Topic: Chef's Knives

[Secret Santa]

I've just bought a house to do up and I'm having to make do with the space I have at the moment which is a two foot square surface. I just can't work on such a small surface and I've dropped my knife twice, the second time it stuck point first into the floor. It doesn't bear thginking about what would happen if it were one of those fancy ceramic ones and it caught my foot!

[Bobby Bhuna]

Yes, they still have them but they are 50 quid. Dug just got his for a fiver because it was out of the box and the boy working there said he thought it was fiver so Dug agreed to that and he put it through the till. Bargain of a life time.

[ast]

It may sound stupid, but what technique do you use with it for the onions and tomatoes?

Crikey AST!    I don't think that I HAVE a technique!  ;D  That's probably why I prefer a clever to a "decent" knife! 

But, for chopping and dicing (e.g. onions, tomatoes, coriander, etc) I just use two hands and "rock and walk it" over the stuff like it's a mezzaluna.  It works a treat for me, however incorrect and inelegant it may seem! 

Otherwise, I just use it like any other knife (e.g. for chopping boneless chicken breasts, slicing tomatoes, etc).  I use other smaller knives for finer work of course.

Nothing wrong with that, CA.  Just wondering.  Apparently, the Chinese do it the way you do to--cleaver for everything.  I know a friend of mine's Thai ex-wife used hers for just about everything too--including chasing him around the house a few times!! 

I guess I just got really interested in "proper" technique after I saw it in action first-hand in a commercial kitchen.  It was just one of those things you see and say, "I gotta figure out how to do it like that!"

[ast]

Ast - I see you were preparing for the Saffron base in that pic.

Yeah, same pic I linked to from the other thread.  Only one I had handy with the knife in it.

[Cory Ander]

Dug just got his for a fiver...

So when Dug dropped it, it stuck in his head did it?..oh no, that's a spade, silly me? 

[Rai]

An interesting appraisal of the virtues of a cheap asian clever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPyR2w0juAI

[The Apprentice]

I don't recommend using a clever - I find them cumbersome and slow in comparison to a chefs knife . I have had a set of  Wusthof Trident Classic knives for 28 years and they have never failed me and still as good as the day I bought them .

[shanew]

I bought a full set of Wusthof cullinars a couple of years ago, cost me a full months wage for the set of 9 and a steel but i dont regret it for one minute