The Two Hundred Dollar Knife.
Knives are for sale everywhere, in the grocery store, at discount stores, on the Web. And you can buy a new knife—just any old knife—for anywhere from five to fifty dollars, thinking your cooking efforts will be improved. Such knives typically last and do a good job for a few specific tries.
Very quickly, they become dull, the handles warp, and you begin to sense a strange and oxidizing effect on the onions you’re trying to finely chop.
You might take one of these knives into serious preparation for a dinner party. You need to chop garlic and onions and herbs and trim up big chunks of lamb or beef or pork.
Company is coming, but your hand is cramping and your arm is tired.
The herbs are unyielding and fray under an inflexible knife edge.
The outer edges of skinned onions remain thick and unusable.
And your attempts to remove excess fat from that fine cut of beef are awkward under a thick and imprecise blade.
Adding to these problems is that as you slice, trim, and chop, your knuckles keep knocking against the cutting surface.
Efforts at sharpening the blade only make things worse. And you begin to realize, these blades weren’t meant for sharpening.
Any cooking expert will tell you that what you need in your kitchen is just a few good knives. And by “good knives,” we mean blades that maintain edge, blades that easily slice through onions and slip along the outer edges of nice, thick cuts of meat to trim away fat and tough membrane, blades that will mince fresh parsley with ease. Handles that fit your hand and keep your fingers and knuckles away from the cutting board. Knives that, after extensive use, are easily sharpened and returned to their original precision.
In the selection of kitchen cutlery, economics prevail. Spend more to spend less.
If you buy the best, you can be assured that you will never spend more money to replace every bad knife buy you’ve ever made.
A Wusthof purchase is a purchase that will endure a lifetime.
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