Behind the Knife - Chef Toolboxes Tell All

This is my first post here, so its good to meet everyone. A bit about me, I just started Culinary School a week or so ago. I bought my uniforms, and look like Chef Boyardee, but much younger, and without that great moustache. Not to sway the judge’s opinion, but being a culinary student I could really use a good knife sharpening system. I was initially focusing on Baking and Pastry, but now think I’m going to take all of the classes that they offer.

I’m a career changer. I am currently an engineer, and have been for 12 years. I have a BS in Mechanical Engineering, but after some recent events, which led to me getting a new job after 12 years, I’ve realized that I have either lost my passion for engineering or never really had it at all. I have always had a passion for food. I’m a foodie. I love to eat. I love to cook. I love to watch people enjoy what I cook. So, I decided that I could either spend the rest of my career in a job that I don’t really care about, or I could do something I love.

Anyway, onto the knives.

The worst knife I’ve ever used? I can’t even begin to describe all of the horrible knives I’ve used throughout my life. I worked in a deli as a teenager, and thankfully the boss had the knives professionally sharpened every two weeks. The frequent sharpenings and constant honings still didn’t make up for the abuse these knives got. They were dropped repeatedly, thrown around during the busy lunch rushes, had deli slicers dropped on the blades, and generally treated like garbage. Thats what you get when you hire teenagers. Now that I have my own set of knives, I realize how badly I treated those knives. I wish I could go back and apologize to them. But sadly, they still aren’t the worst knives I’ve ever used.

The worst knives, undoubtedly, are the knives at my parents’ house. They are tossed in a drawer. Not placed neatly, tossed. Its like a minefield every time you need a knife. More accurately, its the most dangerous game of pick up sticks you’ll ever see. To grasp a handle you have to move at least one blade off of it. But you don’t really have to worry, none of the blades are sharp at all. I know this because the knives, which have been around longer than I have, have NEVER been sharpened at all since leaving the factory. Not even on the sharpener on their electric can opener, which I realize isn’t the best option. They don’t own a truing steel, so the edges are pretty much destroyed from neglect. They use the very popular method of buying new knives when they can’t stand the old ones. Well, that’s not entirely true, sometimes they steal them. I remember having a full set of steak knives from the Rustler Steak House. When they do buy knives, the knives are the absolute cheapest available. After all, knives are apparently disposable.

But, I have one story even better. Its a recent story. I went to a conference for work in Orlando last February. On the way home, I was at the airport rather early and stopped to get some lunch. I went to the Outback Steakhouse. I decided to get a nice steak, I believe it was the filet. My steak arrived and I opened up my silverware to find a fork and a spoon. I asked the waitress for a knife, and she came back with, no lie, a plastic knife. Because we were beyond the security checkpoint, we could not have metal knives. No butter knives, nothing that could possibly be useful at all. Luckily, I ordered a tender cut of beef, and I get my steaks medium rare, or I would have had to rip it apart with my teeth. I would have sent it back and asked for the chef to cut my steak, but he probably didn’t have anything sharp either. So, if you’re ever in the Orlando Airport and need some lunch, order the ribs. At least those you can pull apart.

I have a Chinese cleaver with nicks in the blade and duct tape holding the wooden handle together. The scariest thing? I’m still using this knife!

Is the duct tape really working? Every time I’ve put duct tape on anything that gets near water the duct tape just kinda starts to deteriorate and leaves a sticky mess. What you might think about doing, is wrapping the handle in a nice layer of electrical tape, which I think looks a little nicer and holds up better, and then getting some of the shrink wrap that they use on wires. It comes as a little plastic tube that you slide on the wires, or in your case, handle, the use a heat gun or hair dryer to shrink it to create a nice water proof handle.

Or, better yet, have a woodworker friend carve you a new handle. They can even make it to your specifications. Make sure it’s balanced well, etc. A block of wood sufficient for a nice knife handle is only a few bucks, and shouldn’t take much time at all for a skilled woodworker. Plus, unless the woodworker is a professional, they probably won’t charge you for the time they spend on it. Crafty people love doing stuff like that, its a challenge for them.

The nicks, well, you’d probably need to have the blade professionally reground, depending on how big they are.

But, if you have a sentimental attachment to a certain knife, the cost it would take to repair might be worth it.