Chefs and their knives

I'm sorry if you thought that I was implying that my work was any better than anyone else's. I meant to point out that when a properly made knife of high quality steel is put into their hands, their eyes light up. But that knife always goes with A higher price tag no matter whether it is a handmade knife from one of us for a Japanese knife. And that almost always is the sole determinant of what they're going to buy or use.

 

$1000 a week for exec chef!! Sous and line guys get quantitatively less. Before taxes, that's pretty bad. Many exec chefs I know have to have side gigs selling vitamins, juice plus, or other such stuff to make ends meet. And these are our celebrated chefs here with popular followings. The $$$ comes in if they become chef-owner.

 

Very accurate statement, on a non-major market national level.

I still think it is due to a lack of education.

If things are tight, buy ONLY one GOOD knife, that could do 95% of daily kitchen tasks.

 

I think you meant to quote Brad . I agree completely though. I have a family friend (actually he was a friend of my grandparents and the friendship has just run on down the line lol) who owns a small restaurant here in Peoria, AZ. We don't follow each other closely or keep in touch much...to the point that he didn't even know I made knives. I recently took my mom to lunch at his place, and brought up my KKFa passaround knife to show him. He told me it was beautiful but that he would never pay my asking price for a knife. When I took him back to cut with it though...he was genuinely amazed. He'd NEVER...in over fourty years owning and running restaurants...used anything better than a $50 Victorinox chef's knife. He didn't even KNOW kitchen knives could work like the higher end knives we on this forum are so used to. And lets face it...my knives are great, yours are great, Mert's are great...and the same goes for the other high end customs...but they're not an insane amount better than many of the $100-$200 Japanese knives out there. Better, yes...but probably only in the small details. Yet, those comparably inexpensive Japanese knives are SO FAR BEYOND that $50 Victorinox...it's almost impossible to fathom the difference.

Funny story on a related note. He let each of his cooks try my passaround knife...and asked them what they thought it might be worth. The highest estimate given was $90 lol. he then showed me the knives they used. They were $10 Costco knives, and the abuse was absolutely ridiculous.

DEFINITELY. 190-210mm and you're good to go!

 

Its too sad that this fellow with over 40 years experience never heard of japanese knives or even the concept of better knife.

 

Agreed...but he's in the vast majority as far as that goes. I've gone into a few mid/high end restaurants looking for local people to give me quick feedback on different grinds...and in all of my searching I only found two that would even know the difference, and those were pointed out to me by my friend Eytan who owns Phoenix Knife House. Everyone else looked at me with a blank stare...like I'd brought in a Bugatti Veyron to a Geo dealership and asked them if they could troubleshoot my injector pulse timing.

My friend did end up ordering knives by the way...for his wife for an anniversary present . He recognized the difference after using it, but still can't fathom using one in a restaurant setting.

 

Bieniek : you've got some good points but I have to disagree with you slightly. If a cook/chef/apprentice has no concept of what knives could be, no idea that anything exists beyond victrinox global etc, no idea of the importance of having a sharp knife or no comprehension of what sharp even is... How are they supposed to know they need to improve? as far as they are aware they have good skills and no one will ever tell or show them otherwise.

So your saying we should just teach ourselves everything from google? Why even go to school huh just google it! Yeah sure you can learn stuff from the internet but you can just as easily learn the wrong stuff!!!
Google how to sharpen a knife and most of the videos are just rubbish.

I agree everyone should take some personal responsibility for bettering their skills but also standby what I said.. If you don't know any better and there is no one to teach you how are you supposed to know you even need to improve ?

 

all of the custom makers boasting their products on this thread is a joke. if you made better knifes than Mr. Tokifusa Iizuka we would all recognize.

 

This genuinely made me smile...thanks Brad .

 

Well said. What you describe is the first of the four stages of competence: Unconscious incompetence. Quote from Wikipedia: "The individual does not understand or know how to do something and does not necessarily recognize the deficit. They may deny the usefulness of the skill. The individual must recognize their own incompetence, and the value of the new skill, before moving on to the next stage. The length of time an individual spends in this stage depends on the strength of the stimulus to learn."

Of course you need your own inner motivation to learn and get better at what you do, but it helps alot if you're working at a place where people can learn from each other and are not equally competent/incompetent. That's the stimulus.

 

I just kept hearing "Don't worry, speed and accuracy will come with time," whenever I would cut and have a hard time with it three years out of culinary school. I had yet to spend money on a proper knife. I was using a Mercer Genesis that was part of the kit I got in basics. My instructors showed us how to hone, how to sharpen and use the french knife for everything. I was in my first real kitchen and my new chef handed me a Moritaka to use for the day. I ordered a Tojiro that night!

it wasn't time that brought noticalbly better knife skills, it was a thinner blade- not the 'tomahawk' that I have since dubbed the Mercer.

The house knives at my current gig are all Dexter Russells. They suck, but I can put on edge on them ever three weeks. My line cooks don't need knife skills, they have a slam dicer but I an still dice faster than they can use it... Its not that I don't want to teach them better knife skills. I on't have the time. A couple of them want to but it will slow them down while they learn and most act like they don' t have two nickels to rub together- so I won't talk them into a nice knife to keep in their locker.

The lady of the house has decent knife skills after a few lessons. I gave her a AEB-L Richmond Artifex 210 to use in the house. She does great with it. Not so much with said 'tomahawk'.

Last job I had, the exec chef had some serious money in Kikuichi knives. He couldn't sharpen to save his life. I started sharpening for him but the initial sharpening was rough I was asking for advice on what to do with them here! (Answer, thin more...) He aat least knew the difference between good steal etc, just not what to do with a 80/20 grind... He is certifiably insane being a highly functional sociopath. He could run numbers and pull some great dishes out of his head but boy could he ruin an edge.

I'm rambling. Information on knives is out there but only those interested will look at it. Only a portion of those people will know what to do with it and a bunch of people will buy a Shun or Global because its the rage on TV or whatever. A few will buy stones and a small portion of those will do well with them. But bad knives don't help teach good knife skills.

 

I actually have some input that touches on this...but I'll refrain for fear of being accused of bragging about my work.

Carry on gentlemen.

 

I revert to my original post: LACK OF EDUCATION!!!

 

I hate to admit it, but I've had guys show me up in the knife skills department before while using their Wustoffs. Some guys can rock it no matter what.

I usually use the carpenter analogy when explaining our knife addiction to people-better tools help to make one better at their job. If a contractor showed up at your house with cheapo tools bought from WalMart or the Dollar store that were rickety and worn out, how confident would you feel in his ability?

I would also like to add how sad the knives in culinary schools have become. They used to get F.Dicks, now they get TERRIBLE Mercer kits.....all made in China. This is just total greed on the part of the schools. Oh and yeah the awesome job placement after graduating.................you have to work at least 2 full-time jobs to pay your student loans.

 

Totally agree, Chris. Most culinary schools just don't care. When was the last time one of our culinary educators actually "burned & turned"? Speed & proficiency are just NOT on the top of their list.

 

At one point I had considered teaching in culinary school , started my certificates but half way through them I realised I would have hard time accepting their content and teach their way . One of my former exec . Chefs who used to be the dean of a culinary school told me " you can cook , most of these guys are because they can't "
It's funny Al you say about the time management or the lack of it , most kids that come fresh from them are shocked when they are told they don't have 3 hours to do single task and we have to do many things at the same time

 

Maybe this is true then: "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach."

 

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