Best chefs knife for £100

[Boobonman]

After becoming tired of sawing away at a tomato with one of my many tired old kitchen knives, I have decided to treat myself. Happy to spend around a hundred, maybe more, maybe less. Any suggestions?

[soad]

Probably something Japanese?

[zygalski]

I'd just get a really good 7" santoku knife.
A real workhorse that you can use for virtually everything.

[triggerhappy21]

I'd recommend MAC knives. Japanese brand, sold as the sharpest knives available. I have 3 of them, and they sharpen up beautifully, hold the edge great, and are so comfortable to use. They seem very popular with professionals too.

As above, a 7" santoku is the best all rounder.

If you don't have already, you will have to budget a decent sharpener/honing rod, preferably ceramic or similar. If you go Japanese it will most likely have a 15° blade, so make sure whatever sharpener caters for that.

[jockinthebox]

Worth looking at “io-Shen” pretty popular amongst chefs I work with.

Personally I’d say get 2 or 3 knives if only for home use, victorinox wooded handles are fine for home use, 7” cooks knife, pastry knife, tomato knife, and possibly a sharpening steel
Should be able to pick that lot up for around £100

[TartanPaint]

Look no further than the Zwilling Pro 8" (20cm). If you catch a deal you'll have enough change for the 4" paring knife too.

[21TonyK]

What sort of food do you cook most and does it have to look pretty or purely functional and robust?

So many options and easy to get something that doesn't suit but as mentioned consider some of that budget on a means of keeping it sharp as well.

[hashtag]

It will be a waste of money if you do not have a proper sharpener.

Buy a load of Victrinox serrated knives. They are about £5.00 each. Great for most things in the kitchen except carving roasts.

They make great steak knives too.

[uncinqsix]

If I were looking for the best knife in that price range, I would probably go for a Misono Swedish Steel Gyuto (240mm or 210mm), but I would also be seriously tempted by one of these.

However, what's best for me might not be what's best for you. The Misono is full carbon steel and the JCK one has carbon steel to about the first cm back from the edge, so both will rust if left wet for any period of time and will discolour (as a patina forms) even when properly cared for. Here's what my Misono carbon boning knife looks like:



If you want the thing to stay nice a shiny and if there is a possibility that it will be left wet, then you need a stainless knife. These look really good for the money, and these are also good (a safe choice and easy to look after)

What do you have to sharpen with?

[uncinqsix]

hashtag said:

Buy a load of Victrinox serrated knives. They are about £5.00 each. Great for most things in the kitchen except carving roasts.

Despite having 7 lethally sharp Japanese knives in various shapes and sizes, we also have a whole stack of those. Brilliant things.

[6th Gear]

I use one of these.

https://www.crateandbarrel.com/wusthof-classic-iko...

Brilliant all round knife, Mr. Ramsay is a fan.

[hashtag]

uncinqsix said:

Despite having 7 lethally sharp Japanese knives in various shapes and sizes, we also have a whole stack of those. Brilliant things.

Yes me too. 95% of the time I use them or a carbon Opinel paring knife, that is in my bad books at it attacked me on Saturday evening

[cbmotorsport]

OK. Unpopular answer, but proven in the field, there's a reason why I own these, and they're in 95% of every pro kitchen I work in.

Victorinox, would be my choice. You will get every knife you'll ever need for £100.

I'd recommend a Chefs Knife, a Tomato Knife (it does a lot more than tomatoes), a Paring Knife, and a Pastry Knife (Seriously versatile, will carve meat, cut bread, cakes, pastry etc etc)

Chefs: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Victorinox-Chefs-Knife-Ex...

Tomato: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Victorinox-180300-0-Tomat...

Paring: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Victorinox-Paring-Knife-B...

Pastry: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Victorinox-5-2933-26-Past...

You could add a boning knife too, if you're likely to do any butchery.

Total Cost: £77.04.

Leave the Japanese stuff to the endorsed TV Chefs..imho. Fantastic knives, but hard to sharpen well, a bit fussy on treatment, and expensive to replace.

[Vaud]

6th Gear said:

I use one of these.

https://www.crateandbarrel.com/wusthof-classic-iko...

Brilliant all round knife, Mr. Ramsay is a fan.

I'd go wusthof as well, together with a wusthof sharpener (sharpens to the right angle) - and learn how to use a steel to keep the edge on.

[uncinqsix]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Most western knives (and most western-type Japanese knives) have the edge sharpened with the same sized bevel on both sides (i.e. how you'd naturally think to do it), so are ambidextrous. Some traditional Japanese knives have are single bevelled, with a bevel on one side and a flat surface on the other (like a chisel), so are completely asymmetric. Between these two extremes are otherwise symmetrical knives with more bevel ground on one side than the other e.g. 80% on one side, 20% on the other (or 70/30 or 60/40). I'm not entirely sure why they do this, but presumably there is some reason for it. A standard 50/50 bevel works equally well for left and right handed folk.

[Cotty]

cbmotorsport said:

OK. Unpopular answer, but proven in the field, there's a reason why I own these, and they're in 95% of every pro kitchen I work in.

Victorinox, would be my choice. You will get every knife you'll ever need for £100.

I'd recommend a Chefs Knife, a Tomato Knife (it does a lot more than tomatoes), a Paring Knife, and a Pastry Knife (Seriously versatile, will carve meat, cut bread, cakes, pastry etc etc)

Chefs: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Victorinox-Chefs-Knife-Ex...

Tomato: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Victorinox-180300-0-Tomat...

Paring: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Victorinox-Paring-Knife-B...

Pastry: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Victorinox-5-2933-26-Past...

You could add a boning knife too, if you're likely to do any butchery.

Total Cost: £77.04.

Leave the Japanese stuff to the endorsed TV Chefs..imho. Fantastic knives, but hard to sharpen well, a bit fussy on treatment, and expensive to replace.

I agree and have no qualms about lobbing mine though the dishwasher.

[triggerhappy21]

Cotty said:

cbmotorsport said:

OK. Unpopular answer, but proven in the field, there's a reason why I own these, and they're in 95% of every pro kitchen I work in.

Victorinox, would be my choice. You will get every knife you'll ever need for £100.

I'd recommend a Chefs Knife, a Tomato Knife (it does a lot more than tomatoes), a Paring Knife, and a Pastry Knife (Seriously versatile, will carve meat, cut bread, cakes, pastry etc etc)

Chefs: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Victorinox-Chefs-Knife-Ex...

Tomato: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Victorinox-180300-0-Tomat...

Paring: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Victorinox-Paring-Knife-B...

Pastry: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Victorinox-5-2933-26-Past...

You could add a boning knife too, if you're likely to do any butchery.

Total Cost: £77.04.

Leave the Japanese stuff to the endorsed TV Chefs..imho. Fantastic knives, but hard to sharpen well, a bit fussy on treatment, and expensive to replace.

I agree and have no qualms about lobbing mine though the dishwasher.

+1.

In addition to my 3x MAC knives, my Victorinox 10" chefs knifes is essential. About £30 I think, and great when you need to hack through a bone or two.

[gregs656]

Victorinox for me too. Knives need to be sharpened though so it doesn’t really matter what you get if you don’t sharpen them.

I’d avoid carbon steel personally. Stick with simple fine grained stainless as you get the vast majority of the performance with none of the drawbacks.

[LeadFarmer]

I follow this guy on youtube, he's a butcher so I like to think he knows a thing or two about knives He recommends Victorinox knives..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wijM-XI9rn8

[uncinqsix]

LeadFarmer said:

I follow this guy on youtube, he's a butcher so I like to think he knows a thing or two about knives He recommends Victorinox knives..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wijM-XI9rn8

The needs of a butcher are quite different to those of a chef or home cook though.

There's nothing much wrong with Victorinox, and they are the best tool for the job in some cases (as I said, I have quite a few of the little serrated ones, and the big serrated pastry knife mentioned above is awesome). However, for a chef's knife there are options that are nicer to use and that will take a much better edge.