Are Japanese kitchen knives worth the money? Here’s everything you need to know

Cooks guard their knives jealously. Really don’t even feel about borrowing the sous’s santoku (Japanese all-purpose knife) in a restaurant kitchen area – it’s a fake pas that could see you scrubbing out the deep-unwanted fat fryers for months. Even in residence kitchens, knives have moved from utility merchandise to the most coveted bits of kit.

But getting shelled out for a shimmering blade that promises to flip me into the future Angela Hartnett, seeking after it can experience like a hefty obligation. For assistance, I spoke to Jay Patel, founder of London’s Japanese Knife Co and the sharpest knife professional on the block. 

And talking of blocks, what’s the finest way to store a knife? Rattling all around in a drawer is out. The blades will blunt as they bump just about every other, and rummaging all over for the garlic push could consequence in a horrible lower. So a knife block or a magnetic strip?

According to Patel, what issues most is protecting the sharp edge. ‘Most blocks relaxation the knife on the edge of the blade, so it operates along as you pull it out of the slot. We endorse placing the knife in upside down to guard the edge.’ Also, if you use a magnetic strip, carry it off the sharp edge initially, really cautiously, so it doesn’t scrape on the strip.

Edge is every little thing. Most European blades are produced of very challenging, dense metal, good for our large vegetables and sinuous meat, although it tends to make them difficult to resharpen. They also tend to be thicker, so that when you are slicing a huge root vegetable, for case in point, after the initial reduce, the wedge of the blade cleaves it aside. Asiatic blades are likely to be incredibly skinny, great for fish and a lot less fibrous veg, but this would make them far more fragile.