Chef's Path Professional Chef Knife Set - 8" Ultra Sharp Japanese Santoku Kitchen Knife - German High Carbon Stainless Steel Chefs Knife with Sheath & Premium Packaging - Best Value Cooking Knife

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But be sure to avoid the cheapest knife sharpeners, which will quickly eat away too much of the blade’s metal. It features a high-carbon stainless steel blade that “rarely requires sharpening,” according to the brand. There is no kitchen knife more important than a chef's knife, unless, of course, you're an Italian nonna, in which case you can probably break down a cow with a dull paring knife.

Balance: Knife balance means different things to different people, and it boils down to personal preference. The molded plastic handle (also made from Santoprene, like the Mercer Culinary Genesis) is large and easy to grip. If you’re set on tucking the knives out of sight, consider a cork-lined drawer insert that will keep the knives snug without jostling. The knives I tested represent some of the most common and well-known brands available in the United States, but there are many other brands worth checking out, particularly if Japanese knives are of interest to you.A fan-favorite among our experts, Hedley and Bennett’s Chef’s Knife has been used in our Kitchen Appliances Lab since it first came out, and it also makes frequent appearances in our personal home kitchens as well. Another budget choice, the Messermeister Pro Series Wide-Blade Chef’s Knife 5025-8 was pretty much on a par with our budget pick. An 8-inch chef’s knife is versatile enough to hold you over until you generate more funds to build out your cutlery collection. The knife edge stays sharper longer than traditional knives due to the Molybdenum Stainless Steel blade and the balance is made to feel comfortable and causes no fatigue or discomfort. This is harder than typical (factory produced) chefs knives and means that the knife will take a fine, sharp edge.

The humble Chef Knife is the definitive staple for every chef — novice or master — that makes tackling meat, seafood, vegetables, and herbs of all textures and sizes effortless. We took note of the weight of the knife: While heavier ones often feel sturdier, they can tire hands when slicing hard ingredients like carrots. As it turns out, the company recommends that you don’t use the knife for hard ingredients (or frozen foods), because they can chip the blade. It feels more agile than the German models we’ve tested and more durable than the thin Japanese gyutos. Still, several of the Western knives were able to cleave through the paper without a hitch, indicating an acceptable level of sharpness.She conducted the most recent side-by-side chef's knife test as well as the most recent test for serrated knives and butcher knives. Most of the knives that hadn't already been eliminated performed decently well on this test; some excelled at it, while others got the job done without any obvious problems. If you regularly use your knife for heavy-duty tasks (like breaking down whole poultry), it’s worthwhile considering a boning knife for that task. This grip has the user pinching the flat side of the blade just over the bolster, giving the user better control and balance. What we liked: This chef's knife from Mercer, a North American producer that specializes in German-style kitchen knives, did well in all the tests.

For most people who cook, an 8-inch blade should be about right, but some people may prefer a longer, 10-inch blade.

We tested with home cooks in mind and evaluated how well each knife cut and retained an edge after slicing and chopping through onions, whole chickens, cooked steak, carrots and cheddar cheese. The knife is quite a bit lighter than the Wüsthof Classic and has a grippy rubber-and-plastic handle that's comfortable to hold. Exploring the finer points of knife construction and materials is interesting and, of course, useful to know, but ultimately the test of a knife is how well it performs in the kitchen.

It's an affordable, all-purpose tool that does an ace job of blitzing parsley, dicing onions and deboning a chicken.As New York Times assistant managing editor Sam Sifton told us during testing, “[A good knife] is the balance of utility and the thing that moves your heart. Gyutou and other Japanese knives are generally made with harder steel, which can hold an edge longer but can also be more difficult to sharpen. The thin, sharp blades of Japanese chef's knives are closer in form to those of slicing knives than Western ones are. This chef’s knife from direct-to-consumer company Misen is made of Japanese AUS-8 high-carbon stainless steel, which means it's tough, durable and super sharp. But quality has clearly fallen, as its French Forged Stainless Chef Knife had a surprisingly dull edge right out of the box.