Hi everyone!
Welcome back to another issue of How I Cook.
A slightly different newsletter for you this week, I thought I’d take you on a little tour of my knife roll, or what I used to take to work back in the restaurant days. It doesn’t venture out quite as much as it used to, but they’re still very important in my day to day as a cook and food writer.
I see this as the start of a little series of newsletters on equipment. I can’t (and shouldn’t) cover it all in one go, so we’re starting with my bare essentials kit list, my skeleton crew. Without these bits and bobs, life in the professional kitchen can be tricky, inconvenient, not impossible, but just a bit of a bummer. In my opinion, they’re essential for the home cook, too.
Do you have a ride-or-die knife or piece of kitchen kit? Let me know in the comments!
Happy reading,
B x
On my first stage (pronounced “stah-j”, the fancy chef word for work experience), I witnessed the horrifying moment a bleary eyed chef realised that he’d left his knife roll on the tube. This realisation at once completely destroyed his day (try spending 16 hours using the restaurant’s knives… they’re as sharp as a spoon and when you’re on fish section, which he was, that’s very bad news) and cost him about £1k. Knives are hyper personal items in the professional kitchen. Chefs are fiercely protective of their roll, like a mama bear with a cub. Put a foot wrong and you’ll find yourself on the sharp end of a bad temper.
It might sound a bit precious, but I totally get it. In the kitchen you all wear the same clobber; same jacket, same apron, even the same shoes. A chef’s knife is an opportunity for individual expression, the style of blade, the brand, the geometry, the weight, the feel of the handle and how sharp you keep it, says a lot about who you are as a cook.
It’s true that the majority of you reading this will likely never need to delicately pack up your knives, roll them up, sling them into your bag, have the inevitable moment of panic about whether you’re still allowed to take the tube or ride the bus with a bag full of weapons (miraculously, you are!), and leave the house, but I still think it’s worth investing in a roll. It’s a comfy little house for your knives, one that can sit snugly in a drawer and save the blades from rattling around. A knife roll is a sign of respect, a nod to your tools.
As far as fancy-pants kit goes, I’m a firm believer that less is more in the kitchen knife world. I’ve never been a huge knife nerd, I know chefs that have amassed enormous collections of knives over their lifetime. We’re talking in the hundreds… Some of my old colleagues might come back into work after a day off with a shiny new blade, proud as punch, wielding it like some phallic extension of themselves, reinvigorated with new life, a pep in their clog-bound step. That being said, I do take great pride in the concise collection I have put together over the years and I’m going to show you around.
The Roll
I’ll be the first to admit that as a low-key materialist I like nice things… I spend too much money on clothes, haircuts and lotions and fork out for exotic single harvest olive oils. Whatever floats your boat, right?
However, when I scrutinise my purchase history of knives and knife rolls, it appears I’ve bucked the material-girl trend. I’ve been cooking professionally for almost 9 years and have only ever owned 2 knife rolls, one of which, I bought last year. For the other 8 years I used a dog-eared, cotton wrap that I bought for £8 from Nisbets in 2016 to house my precious knives. It’s gone up a little in price, but it’s still the most affordable knife wrap on the market, and it does a bang up job. I retired it last year, having done two trips around the world and gone through heaps of restaurants, it had earned it stripes. Time for a rest.
What is a knife roll? A knife roll or knife wallet, is how most chefs carry their knives when travelling to and from work. It’s usually a piece of durable cotton or leather with a few slots to slide your tools of choice into. You then wrap it up, tie it off and get your ass to work. There is a pretty broad spectrum of knife wraps, different materials, carry handles, how many slots, little pockets for your tweezers and sharpie markers. So many possibilites, so many options, so many opportunities to flex in the kitchen. I find myself completely disinterested.
Why not buy a big bad leather knife wrap? I think in the same way I don’t get turned on by huge damascus steel knives with funky shapes and handles, I see a knife roll as a purely functional item, and if it safely holds your knives and carries them from A to B pretty comfortably, then it’s good enough. You can go wild and spend hundreds, thousands on a bespoke leather wrap if you like, but I don’t think it’s worth it myself.
I now use a roll made by the lovely hugo at Allday Goods - it’s made from recycled wool and is rather beautiful. It holds just 4 knives which I find is enough for me these days.
My first and favourite knife roll is here.
My second knife roll is here, although I’m sad to say I’m not sure when they’ll be in stock again!
The Big knife
Every cook needs a big knife. This is the knife you’ll spend the most time with in the kitchen and one that should be able to handle 90% of tasks in the kitchen. You might call it a chef’s knife, but I like big knife better, it feels less formal. This knife should be able to smash through pretty much any job you put in front of it. All hail the big knife.
How do we define big here? Well, it depends on the size of your hands *pause* and how long you want your blade to be. A chef’s knife usually ranges between 6-12 inches. I opt for a 270mm knife, principally because it has a large handle (which I favour) and the blade is long enough to cut through larger, more stubborn items with ease (pumpkins/large loaves of bread/big lumps of cheese).
My Misono UX-10 was the first serious knife I ever bought, it’s an absolute workhorse, gliding through vegetables and proteins while still being capable of pulling off the finest chiffonade or a laser-precise shallot brunoise. It holds a mean edge for weeks, is light it’s my favourite knife of all time and probably will be forever. It’s not a cheap knife by any measure, but 21 year old Ben thought “I reckon this might stay with me for the rest of my life…” and in the period of my life where questionable decisions were a forte, this was one of my better ones.
At £248 for the 270mm model, it’s an investment. Having said that, I’d put money on the fact that like me, once you pick one up you’ll never want to buy another knife again.
You can scoop up one of these here.
The Little knife
If you find a knife you love, chances are they make a mini version. This is the hot-wash shrunken version of my big knife. You’ll use this for more finicky, precise tasks and it should be nimble and light. This is my favourite knife for mincing garlic, preparing herbs and some butchery. Essentially, you want a knife that you can wield with ease, one that can cut around corners. It’s also got a good bit of flex to it which makes it great for filleting smaller fish and breaking down poultry.
A key thing to look when picking a small knife is finding one that you can use away from the board. You should be able to hold a veggie in one hand, your knife in the other, and use it in the air. You might find yourself preparing artichokes, or peeling shallots or onions like a real chef before you know it.
This one is technically a ‘petty’ knife with a length of 150mm, but it works well for me. This is on the larger side but again, I favour a longer blade and handle. Smaller knives are known as “paring knives” and I’ll cover those in a future equipment run down, as there are a couple of different styles worth considering, but for me, a petty knife is really versatile tool that will work really hard for you. They can pull of tasks a paring knife can’t, whilst still being agile enough to pick up the paring knife’s job.
Again, this one is a very high quality knife that stays sharp forever and worth every penny of the £160+ it costs.
The Special Knife
There are some knives you’ll use less than others, but when you do whip them out, boy are you glad you’ve got ‘em. They’re special knives for very specific jobs. They are also not super essential, but a nice thing to have if you’re looking to master a specific skill.
My favourite of my special knives is this Ajikiri or mini Deba. It’s the smaller version of the famous japanese knife the Deba, designed for fish butchery. It’s a single bevel blade, meaning that is is sharpened on only one side of the blade, with one being perfectly flat, meaning that you can get a super shallow angle on your fish cuts, leaving next to no flesh on the bone. It takes some getting used to, but once you’ve mastered using them, single bevel knives are fantastic.
I was made this knife again by the lovely Hugo at Allday Goods. He was experimenting with new blade styles and I was cooking at a fish restaurant. It was fate! I was processing an awful lot of fish at the time. Filleting, trimming, portioning, cleaning is all made easier with a knife that is specifically designed for the job.
This little fella is not available to buy, but serves as a good example of a specific knife for a specific job. I do really like it, it’s helped me out over the years.
The Grater/Rasp
Oh boy, are these useful. One of my top 5 kitchen tools of all time, just a fantastic bit of kit. For the uninitiated (I’ll be amazed/impressed if you read this newsletter and have never seen one of these) a microplane is a very fine, very sharp grater. They can do things a box grater could never. You can mince garlic, ginger, horseradish in seconds, transform cheese into a fluffy cloud and whip the fragrant zest off of any citrus with ease. There’s not much else to say about microplanes, they’re truly essential.
They do become blunt over time and are nigh on impossible to sharpen. I’ve had mine for 4 years and it’s still going strong, so they do have a pretty long life.
The Scissors
A vital piece of equipment for the home cook is a very solid pair of kitchen scissors or shears. I use this principally for fish and chicken butchery, but find they come in handy for so many different jobs. You want them to be properly sturdy, snipping through anything with relative ease. They’re very good at cutting up pizza, too.
The key thing to look for is that you can separate the blades so you can clean them properly and can sharpen them! Yes, that’s right, sharpen scissors, it can (and should) be done.
This is my pair, right here.
The Honing Steel/Rod
A must have for any cook wanting to look after their knives
A common misconception is that these tools sharpen your knife. Whilst they might improve the edge ever so slightly, they really just straighten the edge on your knife.
When you use a brand new knife, it’ll have a perfectly straight or ‘true’ edge. That means that the two bevels are perfectly even. When you use the knife, you smash the edge into the cutting board repeatedly, and the edge rolls over onto one side, bending the sharp edge out of whack, forming what’s called a bur. The goal with a honing road is to straighten that edge out, bringing it back to ‘true’. I hope that makes sense, it’s quite hard to explain! There’s a handy diagram below, check it out.
Stay Sharp
Knife maintenance is everything. I’d use a £1.50 knife that was razor sharp over a £1500 blade that’s dead dull any day of the week. When your cooking professionally, you spend all day using your tools. If they’re not working properly (i.e. not cutting stuff effectively) you will spend hours wrestling with ingredients, increase the likelihood of injury and inevitably waste food. Imagine cutting stuff for 12-14 hours, with a dull knife - hell! A sharp blade is peaceful, predictable and oh so satisfying to use. If your knife isn’t sharp you’re more likely to mis-cut a piece of fish or a veggie, leaving food behind.
How do you keep your knives sharp? Invest in a whetstone or find someone who can sharpen your knives with one on your behalf. Whetstones are pieces of stone used to grind away material on your knife, resetting the edge. They come in different ‘grit’ levels, similar to sandpaper. The lower the grit, the coarser the stone, and the more material it with remove. You start low, and slowly make your way up the grit levels until you hit a 3000 or 5000 grit stone. This level polishes the edge and leaves you with a razor sharp knife.
There’s a great guide to whetstone sharpening here.
Do not, and I repeat, do not give your lovely expensive new knives to the fella who drives around with an angle grinder in the back of his van. They’ll remove far too much material, chew up your knives and ruin the edge.
Choices
How do you choose which knife is right for you? It’s simple, go to Olivander’s and have an old crinkly wizard tell you what’s up. No, obviously don’t do that.
Head into any decent knife shops and ask to try the knives! A good spot will have a cutting board and a bag of tomatoes or onions ready for the customers to slice up. Don’t rush into any decisions, take your time and make sure you’re super happy.
Only God Was Above Us by Vampire Weekend
Deja Vu? Yeh, I’m recommending another Vampire weekend record…
Have you listened yet? It’s superb. An ambitious, rich, exciting sonic journey back through Vampire Weekend’s catalogue, their early frenetic afro-ska energy shines on Gen-X Cops and my personal fav, Mary Boone has the harmonic splendour of Ya Hey. Vampire Weekend have written some ripper music, and some of their best work is found on this album. Koenig’s lyricism is a sharp as ever, and on this outing he looks inward, he’s about to hit middle age and you can feel it in the words.
I watched a great interview with Ezra and Zane Lowe, you can check it out here.
Album Highlights: Classical, Connect, Mary Boone
A Mortadella Sandwich for Sarnie Party
If you’ve ever been to Nashville, you’ve probably been to Robert’s Western World.
In 2016 I was driving around the USA with a handful of mates, we were 21 and full to the brim with ambition, coors light and bad decisions. We rolled into Nashville, ready to dive head first into country music and PBRs. At RWW, they have country music on the stage pretty much 24/7 and sling out hundreds of fried bologna sandwiches a day. Each come with a packet of lays and a beer and they cost you about $5.
This sandwich is inspired by the fried bologna number at Robert’s, it’s grilled mortadella, american cheese, dijon mustard, hot honey (my own!), shoe string fries, shredded lettuce and pickles, all stuffed into fresh, pillowy focaccia bread.
I’ll be making this very sarnie at Sarnie Party on Sunday the 19th of May. Come down, hang out and have a sandwich and a beer with me!
You can grab tickets here.
That’s all for this week everyone!
Thanks for reading,
B x
Brilliant post, and answered a lot of questions that I had on this subject but never knew how to get the right info. In terms of sharpening steels, what’s preferable for you? Flat diamond or rounded steel?
Thanks for this post Ben - super timely as I’m about to start my first “proper” cheffing job AND I’m going on a knife making course next week! 🙏