Victorinox Grand Maitre 8" Chef's Knife - Sharp Straight Edge Ergonomic Cooking Knife with Wood Handle - Premium Kitchen Essentials for Slicing, Dicing, and Chopping

By Bill Marsano. I received a Victorinox chef’s knife and a matching santoku as gifts, and believe me, it wasn’t easy. It required a relentless campaign of increasingly blunt hints (occasionally bordering on threats) to family and friends before they caved, pooling their resources for the big sped. They attached a note reading “this covers your birthday presents for the rest of your life.” Fair enough! These knives cost plenty, but they’re worth it: they represent the very top of Victorinox’s line and will last your lifetime. (Eventually your foodie heirs will fight over them.) Both knives are elegantly finished, with triple-riveted rosewood handles, and forged, satin-finish full-tang blades, which have a watch-spring temper. That is, when tapped gently on a hard surface, they’ll bounce briskly. That’s the key to a fine blade. Their sharpness is amazing, almost legendary. In fact, these knives deserve names, like such legendary blades as Excalibur; El Cid’s Tizona; Joyeuse, the sword of Charlemagne; and Durendal, wielded by his paladin, Roland. The santoku (the name is Japanese for “three virtues”—i.e., slicing, mincing and chopping) weighs in at 7 ounces; its blade is 6.75 inches long and the handle 5.25 inches. I put it to work at the cutting board and it was a revelation. Its little bit of extra weight means the blade does the work, not your muscles. The chef’s knife is an excellent companion blade, weighing in at 9 ounces largely because the blade measures 8 inches, giving extra ‘reach’ in the slicing department; the handle is 5.25 inches. This knife balances as nicely as the santoku, with just a little bias toward the handle end. Like the santoku, its bolster is ground off at the heel or extreme rear of the blade. That provides a sharp corner that’s perfect for making starter cuts on extra-tender ripe tomatoes and fruits that have tough, slippery rinds. The handles have a semi-ergonomic hump or swelling at thetop or spine for comfort, and for extra safety a neb (that’s the little beak-like protrusion on the underside of the handle at the rear end. Rosewood is not dishwasher-safe, so you’re obliged to wash these blades by hand. Actually, it’s a privilege: handling your knives often will build confidence and skill in their use. Buy a steel, preferably 14 inches long, and use if frequently to keep your edges at their best (check online for instructions on using a steel). How to tell if the edge is just right? Put it on a ripe tomato and pull the knife toward you without pressing down How pleased am I with these knives? So pleased that I’ve forgiven my siblings for their truly awful recent gifts. Stuff like the noisy, slow, marginally effective battery-operated corkscrew; the perfectly ridiculous and utterly useless Corksicle; and the pod machine that requires coffee cost-ing $50 a pound.—.—Bill Marsano always ends up sharpening his family's and friends’ knives as a matter of course.