comfortable; its serrations are wider and deeper, making for an easier experience cutting tough crusts and dense breads, which goes in line with ATK's findings.

I still have the Cutco and do reach for it on occasion for some basic breads, but overall I find the Mercer more useful.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004RFMT/ref=psdc_289857_t3_B0001WN9VO

• Traditional german three rivet design
  
• Full tang
  
• 8 inch
  
• It has a full bolster. That feature is annoying for sharpening, makes it more front heavy but it's reassuring that your fingers won't slip on the cutting edge.
  
  I don't know this particular model, but i know the brand well. I work at a EU based knife retailer. Going by my general knowledge of the brand I have this to add: Zwilling runs most of their knives around 58 HRC, which is average on the lower side. That means you would need to sharpen it more frequent than some other options. But it's also easy to sharpen, easy to touch up and very forgiving. Some knives will just chip just by looking at a chicken bone, this is not one of those knives.
  
  Quite frankly, i'm very surprised how low the price is on amazon. It's drop forged, so not really forged, but still. It's not some laser cut plate steel knife. Though no first hand experience with this line by Zwilling, should be super solid.
  
  
  

Very generally speaking most "western" knives have larger curves to the edge which make them more suited to rock chopping and many of them use softer steels which take more abuse but don't get the same kind of edge you can from other steels. Japanese knives can still rock chop but many don't have as hard curves so they don't come up so high off the board for rocking. You probably already have a western style handle; a japanese or wa style handle looks something like this; something uniformly round or octagonal shaped. We'll go ahead and assume you want something stainless and with a blade size around 8inches or 210mm. The knife I linked would be your best starting option if you feel like trying out a wa style handle type, otherwise something like a Tojiro or a Victorinox are great budget chefs knives that are solid recommendations.

of course, but you can still get a nice one for a reasonable price. I would say that something like this is a good one to start with because it is nearly impossible to mess up, even if your roommate/significant other put its into the washing machine or something. The most important thing to look for is that the steel goes all the way through to the heel of the handle, make sure the blade isn't just glued into it. Buying a knife is kind of like buying a pair of shoes though, you should really go into a store and hold one to make sure you like the grip, the weight, and get someone who knows a little more than me to help you pick one out.

If you want the price of the Victorinox but the sturdier forged blade of the Wusthof consider getting a Mercer. It is German steel and it seems to be a good blade. I have a couple of Wusthof chef knives and I have a 10" Victorinox chef's knife and I wish I had known about the Mercer when I bought the Victorinox. I did end up buying the Mercer for my brother this past Christmas and I enjoyed the weight and feel of the knife and so did he. That would be my top recommendation for a good knife for a good price.

Yeah, I was thinking more like having them ship you one box and then canceling until you were ready for more. They include nice cards with full cooking instructions, so if you really like something you can make it again on your own!

Jamie Oliver does all the Hello Fresh recipes, and I really like his stuff because he keeps things dead simple but his recipes are still very interesting. I'd watch as much of his stuff as you can (his videos helped me immensely when I was getting started)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQZtCVkypAo

Keep up the good work!!!!

PS: This thing is the shit for keeping knives sharp on the cheap https://www.amazon.com/AccuSharp-ACCU-001C-001-Knife-Sharpener/dp/B00004VWKQ/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1479051314&sr=8-7&keywords=knife+sharpener

I considered myself a beginner not that long ago and three things I found helped a lot were;

1. Quality tools. They just make the process easier and give you one less thing to worry about. I like America's Test Kitchen and The Wirecutter for reviews when I'm looking to buy something new. A chefs knife is easily #1 on the list. I have the 8" Victorinox chefs knife ATK recomemds and I love it. Amazon link.
   
   
2. A cast iron pan once seasoned has let me do so many kinds of recipes with one pan to worry about. A 10" Lodge should do you fine.
   
   
3. Trusted recipies. I really like America's Test Kitchen. They're researched, thorough, and trusted. Skip the paid website and get their books like The Best Simple Recipies from your library or used on Amazon. I'm not a fan of digital versions I find them hard to browse.

I'm not a fan of knife blocks, as 99% of my or anyone elses cooking is just with 3 knives

8 inch chefs knife. I love my Shun, but $160 is a bit much when your roommates will treat it like shit. For a university student a great gift is a Victorianox Fibrox. Great value. If it's destroyed after your 4 years and you've got some disposable income again than invest in one you'll treat right and use for the rest of your life.

Cheap paring knife or 2. I saw them for sale for $1.50 at Real Canadian Superstore the other day.

Cheap but effective bread knife. I got mine when a restaurant was selling off their stuff.

Really, that's all you need. Not 7 knives you'll only use when your chef's knife is dirty.

Here's the perennial recommendation at that price point--https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Fibrox-Chefs-Knife-8-Inch/dp/B000638D32. It's a great knife for the money--better than the cheap crap most people use, and a good stepping stone for getting into nicer stuff in the future.

Edit: Alternatively, you could both go in on a nicer knife together, with her contribution constituting her gift to you.

If you go a tier or two up, I would highly recommend the gesshin stainless wa gyuto from JKI (I would far more prefer this to the mass market hybrid brands like shun, miyabi, dalstrong, etc.): https://www.japaneseknifeimports.com/products/gesshin-stainless-210mm-wa-gyuto.

Of course, people have different attitudes about gifts, and the idea of splitting something may seem too transactional, or run contrary to her (or your) ideas about gift giving.

this one has pretty good reviews. and you would have enough leftover to buy a sharpener.

https://www.amazon.com/Profession-German1-4116-Stainless-Ergonomic-Restaurant/dp/B07TKM8R97/ref=sr_1_70_sspa?

or

https://www.amazon.com/IMMEK-Kitchen-Stainless-Dealing-Vegetables/dp/B07DX57KXZ/ref=sr_1_73?

Or, Here is a Henckels knife that is only $47.

https://www.amazon.com/J-HENCKELS-INTERNATIONAL-31161-201-Classic/dp/B00004RFMT/ref=sxin_3_sp_qu_bss_is?

​

​

Sharpeners

https://www.amazon.com/Kitchen-Sharpener-Electric-Serrated-Stainless/dp/B07BJ6VQ85/ref=sr_1_84?

I have one of these and Love it! but it's a bit pricey on a budget. so maybe next time. get the cheap on now and get something like this later. Mine has lasted me 10 years so far and is still going.

https://www.amazon.com/ChefsChoice-ProntoPro-Sharpener-Sharpening-Euro-American/dp/B007IVBET0/ref=sr_1_24?

also, to help keep the edge sharp on your knife... Don't put it in the dishwasher! hand wash only dry and put away. also if you cut anything acidic, tomatoes, orange, lemon etc. rinse the blade well and wash as soon as you get a chance. the acid will dull your knife pretty quickly.

Reddit is firmly on the victorinox train and that's great. They're great knives. I want to offer you another option though. I've used a lot of knives throughout the years and I loved my forschners, but at the end of the day they're never going to be as sharp and stay as sharp as you would like. I moved onto the Tojiro DP they're a big step up from the victorinox chef knives for roughly $10-15 more in price. They're made of good quality Takefu VG10 steel, the same steel used in a knives that are a lot more expensive. If you maintain it you won't have to upgrade to something better when you're ready.

I'll second /u/super_octopus 's post! I've got the Sharpmaker and it works great for all my knives, from my Buck 505 with a 1.875" blade to my custom Bowie and Kukri both with over 6" blades. The system is pretty affordable (under $60).

Alternately I've heard really good things about the Lansky system, either the three stone or five stone sets, both of which are even more affordable (under $40).

I've also got a few diamond coated whetstones for freehand sharpening, which work great too, but you just have to be prepared to go slow at first and learn how to hold your blades at the proper angles and sharpen them evenly. DMT makes some good diamond coated whetstones.

So definitely watch a few youtube videos, read the sidebar guide /u/super_octopus pointed out to you, and if you're still unsure on technique, once you get something to sharpen your knives with, try to practice first with some old beater knife or cheap blade that you might not mind having to sharpen a little extra in case it takes you a while to get it right.

If I may, this knife sharpener is inexpensive and we love it. It's saved our knives, and it also gets recommended on /r/kitchenconfidential a lot, too.

I took the Cook's Illustrated "Best Buy" recommendations for all our knives, and can confidently recommend the Victorinox Chef's Knife as a basic, nice chef's knife.

The Tojiro bread knife is my hands down favorite bread knife ever. Runs about the same price, incredibly sharp, excellent for every loaf I've used it on. And it's $17 right now, I haven't seen it go above $25. When I was running a bakery I spent a really long time trying to find something sharp that would handle a crust at a good price point, this is it. I've heard good things about the Mercer, but haven't used one myself.

The Victorinox knife is absolutely solid, but I also love the ridiculously cheap Kiwi vegetable cleavers. I gave my chef's knife to a friend and own two Kiwi's and a carbon steel cleaver I had made that was supposed to be a better version of the Kiwi. It isn't, but it holds its edge longer.

Victorinox paring knives are fantastic, again, and not expensive. Little goddamn razors. Been relying on mine since a "pro" knife sharpener fucked up the edge on my Wusthof paring knife and I haven't had time to fix it yet.

I think most of us will agree that "low cost knife brand sets", or even "knife sets" aren't going to be the way to go.

I bought the tojiro gyuto (amazon link https://www.amazon.com/Tojiro-DP-Gyutou-8-2-21cm/dp/B000UAPQGS) for my first knife. It's served me well for just about everything, holds an edge incredibly well, sharpens without too much effort, feels great, and has an aesthetically simple beauty. I also appreciated it later on since I found that it's more forgiving than many japanese knives wrt the blade and point without needing to use japanese knifework. I've heard equally good things about their 7" santoku, though it obviously won't rock at all.

Wusthof 8"
This is the one that I have - Take a look around at some local stores and you're almost certain to find it cheaper than this listing

Another wusthof
This one os from their Ikon line. I don't own this one but I've used it and it's really nice as well. The bolster on the Ikon is a little different and the grip is a little more ergonomic supposedly. I didn't really notice too much of a difference.

Another one to check out is Zwilling. I don't know too much about them apart from word of mouth, which has only been positive.

Whichever you go with make sure that if he doesn't have one already to get him a good steel to go with it

I use a dollar store cheese shredder for hash browns too (thats one of the better tools for it), but there are plenty of immersion blenders you can get with a processor attachment for under $30. As for the knife, you only need one, and I have found a good one is well worth having, Mercer or Victorinox(for a little more) both have you covered for good daily use quality at a good price.

There are many premier knife brands out there, most of which cost a fair amount of money. Many people are quick to recommend them, however, I'd suggest a simple Victorinox from Amazon. Although my parents generously bought me a set of Henckels for Christmas, I'm looking to pick up a larger chef's knife and Victorinox has attracted my attention.

The 8" Chef's Knife and 10" Chef's Knife can be had for very reasonable prices and are well-reviewed. A larger chef's knife can allow work with larger materials, while the smaller knife is easier to maneuver and less tiring during long cutting tasks. At work, I opt for one of our 8" knives whenever possible, I just find them so much more comfortable to work with.

If you're looking for a more complete kitchen set, consider buying your chef's knife along with a paring knife, bread knife, fillet and boning knife. Fine edge blades are fucking awful with bread, so the serrated bread knife is as much of an essential as a chef's knife. Paring knives fit small cutting tasks like tourné cuts where a chef's knife would be unwieldy. The fillet and boning knives will allow you to make quick work of whole fish and chickens, the thin flexible blades enabling you to work very close to the bone, wasting as little as possible.

Carefully consider your needs before ordering anything, as you can save an appreciable amount of money by buying your knives together. Alternatively, you may wish to purchase different knives from different companies and buying as a set would actually be undesirable. This is the kind of thing you really only have to buy once if you're willing to do your homework.

Y'ALL this thing is $6 and was the best purchase I've EVER made. I was an idiot and didn't hone or sharpen my knives for 8 years of consistent cooking. I finally realized what a moron I was when they were so dull they hardly cut lettuce anymore, and I was resigned for paying a ton of money to get them sharpened. I was actually googling a place to take them to when that showed up as a first result. I said to myself, I know this won't work, but it's only $6 so I guess I should just try it. And I'm serious, my knives are like brand new. I realize that I sound like an infommericial, and I have no affiliation with this product, I promise, hahaha. It's honestly just that amazing. My practically-destroyed knives only took 5-6 swipes on the dull side and then 3-4 swipes on the fine side for them to be sharpened, and now every 4th or 5th time I use a knife I just swipe it through the fine side 2-3 times. I've gotten everyone I know who cooks to buy one, haha.

I like this one a lot. It's the one I use most often in my kitchen.

This one is also good, though it's not as fancy.

I also like this one due to its ergonomic shape (I have the 6-inch version).

This one is a pretty fantastic value, as well.

As you can see, I like the 8-inch size for general kitchen use. I have a couple 6-inch chef's knives, and a 10-inch and I used to have a 12-inch monster (gave that one away to a vegetarian friend - It was boss as hell for chopping up big veggies).

Those are my suggestions, and they're based on my experience. My top choice is the Wusthof Classic 8-inch, but it's also the most expensive of the ones I've used. The Calphalon Katana is also nice (and is my second choice).

Happy hunting!

Welcome/congrats on moving into your apartment!! I recently moved into my first apartment, and it drives me crazy discovering all the little things I need.

I suggest you get a good knife set (I bought this set for myself and I LOVE it) and a couple of cutting boards. The knives are great for a small space because you can just store them in a crock or whatever with the rest of your cooking utensils (thanks, knife covers!) and the cutting boards take up virtually no room in your cabinet.

Congrats again! I'd love to talk decorating or sometime, because I'm super lost in this whole living-on-my-own (college exuded) thing!

The best chefs knife that I can unreservedly recommend unfortunately isn't one that is going to make your brother go "ohhhh, wow! That's gorgeous!" It's the Victorinox 8" Fibrox. It's a fantastic chef's knife, not just 'for the price' (which is amazing at under $30), but genuinely a great knife. America's Test Kitchen has done multiple chefs knife tests and reviews (one of the most recent is on Youtube here) and their testing and reviews can be trusted.

I've just been using this one. It works great for my work knives because I don't need a straight razor for what I do, but I'm afraid to use it with any of my higher end stuff. I probably should be the guy that has one of those, but I always put sharpening on the back burner since I'm not the best with it, at least with my more expensive stuff. That's why I'm excited about the Sharpmaker, it seems like it's waayy more appropriate for touch up stuff. I feel like I'll be a little more comfortable gliding my Umnum over those triangle rods versus grinding away at it with the Lansky stones. That's funny that you mention that because I have thought about that, I have thousands invested in knives and I can't sharpen one of them to hair shaving to save my life, it's almost embarrassing! I'll get there, though, I just have to focus more on it.

If [this] (https://www.house.com.au/baccarat-id3-3-step-knife-sharpener) is the one your talking about then I would not recommend it. Those kind of sharpener are in general very poor at sharpening your knife and wear out the blade much faster than a regular sharpening system. They function by pinching off chunks of metal and leaving a wavy stressed edge that will dull quickly and require sharpening again.

Instead for a similar price, at least here in the US its a similar price. I would recommend the


[spyderco sharpmaker] (https://www.amazon.com/Spyderco-Tri-Angle-Sharpmaker-Sharpener-204MF/dp/B000Q9C4AE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519110224&sr=8-1&keywords=sharpmaker)

It holds the ceramic rods at pre set angles but doesnt have only a single angle to it and you can even take out the rods and use them individually or tilt the sharpener to make up for some smaller variations in the factory grind angle.
Also very importantly you can clean the ceramic rods in the sharpmaker awhile in that device you really cant.
The one draw back that the sharpmaker has is that the brown ceramic "Medium" grit rods are very fine and do not do good at sharpening a knife that is very dull (its very slow at it)

Alternatively I would also recommend this


[Lansky diamond ceramic turnbox] (https://www.amazon.com/Lansky-2D2C-Diamond-Ceramic-Four/dp/B008EKY5OA/ref=pd_sbs_200_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B008EKY5OA&pd_rd_r=VYC7T7S4Q80MZ56KR8NA&pd_rd_w=4CqcY&pd_rd_wg=wFmqi&psc=1&refRID=VYC7T7S4Q80MZ56KR8NA)

Its similar to the sharpmaker but cheaper, has shorter ceramic rods which can make it a little less ideal for longer knives like kitchen knives. But it also comes with some diamond rods that are much courser than the rods on the sharpmaker.
The sharpmaker does come with diamond or CBN rods but they cost almost as much as the whole sharpener, though a great addition if you do a lot of dull knives.

Restaurant supply store. Full tang, riveted handle (no nooks, crannies, bends, or joints for food/bacteria to get caught). like this

BladeMedic (will let you sharpen serrations!), or I like this smaller one for semi-daily use.

Buy a 10" Chef's knife, a smaller paring knife (~4" maybe?), then personally I bought a 6" serrated ceramic knife which doubles up as bread-knife and lettuce knife. Like this one but ignore all the scammy reviews. Ended up giving away my 6" non-serrated ceramic knife b/c my steel knives were always sharper. I hardly ever use this one but if you find it for a good price (maybe ~$20?) then I'd maybe say go for it. I'd also be tempted by the regular $10 steel one as well, though.

You're in for ~$20 on the chef's knife, $10 on the paring knife, $20 total on the sharpener(s) and optionally another $10-20 on the serrated ones. Most people never use any of the other knives in a block, I keep mine nice and separated, laying flat in a drawer.

Oooh! Last bit... Kitchen Shears, these I actually do specifically recommend, they're great quality and look good too. Instead of slicing a pizza with a knife, you can cut it with scissors. Same with fajita meat. A lot of times I'll use tongs + scissors and am able to process meat right in the same pan I'm cooking it.

So... $75 and you'll have a very nice setup. Maybe I'd add a Santoku or small-medium Cleaver, and then try to figure out table-knives or steak-knives, but that'd follow a similar process for me. I'd be much more willing to buy a fancy set of 4-8 steak knives though than I would a traditional / full wood block setup.

--Robert

​

I sold my set of Shun knives for $500, bought a 1k and 5k Shapton, an Ikazuchi 240, and a bunch of cheap stainless knives for my family to use.

​

They are also for me to practice sharpening and see if I like a cleaver and Nakiri.

​

The two kiwi's were $12 from Amazon. They came pretty dull. I've worked the Nakiri up to a reasonable sharpness with three 1k passes and cloth stropping. But it's still not very sharp, barely takes off arm hair.

​

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01D8FN4CY

​

I've probably done a few hundred passes on the 1k stone for each section of the knife. Burrs form, come off. Still not super sharp. I don't know if these are worth the time.

​

The victorinox fibrox 8" came pretty sharp. I've done about 3-4 1k sessions of about 100 strokes. It's gotten sharper. I find it somewhat difficult to sharpen.

​

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008M5U1C2

​

The chef cleaver is amazing! I love this knife. Out of the box it's super sharp. With one session of 1k and 5k it got even sharper. Very happy. Not sure I yet like the chinese cleaver, it feels very unfamiliar but it's a great knife.

​

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Handmade-Japanese-VG-10-Steel-Cleaver-7-inch-Vegetable-Chopping-Knife-Flatware/323061776505

​

​

I have watched just about every video imaginable on sharpening and read a lot here. I'll just keep learning but I have a few questions.

​

My goal with these is to keep a decent edge for a month or longer. I have a shapton 1k and 5k. Is the 1k enough? I've heard it's a coarse (maybe 800) whetstone.

​

And the the 5k (I've read) is too high for budget stainless sharpening (not polishing, no need for that.) Do I need something in between? The 2k Shapton is affordable. The 3k chosera is expensive but maybe better? Any other suggestions?

Well, if your knives are not expensive, professional-grade stuff, you could always just invest in a new knife ¯\(ツ)/¯ You don't have to drop $100+ on a knife to get something decent. I own this one, and make a few passes with the sharpening steel every use, and it's still sharp as the day I bought it.

Otherwise, you could look into a sharpening system like the Lansky Sharpening System. It has a guide so you don't have to sharpen freehand. It's moderately pricey, and I would suggest buying one or two additional hones for it (the case has two extra spaces for them \^-\^) but if you have a couple knives you want to keep in good shape, its a good investment. I enjoy using it, it's meditative. It might take 30 minutes per knife to completely refinish the edge, or just a couple minutes to bring it back to sharpness.

If you are looking for good quality and in-expensive I recommend [Victorinox] (http://lifehacker.com/5390285/victorinox-chefs-knife-performs-like-a-100%252B-knife-for-much-less)
. They are what many commercial chefs use in their kitchen as well as butchers for years and years. I work at a cookware store, they are in the sweet spot balance with price and good quality. they are also very reliable and comfortable, I found this on amazon
and it has a great handle which grips even when doused with oil.

Yes. I love these knives- I think they are some of the best valued ones you can buy. If these knives are good enough to use professionally, they are good enough for you (I worked in a small commercial kitchen for 5+ years...) I've got the 8 inch version.

Just recommended the Shun Classic line in the previous post.

These come from a reputable brand, have great quality and made from VGMax steel (basically an improved VG10).

Great entry level Japanese knives and I'm sure she'll love one of these.

ya seriously, don't bring over a grand worth of knives to school.

maybe bring just one, the chef knife, but definitely not the whole set. and i would wait like at least the second month into the semester, after everyone learns about the #1 rule of kitchens, which is "don't touch my knife without asking for permission."

i'd also be wary if you are the only person with a really nice knife, as it is good bait to be stolen, or people could fuck with your knife and break it out of malice or just incompetence. unless one is knowledgeable of knives, one will assume all are equal, and can do anything and everything with it, like trying to cut a butternut squash, or coring an avocado...it would be shitty for a classmate to break your knife by doing something dumb with it, and how would you hold them accountable for breaking a CAD$ 350 ish knife? school ain't gonna do shit about it, just like in the industry.

***
edit:

since all your knives are SG2 steel, with a hrc of 63, you will also need a beater work horse knife to cut really hard stuff like butternut squash. i suggest you get something like victorinox fibrox, a CAD$60 stamped knife, which will get the job done.

another benefit of using something that's not laser sharp is that it forces you to have good technique when cutting, great for when you are really practicing your cuts. this knife can get decently sharp if you use whetstones, but just has shit edge retention.

think of the analogy of getting a honda civic as your first car to learn to drive, as opposed to getting a ferrari.

edit 2:

in continuation of the car analogy, when you start your first job, you better fucking have good knife skills, or you will be clowned day and night. as the "FNG" (fucking new guy/gal), you will earn a lot of respect if you rock a fancy knife and can back it up with the knife skills, but will lose a lot of respect if you can't cut for shit.

don't we all just laugh at all the youtube videos of jackasses trying to stunt with their supercars, only to crash into a light pole 30 seconds later? ya, kinda like that.

In my opinion, the bare minimum of what you need is:

1. A decent chef's knife. This one comes recommended by Cook's Illustrated and is pretty cheap:
   http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-40520-Fibrox-8-Inch-Chefs/dp/B000638D32
   
   
2. A good sized stainless steel saucepan.
   
   
3. A good sized stainless steel sautee pan.
   
   
4. Some heavy gauge aluminum jelly roll pans. Something like these:
   http://www.amazon.com/Norpro-Commercial-Grade-Aluminum-Jelly/dp/B000F7A58U
   
   
5. Parchment paper.
   
   Don't waste money on cheap cookie pans.
   
   A great addition on top of this would be a good cast iron skillet and a cast iron Dutch Oven. I would shop secondhand market for these.
   
   I would avoid aluminum (Non-clad) and non-stick cookware. The aluminum stuff reacts with acidic foods and the non-stick cookware flakes off eventually. Stick to stainless steel for the most bang for your buck.

I came here just to recommend the RH Forschner-Victorinox knives. Get a chef's knife, a paring knife and a bread knife. That will cover the vast majority of your knife needs.

Cook's Illustrated rated them very highly. I can attest from my own personal experience, they are inexpensive, comfortable, and easy to keep sharp. It's amazing you can buy a knife this good for so little money.

Get a Victorinox steel ($9), and also pick up an Accu-sharp knife sharpener, also highly recommended by Cook's Illustrated, and me as well: http://www.amazon.com/AccuSharp-1-001-Knife-Sharpener/dp/B00004VWKQ/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1229911994&sr=8-4

EDIT: You may also want to add a (quality) pair of kitchen shears. Very handy thing in the kitchen.

If you start out with these 6 pieces, you will be well on your way to a very well equipped kitchen.

A 50 dollar knife set will be a huge piece of shit,and 3/4 of them will rarely get used.

Get him (and your self) This knife.

http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Swiss-8-Inch-Fibrox-Straight/dp/B008M5U1C2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450230212&sr=8-1&keywords=victorinox+chefs+knife


Honest to god it performs as good and often better than knives 3x its cost.

If you do get it, make sure you tell him to hand wash only, and dry immediately. Don't let it sit with food on it, and store it where it wont get banged up by other cutlery. if he has to put it in a drawer, make sure he uses the plastic sleeve it comes with.

I am far, far from an expert but I would not recommend the Global for a first chef's knife. Aside from being pricey, the handles aren't for everyone (they look very cool, but being just dimpled metal, they don't really offer much grip especially if the knife is wet). I also own the Victorinox Fibrox/Forschner and love it. Extremely sharp and the handle is great. Also, for the price you don't have to worry too much about messing it up. It's long been recommended by Cook's Illustrated, and in the latest issue they did a large comparo just to see if the Fibrox could still compete, and it's still their #1 pick for inexpensive knives (under $50).

Here is a Shun 8" chefs knife in Damascus for $99.95 & FREE SHIPPING!

It has great ratings, is a very nice looking knife. I agree that Damascus is a great look and they seem to be a bit lighter.

I always recommend these items in these type of threads, they'll get you off to a really good start.

1. A $29 Victorinox Chef's Knife
   
   
   
2. A good cutting board for $12-15
   
   
   
3. A cast iron pan for $15-$20
   
   
4. A utensil set of some kind for $15-20
   
   
   
   From there I'd get a solid set of pots and pans and/or a dutch oven. A rice cooker also is pretty helpful. I use mine constantly. Good luck!

Big fan of the Shun line of knives. They come in about $150 each.

http://www.amazon.com/Shun-DM0706-Classic-8-Inch-Chefs/dp/B0000Y7KNQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323145999&sr=8-1

They're great knives that are very comfortable to use. Unfortunately, not everyone likes the same style of knife, and it's a pretty personal choice. I'd recommend either taking your friend to a place that sells high end cutlery, or buying them a gift cert to a place with the expectation that it should be used on a chefs knife.

Checkout the victorinox line. They don’t have a full tang and it’s a fibrox handle but it’s very sharp, feels good in the hand, and it’s easy to sharpen. Plus it’s cheap, I enjoy this knife as much as my Japanese and German steel.

Victorinox Fibrox Pro Chef's Knife, 8-Inch Chef's FFP https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008M5U1C2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_vZskDbP2G8HNX

I was just gifted this key holder I love it, its perfect size and pretty, my SO and I hang our keys and sunglasses on it! :)

This retro toaster oven/coffee maker is cute and it comes in different colors!

A nice shower head I HATE the low pressure spray everywhere shower head that came with my apartment. Lol

Tupperware is essential I didn't realize how important it was when we first moved in until my SO had to take macaroni salad in a ziplock for lunch xD

Cutting boards are also really helpful! I have a marble one for meat but the flexible ones make cutting up veggies and adding them to your dish way easier!