Reddit mentions of OXO Good Grips Professional 6-Inch Chef's Knife

To add to the good advice below:

get a Cook's Illustrated magazine (online) subscription. $35/yr and worth it. They are non-commercial, and do 3 things:

• incredibly thorough equipment reviews, ending with their "best" recommendation in each category. Some equipment on the market are real dogs, and they save you from crap purchases.
  
  
• ditto with recipes--they'll test 200 variations on a basic recipe (chicken and dumplings for example), and narrow down the factors to what works, giving you their "Best Recipe".
  
  
• really helpful videos, and general cooking tips
  
  **
  
  Equipment
  
  ...does and doesn't matter. I have friends with a great talent for cooking that use the cheapest, most ghetto equipment, and they still make incredible food. But bad equipment (if you don't know what you're doing), can really tank a dish that would work out otherwise, or make cooking a lot less fun than it could be (dull knives, etc).
  
  ***
  
  Knives
  
  You can do about 95% of your kitchen work with the standard 8-inch "chef's knife". Fortunately for you, there are $20 8" forged knives all over the market know. Used to be, it was only Trident or Wustoff, both about $130 nowadays. You can ignore trends like santuko shapes, ceramic knives, etc btw. Those trends change every 10 years, and never stick around.
  
  There are three factors to liking a knife.
  
  
• you want it sharp. imagine going through a pound of onions with a dull knife. It's a fucking chore. You can get a knife sharpened at most hardware stores for about 50 cents per inch (call around). Even better, there are good knife sharpeners on the market (Chef's Choice seems to be the standard brand)--check Cook's Ill. for that. And your knife is sharp? You can dispense with tomato knifes--it'll cut tomatoes! boning knifes--it'll do that too! And anything you want to do with a paring knife, you can do just as easily with a chef's knife.
  
  
• the balance has to be nice. Wave it around in a store by the handle. Does it feel like a log? Or does it feel nimble? As with anything involving repetition, charm of design becomes a huge factor.
  
  
• the last factor is personal. You will use this more than anything in your kitchen, excepting you main pot/pan, and your hands. After a couple months, f you don't like your knife, even if you don't know why, try another one. At $20 a piece, you can try a different one.
  
  
• sidenote: There are two kinds (of blade manufacture), stamped, and forged. Stamped are when they cut a knife shape out of a piece of metal, and sharpen it, forged is when they beat a piece of metal into a knife shape with a machine. Forged are better, because they get and stay sharper, and have better balance. Ignore Cook's Ill. favorite is a stamped knife (Victorionox). I've tried it, and it's...meh. (this is the one place I've ever strongly disagreed with their equipment recommendations. I see why they like it, but I think they're wrong in this case*).
  
  BTW I use this $15 6" Oxo, and the balance is lovely. On the other hand, I have worked extensively with the 8" Oxo, and the balance is a dog. http://www.amazon.com/OXO-Grips-Professional-6-Inch-Chefs/dp/B000A13ODY
  
  ***
  
  Other Equipment
  
  Prep
  
  
• Cutting Board: heavy enough to stay put when you use it, big enough to put a whole chicken on (example), small enough to pick it up with one hand and scrape ingredients into a pot, or rinse it in a sink. I use a $5 hardwood generic one from a dollar store, about 16"x11".
  
  
• knife sharpener. as above -- a sharp knife is so much nicer to use
  
  
• big bowl (for mixing)
  
  
• wooden spoon (mine is cheap from the dollar store)
  
  
• 4 cup pyrex measuring up
  
  
• footed colander and/or one-handed-handled strainer. if a strainer, get one big enough to hold a pound of pasta. you can go cheap here.
  
  
• kitchen towels - get rid of that paper-towel habit
  
  
  Pots and pans - this is where your Cook's Illustrated subscription will pay for itself. Lots of crap pans out there.
  
  
• big pot ("dutch oven", "stockpot"). 6 qt minimum, 8 qt standard. with lid. Stainless steel or enameled cast-iron. If you have money, All-Clad or Le Creuset. If not, check Cook's Ill for their "Best Buy" winner.
  
  
• small pot, about 3 1/2 - 4 qt. with single long handle. and lid. stainless-steel.
  
  
• 12" stainless-steel skillet
  
  
  Tier II
  
  
• set of Tb/tsp measures
  
  
• set of cup measures
  
  
• vegetable peeler
  
  
• rubber scraper
  
  
• big slotted spoon
  
  
• big cooking spoon (unslotted) or ladle
  
  
• 12" non-stick skillet
  
  
• sheet pan - for roasted veg, french fries, cookies, etc
  
  
• baking dish
  
  
• stand mixer. Only if you want do a lot of bread/dessert making. you can learn to knead bread/pizza dough by hand. this is on my shopping list because I'm usually rushed for time, and want to start baking more. I also want it for the meat grinder attachment and pasta roller attachment
  
  
• food processor. totally optional. mostly to speed up repetitive tasks
  
  
  ****
  
  Ingredients
  
  Better ingredients do matter, to a point. But being too much of a purist--insisting on "only the best" or "most authentic" can be limiting. You'll find a balance.
  
  
  Authenticity
  
  As we in the modernised world have forgotten how to cook, we have started chasing foreign cuisines for authenticity, trying to replace something we've lost with something they still do, neglecting the culinary traditions of our countries even more. And food companies know we will pay for "authenticity". But are "authentic" ingredients always better? Sometimes. But what those countries are/were really good at is cooking. The magic isn't in whether they use pancetta vs. bacon, but what they do with their pancetta (or bacon). And certain flavors taste better in certain places -- depending on the local climate and other factors.
  
  
• Do your canned tomatoes always need to be San Marzano DOC? No: read the Cook's Ill. reviews on canned tomatoes to find an excellent (often better) domestic product.
  
  
• Does your grating cheese always need to be Parmigiano Reggiano Stravecchio? No. But I'd never buy the shaky shit from the can. There's almost always a good middle ground
  
  You can still learn a lot from studying traditional cuisines though. (see below, on Eating)
  
  Quality
  
  
• "cheap ingredients" vs. "fancy". Stuff like bone-in pork shoulder (butt, mentioned below; easy to bone) vs. pork tenderloin, chicken legs vs. boneless-skinless breasts. both of these vs. ground beef. ONIONS vs almost anything else. Basics like these were the foundations of pre-modern home-cooking, and once you know what to do with them, you'll knock yourself out.
  
  Cooking-magazine-thinking will tell you should only do the fancy versions of things.
  
  
• on that note, don't be afraid to shop at the neighborhood grocery stores. and don't be afraid to buy non-fancy versions of things you use a lot. for example, I use a lot of paprika, so I buy the cheap Badia stuff by the
  
  
• (cont) making your own custard is cheap and easy-- eggs, milk, flour. The money you're saving over packaged desserts, you might spring for whole vanilla bean. It's the little touches like that that really make me feel fancy.
  
  
• natural is usually better. Read ingredients labels. For example, I always use butter, instead of "butter spread". It's tastier, and healthier--your palate AND body will thank you.
  
  
  Remember, knowing what to do with ingredients and equipment is mostly more important than the ingredients and equipment itself.
  
  
  **
  
  
• As recommended below, learn to cook your favorites. Google recipes for a dish, see what they have in common, test it out, and tweak.
  
  **
  
  Learn to EAT well
  
  Part of learning to cook well is learning to eat well. I've been lucky to have a lifetime of peak food experiences. I go chasing them. I'm always trying different coffee shops to see who makes the best espresso. And pastry shops to see whether or not their croissant is bullshit or sublime. The more you expose yourself to food, the more you'll know what's good. And you can be ambitious to make incredible food the more you know what's possible.
  
  There is a whole genre of books and articles called "food writing." It's basically stories of people (usually) traveling, writing about peak food experiences they have. Authors I like include Elizabeth David, MFK Fisher, Richard Olney... magazines include Saveur (may not be as good as it used to be, but still good), the Art of Eating....
  
  Also classic food movies: Eat Drink Man Woman, Big Night, Chocolat, Tampopo, Babette's Feast (really just the ending scene)
  
  ****
  
  Eating Well II - Quality
  
  There are people who will tell you "taste is subjective". That's wrong.
  
  Preferences are subjective, but Taste is objective.
  
  There is such thing as better and worse. There is such a thing as Quality**.
  
  Example:
  
  
• Nobody has the right to tell you that your favorite flavor of ice cream is wrong
  
  
• But there is such thing as well-made vs. crap ice-cream.
  
  One is made with cream, milk, sugar, and natural flavors, and good technique? And one is made with Corn syrup, milk powder, fake flavors, and shoddy technique?
  
  How much you like something is very powerful, and very important. Your subjective drive is going to keep you going forward, inspired, on anyting.
  
  But its also good to be able to ask of yourself: "How Good is this?".
  
  Everyone's born with a palate. You might not know the ins and outs of classical Chinese cuisine, but I bet if you get an undercooked baked potato, you're willing to say "this is undercooked", or if your french fries are burnt, to say "these are overcooked, and they could be Better if they hadn't been burnt".
  
  Making quality judgements is everyone's prerogative. Don't be afraid to think that something's better or worse, based on objective criteria.
  
  *****
  
  Good luck!