10 Best Chef's Knives (2025), Tested and Reviewed

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Not each knives are created equal, and a chef's weapon is fixed that sanction for a reason. Like the proverbial canine to man, a cook needs their knife. Arguably the astir important multipurpose instrumentality you tin find successful a kitchen, it's the chef's main weapon—it tin slice, dice, and chop ingredients with velocity and precision. A chef's weapon mostly has a supersharp extremity constituent and a curved, sloping edge. This curve is what makes the cook weapon basal out, arsenic it's designed to enactment with the earthy rocking question for speedy chopping that besides allows finer cuts.

With exertion similar ovens with cameras wrong and AI-enabled refrigerators, the chef's weapon remains the elemental instrumentality indispensable for immoderate kitchen. However, not each chef's weapon is created equal—the champion chef's weapon varies by what's champion for the idiosyncratic person, including factors similar comfortableness level portion wielding room tools, the size of your hands (it adjacent varies if you're a lefty oregon righty), and what benignant of nutrient you're cooking.

The basal 6- to 8-inch cook weapon works champion for astir people, particularly for beginners. It's the astir versatile knife, capable to portion meat, dice dense veggies, and smash and mince garlic. Chef's knives tin scope from the terms of a specialty latte to hundreds of dollars. We've sliced and diced for successful our kitchens for hours to find a scope of chef's knives that volition enactment champion for astir each benignant of cook, and we've recovered that the Hedley & Bennett Chef's Knife is champion for astir people, with the Global 8-Inch Classic Chef’s Knife being our runner up.

Be definite to cheque retired our different room guides, including the Best Meal Kit Services, Best Carbon Steel Pans, Best Cast Iron Pans, Kitchen Gear Essentials, and Best Gifts for the Home Chef.

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Let's get this retired of the way: The champion weapon is 1 that's sharp. After duking it retired successful the room for hours connected end, I've recovered that what makes a weapon genuinely large is simply a earnestly crisp edge. A dull weapon is dangerous—you'll request to use much unit arsenic you're cutting, which means that erstwhile your weapon slips, you chopped yourself much deeply. Plus, a dull weapon isn't arsenic precise oregon speedy with cuts.

Especially with a pricier knife, you'll privation to marque that concern past arsenic agelong arsenic possible. That means regular sharpening to support it successful tip-top slicing shape. Unfortunately, determination isn't One Sharpener to Rule Them All. Different leaf materials and shapes necessitate antithetic sharpening techniques. For example, galore stainless alloy blades are excessively hard to efficaciously beryllium sharpened by accepted h2o stones. Former cook and existent WIRED reviewer Scott Gilbertson recommends h2o stones for c alloy and loves these Shapton stones.

The bulk of chef's knives tin beryllium (relatively) easy sharpened erstwhile needed, which is typically done with a whetstone astatine astir a 15 to 20 grade angle, followed by honing rod oregon leather for the smoothing knife's edge. I've ever utilized fashionable (and easy-to-use) pull-through sharpeners, which are much precise than alloy and sharpen quicker than whetstones. But they are mostly not recommended, particularly for Serious Chefs™, due to the fact that they shed rather a spot of metallic successful the process, weakening the durability implicit time.

Most location chefs volition lone request to sharpen their knives astir doubly a twelvemonth and usage a honing alloy to support the blades successful signifier astatine different times. Although a fewer years old, we support going backmost to this nonfiction from Epicurious connected however to sharpen a weapon the close mode successful bid to support your knives successful the champion signifier for arsenic agelong arsenic you can.

Should You Buy a Knife Set?

In a word: no. Despite what the door-to-door salesman oregon your MLM-loving relative says, weapon sets are usually not a bully investment. You conscionable request a fewer bully knives. An 8-inch chefs weapon volition enactment champion for astir tasks successful the kitchen. I person a smaller hand, truthful I besides similar a tiny paring weapon for immoderate tasks, and a serrated weapon for bread, successful summation to the cook knife. Knife sets often outgo treble oregon triple arsenic overmuch arsenic buying conscionable 1 bully cook knife. Not to mention, the woody retention blocks besides instrumentality up utile antagonistic space, particularly if you unrecorded successful a tiny New York flat similar me. We urge you prevention your wealth by skipping a acceptable and investing successful a coagulated chefs weapon instead. (Plus, 1 oregon 2 others if you privation a spot of variety.)

What Makes a Knife a Chef's Knife?

As said earlier, it's multipurpose instrumentality utilized used to chopped meat, dice vegetables, chop nuts oregon smash garlic. A cook weapon mostly is made of galore layers of forged alloy and has a crisp extremity constituent and a salient borderline with a sloping curve, which helps with the accelerated rocking question that allows chefs to chopped nutrient quickly.

A chef's weapon is among the astir versatile knives successful the room and tin beryllium utilized for thing from chopping to cutting. Common uses for a chef’s weapon see cutting meat, dicing vegetables, slicing herbs, and chopping nuts. The level broadside of the weapon tin adjacent beryllium utilized to crush garlic. The versatility of this multipurpose weapon makes it a must-have successful immoderate kitchen. It's important to debar immoderate hard surfaces that would render the leaf dull. In addition, learning however to clasp a weapon is an important archetypal measurement to guarantee the champion results erstwhile utilizing it.

I tested the lone mode I knew how: fumbling, cutting, slicing, and dicing successful the kitchen, with a weapon of the week, a cutting committee (I utilized some woody and integrative boards), and a assortment of foods. I utilized each of these knives for a week portion I made each of my meals, utilizing them to bash large tasks similar chopped done heavy basal vegetables, thinly portion cucumbers, astir chop herbs, mash garlic, and adjacent unfastened integrative packaging. It's besides important to cognize however to bash a fewer indispensable weapon skills successful the room to marque champion usage of your knives.

I'm vegan, truthful I had immoderate of my carnivorous friends and colleagues usage these knives to besides carve beef and chopped up a full chicken, to marque definite the blades could withstand each types of textures. As stated earlier, the champion weapon is simply a crisp one, and each of these came retired of the bundle deadly sharp. I chopped myself much than erstwhile successful the process, each for the greater bully to find which cook weapon belongs successful your kitchen. (But a acquisition was learned: Be extra cautious erstwhile utilizing a new, ace crisp chef's weapon for the archetypal time.)