So what would be the best for slicing and dicing onions and bell peppers?

I see a nakiri, santoku, rocking santoku, hollow edge versions of each, regular prep knives, etc.

I think the ones I really want are an 8" or 9" European chef's knife; a parer; and a boning knife with a flexible blade (if you don't prep meat, the boning knife isn't needed). A bread knife is handy for bread.

I could survive with just the chef's knife.

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
So what would be the best for slicing and dicing onions and bell peppers?

I see a nakiri, santoku, rocking santoku, hollow edge versions of each, regular prep knives, etc.

I find a Nakiri to be best for those tasks. Basically any time I'm cutting/chopping/dicing veggies, tubers, herbs, or fruits, the Nakiri is my go-to. It also does well on things like raw chicken breasts. Good for thinly slicing tomatoes too.

I prefer it to a traditional chef's knife for these prep tasks, although there are a few other tasks for which the chef's knife is better suited. If I was forced to choose only one or the other, it'd probably be the western chef's knife (which is a little bit more universal), but I like having access to both.

When it comes to these Japanese-style knives, some folks prefer the rocking motion of the curved Santoku, but I personally prefer the straight chopping motion of the Nakiri for this kind of task. It's basically a smaller/lighter/thinner/sharper cleaver.

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Originally posted by jhe888:
A bread knife is handy for bread.

And cake. (Arguably a type of bread, I guess.)

And certain fruits like watermelon and pineapple. (Definitely not bread.)

I know some people swear by slicing tomatoes with a bread knife, but I just think those people don't have properly sharpened non-serrated knives.

A vegetable cleaver makes chopping veg much nicer, but only a little bit. A large chefs knife is pretty much the key. (I like 12-14” ones)

I have three 8" chef knives:

-German type
-French type
-Santoku type

one 2" paring knife
one 3" paring knife

one utility type knife, more like a 6" paring knife

And this, this has been one of my favorites for 25+ years now after I worked with chefs in Vermont using these while on a culinary school internship.

It's a 10" Victorinox, I guess it's considered a bread knife but it's far more versatile than just slicing bread. You can actually use it as a chef's knife in many ways and to slice vegetables, meat, etc:

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:A chefs knife should cut bread just fine.

Crusty bread you're gonna want that serrated edge that a bread knife has. While a chef knife will do the job, it usually results in too much compression of the bread.

Serrated blades, like a bread knife is good for those food items with hard/rough exteriors and/or fibers interiors, pineapples, melons, squashes come to mind.

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
So what would be the best for slicing and dicing onions and bell peppers?

I see a nakiri, santoku, rocking santoku, hollow edge versions of each, regular prep knives, etc.

All the above are appropriate, you just need to get comfortable with one, keep it sharp and maintain good technique. Too many home chefs have spent the money for good tools but, have developed bad habits and don't work on their technique. Just like shooting, too many people we have known who spend ungodly amounts on a tricked-out blaster but, they never shoot it to its capability; much is due to a lack of commitment and poor training.

quote:

Originally posted by iron chef:
This topic comes up regularly, and most members also recommend a paring knife and bread knife. The 5% of the time I select something like a paring, bread, slicer, cleaver, etc, it's nice to have them, but they aren't critical.

Like you, I rarely use a paring knife.

I recommended a bread knife but didn’t think about how variable the usefulness is depending on how much and what kind of bread someone buys.

If someone doesn’t eat much bread or only ever buys presliced sandwich loaves, a bread knife is pretty useless.

I get unsliced crusty sourdough loaves from a bakery down the street two or three times a week, so I use a bread knife all the time.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
So what would be the best for slicing and dicing onions and bell peppers?

I see a nakiri, santoku, rocking santoku, hollow edge versions of each, regular prep knives, etc.

I find a Nakiri to be best for those tasks. Basically any time I'm cutting/chopping/dicing veggies, tubers, herbs, or fruits, the Nakiri is my go-to. It also does well on things like raw chicken breasts. Good for thinly slicing tomatoes too.

I agree that a knife designed for push cuts with a pretty straight edge (like a nakiri or Chinese cleaver) is the best thing going for veggie prep.

There are also chef knives that fit this pattern, having relatively straight edges suited to push cuts rather than rocking cuts. A nakiri or Chinese cleaver is arguably slightly better for straight veggie prep because of the balance of the short, rectangular blade, but not by much.

My current favorite knife is this 240mm (9.5”) gyuto (Japanese-style chef knife) made by a guy in Poland. I used to use a nakiri all the time, but now I almost always just reach for this.

We have quite a few knives that all get used. The most used are 8" Chefs, a 5 1/2" Gerber Balance Plus Utility, serrated bread knife and several small, cheap paring knives. In the block is a Gerber Muskie with the Armorhide handle, my wife latched onto this years ago and loves it, her boning knife.

I have custom knives in the block and she rarely reaches for them. She was a Frederick Dick dealer and those are her favorites.

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Originally posted by smschulz:
So NEED is the operative word.
I need only one ~ most likely a Chef's knife circa 8".
But like guns I have to have more.

Took a whole page for the sage answer. I have read 4-5 is all that is needed, but I think I have a 17 slot block that is full with no duplicates. My wife has her favorites and I have mine.

I have 2 knives.
Kai-Schun 8” chef
Kai-Schun 3” paring

Primarily, I use the 8” for all chopping/dicing/carving. I keep them all razor sharp (actually sharpening 1/year) and toning them up with a steel.

I have others, but they don’t get used. There’s not a day goes by that I don’t use the 8” chef.

I can make finer cuts with a thin-blade paring knife. Of course I can slice garlic or shallots with a larger knife, but the blade is thicker. Of course I can slice a loaf of bread without a long, thin serrated blade, but I'll make a mess of it in the process.

And shears are not knives.

I don't want to spend 200 bucks on a kitchen knife because I know I'll want to be delicate with it, and that just gets in the way.

No doubt exceeds what we "really" need but it works for us:

10" French Chef's
10" Bread serrated
8.5" Japanese Gyuto (70°/30° bevel)
8.5 x 4.25" Chinese vegetable cleaver
8" French Chef's
7" Santuko
6.5" Utility serrated
6" Utility
4" Paring

Of these the cleaver, 8" Chef's, bread, and paring knives see the most use.

None


One chef knife does everything

There was a time that I pretty much did everything with my Chinese cleaver. Have branched out since then, rotating about 5 knives.

Usually grab my 8" chef's knife for most duties. I keep this as sharp as I can, avoiding hard substances. I could actually do just fine were this my only knife.

For chopping and harder materials like bone I go to my 5" santoku. This has a coarser edge so will take more abuse.

A small paring knife is around for fine work, though it doesn't actually get used so much.

My bread knife.

One specialty knife, a long thin sushi knife for sushi-roll making.

And my Chinese cleavers are still around for when I fire up the wok. (I did have a nakiri for a while, but found it really didn't do anything not already covered by my full-size cleavers.)

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
I don't want to spend 200 bucks on a kitchen knife because I know I'll want to be delicate with it, and that just gets in the way.

This is why I have some Victorinox Fibrox knives (the 8" and 10" chef knives are both around $40) in addition to my more expensive knives. By any standard, they're pretty good knives, and for $40, they're spectacular.

I mostly use my "good" knives, but sometimes I want a knife I can really abuse and not worry about damaging.

I'm actually on my second Fibrox chef knife because I knocked a fingernail-sized chip out of the edge of the first one hacking up a coconut.

Both the first and second Fibrox chef knives have had numerous smaller chips and dents in the edge that I have hammered back to flat and/or ground out on a 140 grit diamond stone that I usually use for flattening other sharpening stones.

There’s a Zwilling Costco show coming up so I may add one maybe two knives to the block. I think I have it narrowed down to 1 or 2 but these responses confirm what I was thinking - others may be nice to have but may only do the job marginally better than one of the main ones. I like the idea of having it full but not if they never get used.


Is the bagel knife also called a pastry knife? That could be worth having. My bread knife is the size you use for a full homemade loaf.

All you really need is 3 or 4 knives tops.

I've got around 8 and only use 3 or 4.

3 for me.

I’ve invested in a Whustof chef, paring, and bread knife. Personally think the bread knife is under-rated; especially when slicing through exceptionally hard or soft breads.

You only need a few. But how many do you want? I must have 20 good kitchen knives collected over the years.

Same thing with guns. How many do you need? How many do you want/own?

Well, that wasn't the question.