Santa Claus is on his way... with my Christmas present.

It took me until last night to decide what I should get myself for Christmas, but I settled on getting something I've wanted for a long long time. I finally decided after my third Pina Colada, while I was cutting up some Seared Ahi Tuna, and the knife I was using sucked yet again.

I have always secretly wanted a great knife. Well, truth be told, I want 3 - 5 great knives, and I have finally started my "collection". I didn't know much about knives other than their exhorbitantly high prices, and I honestly still don't, but I do know more than I knew 6 months ago after spending hours and hours on the web reading knife reviews.

You see, you don't really know what you're missing out on, until you get one, and as I really enjoy watching many of the Cooking shows, especially the reality TV cooking contest shows, Hells Kitchen etc... I've always noticed how the chefs bring their personal knives. I had heard of Wusthof, and almost bought a few when in a store this summer, but held off. I started to read up on knives, and then came across 2 other brands that seemed to quickly outshine Wusthofs in the serious chef's world:

Henckels and Shun knives. I would slowly buy myself a collection of either one of those.

What do you mean, a collection?

Well, in the world of knives, there are a few different ones you 'need'. One chef giving advice writes:

"Do not waste money on a full set. Think quality over quantity. Besides, you only really need 3 to 4 knives as a foundation. I would choose a large chef's knife, a mid-size santoku, a paring knife and a slicing and/or bread knife. "

Here's the set i'm going to build:
- A Santoku knife, (Hollow) used for chopping, dicing and cutting, meats, chicken, veggies etc. A japanese style knife, very handy, kind of your everyday knife. This and the Chef can be interchanged. I'm still not exactly sure why you'd need them both, but I'll let you know when I own one of each. This one should be mid sized... so 5 - 8 inches or so.
- A Chefs knife, (maybe Hollow, maybe not) usually larger and used for bigger jobs, but also dicing and chopping. From what I understand, this knife should be around 10 inches.
- A Paring knife - smaller jobs, requires an easier to handle knife with a less thick blade. about 3 to 5 inches.
- A boning knife. For boning. Usually quite small.
- A bread knife. I have a bread knife i like, but apparently fromall the reading I've been doing, there is a huge difference in your bread cutting experience.

Then you can add steak knives etc.

There are accessories too...
A good sharpening tool. I can't quite figure out which one I should buy, so my goal is to speak with some chefs at some point and ask them what they use. There are way too many opinions, brands, types and options out there, and I can't quite figure it out.
A Magnet strip - How many of us have a knife block proudly displaying our "Chicago Cutlery" (or other brand) knives on the kitchen table? Well, turns out that it's a terrible thing to use for quality knives. It slowly beats up on the knife, but also, think about how much "stuff" flies into and now lives in those holes. (When I read that, I got disgusted, and never look at those blocks the same way). Instead, everyone mostly agrees that you should have a magnet strip on the wall, with your knives on it, or carefully taken care of in a drawer. (Once I have 2 or 3 knives, I'll get this)

So I kept reading about knives on the web, scouring sites, forums, opinions etc. One day, i found a review by a chef that would 'seal the deal' for me: This is the review.

Summary if you're too lazy and don't care to read it: The guy reviews his new set of Shun knives that are replacing his 20 year old Henckels. He was very happy with his purchase, but then, he updates his post, when he discovers his friend's new purchase after he gets invited over for a "cutlery show-down".

We even tried shaving hair off of our arms, and the Globals won this test with ease.

I loved my Shun Elites--they were sexy and beautiful. But the Globals were obviously designed by and for chefs--they are much easier and nicer to use, and as I said, they just effortlessly (read rip) through any food with no effort at all; I was very impressed--so much so that I returned my Shun Elites and exchanged them for...

So, it is without further ado that I present to you, my christmas present to myself:

Global 7 inch Santoku Asian Chef's Knife, Hollow




(Who uses GLOBAL Knives that you can see on TV: Anthony Bourdain, Giada de Laurentis, and the IRON CHEFS amongst others. Just look for the dotted handle.)