New Year... Same Blog

As the new year begins I have decided to come back to the Cocktail Hour Chef Blog! (please cue noise makers, trumpets, and confetti.) For 2011 I hope to have more posts with actual recipes (and hopefully photographs), lots of wine information, segments on my favorite kitchen tools and other surprises along the way.

Kicking this off lets talk about knives...

They are one of the basic tools of the kitchen and there are about as many variations on them as there are people on the face of the earth. When I arrived at culinary school one of the first things I got was a large blue bag and a box of knives. Sitting in a large circle our class identified the knives, talked about what they did and then put them into the blue bags. The knives we got that day were pretty decent German knives. They cut, they chopped, the sliced students who were not paying attention. While I liked these knives I didn't love them. I had a kinda sorta old Henckels knife (I'm pretty sure I bought it at Target after college) that I really think worked better. If nothing else I liked how it felt in my hand more than the school knives did. Still, at school I used the knives the school gave us and kept my old trusty knife at home.

Since graduating I've had time to try out other knives. I've tried a few brands some German, some Japanese, and a single brand from Switzerland. What I found in all of this is that I adore German knives and just not at all fond of the Japanese ones. As for the Swiss knives, they're fun and I like them, but they don't have all the products that I need.

Christmas rolled around and while I'd fallen in lust with one knife I knew that while it was stunningly beautiful and cut like a dream it wasn't sensible to ask for it. A few days after Christmas I once again found my self in Sur La Table playing with knives. This time I looked at a slightly different one and it came home with me.

The knife I ended up getting (Zwilling Henckels Twin Profection) has been up to every task I've put before it in the past few days. A head of cauliflower... nothing to it, carrots... like a sharp knife through hot butter, raw potatoes... easy. This is a knife that wants to cut what ever ends up under the blade.

On that note... I'm off to whip up dinner!
Cheers