People are always waiving knives at me! For years, people came to my cooking school brandishing blades, gesturing wildly, and imploring me, “Is this a good knife?”
A “good knife” has little to do with the size of the blade, the color of the handle, or the brand of the knife.
To consider whether you have a “good knife” versus a “bad knife”, you have to examine two items more important than the logo or manufacturer.
First, you have to consider WHAT the knife is made from. There are three types of metals that all kitchen knives are made from and they each have advantages and disadvantages as I explain in this video:
Once you’ve decided on the features of which material your knife is made from, you should examine the construction. HOW is this knife put together?
Again, there are advantages and limitations of knife construction that will give you options while shopping for a chef’s knife as I’ll show you here:
When you’re thinking about buying a chefs knife or shopping for other kitchen knives, consider the best materials and construction your use necessitates and your budget can withstand.
Using the right tools is an important part of cooking, but there are other decisions you can make on your way to true Cooking Freedom. My guidebook will help you make the best choices and you can get it for FREE.
“The 5 Forks For Freestyle Cooking” will guide you toward empowering yourself to cook the way YOU want with the foods YOU desire.
Click to get your FREE guide to Freestyle Cooking today!
Hi Chef,
I do not know how to cook! I mostly heat up boxes
or packages of stuff thats already been cooked, boring right!
What changed you ask? I have the duty and honor of teaching
my sixteen year old daughter to cook, I am despartly trying to find things to help with life lessons in case she needs to take care of herself. I want her to want to cook. You know the old saying the way to a mans heart is through his stomach , not just for future husbands but also for fathers and brothers if they need to help take care of her. One of the hardest things about Autistic kids is that they are prone to be lazy. It is hard to find things that peak their interests let alone keep it. I started hunting for online classes last year could not find any. Then you came across my email with your webinar and I watched It. I realized that I could understand every direction or instruction so I had my daughter watch it and it is peaking her interest. Kudos to you that is hard to do. The reason I am writing this detailed letter is to say not only are we blessed to find you, we also are blessed to have a scholarship program that offers her money for school programs. I want to get a preauthorization for it to cover life time membership. All I have to do is show how it will help with her education. What I am asking is there anyway we could continue with the classes until I receive an all clear to pay for the membership. I bought the $1 15 day membership so far. I would appreciate any help you can give us… Kelly
Hi Kelly!
Thank you for your kind note. Perhaps the greatest gift you can give a child is an early introduction to the kitchen. It brings with it a healthy respect of food, independence, and social skills.
You’ve got the right idea about my approach to teaching cooking. It’s NOT about the oven temperature, NOT about how LONG to cook something, and certainly NOT about written instructions.
When you understand the METHODS behind cooking, you can change the ingredients for an endless number of original dishes. Keep the dependable METHOD, change the ingredients each time.
When you are ready to resume your classes, please send an email to support@WebCookingClasses.com and they can help you.
Chef Todd, once again your observations are the clearest and truest of any suggestions or explanations I’ve come across.
Before I learned to cook, I bought a set of 3 knives (chef’s, boning and paring) at a dollar store for about ten bucks. I’ve been using them for about seven years now and have always wondered if they were “good knives.” They worked fine for me (I especially like my chef’s knife) but, since they didn’t cost $50 a knife, I figured they surely couldn’t qualify as good knives.
So I just looked at their construction and material and found out they’re full-tang stainless steel knives with laminated plastic handles. Nothing wrong there!
And considering that my chef’s knife sharpens easily, and will cut paper thin slices of tomato with no trouble, and considering that I love the way it feels in my hand and they’ve held up well for seven years, I’ve concluded that the price simply has nothing to do with how I should feel about my knives.
Maybe I just got real lucky and ran into a super great deal, but for me and my cooking, I’ve got some really good knives!
Thanks, Chef.
Hey Dan!
Like I always say, “if it’s good to YOU….then it’s GOOD!” Don’t let anyone else tell you that you have to spend hundreds of dollars on a knife to get a good one. If your knives work well, feel good, and give you confidence, they are priceless.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge! I can’t wait to figure out what my knives are! I think a combo, right now. I am so looking forward to practicing the cutting with my chef’s knife. There is so much to learn. Thank you again!
Hi Readmor!
All of cooking comes down to repeatable, reliable, dependable METHODS. Written instructions are confusing and have too many variables. They destroy your confidence in cooking, but methods build confidence. With confidence comes creativity, and then you’re making your own original dishes.