Let's talk knives. These are the most important weapons in a cook's arsenal. In my opinion, every cook, professional or home chef, needs five basic knives:
Chef knife
Filet/boning knife
Slicer
Serrated/bread knife
Paring knife
With these five, you can pretty much take care of any recipe or technique that comes your way.
Chef Knife
The first, and most important, is the Chef knife. This is the primary knife you will use most of the time. It could be argued that, in a pinch, you could use this knife for everything. The two most popular styles of chef knives would be the traditional shape and the Japanese Santoku. I go back and forth between these two styles. Currently, I'm favoring my Santoku. The traditional or western style chef knives have blades that are generally between 8 to 12 inches long. The handle will be another 4-6 inches. The traditional has a more pointed tip and rounded edge while the Japanese santoku is more of a drop point tip and a flatter edge. No matter which style you prefer, this is the knife that's going to get the most use. From chopping hard root vegetables to gently slicing tender fish, this blade can do it all. I'm not going to dive into different types of steel, but I will say this is the knife you should spend the most money on and make sure you get a quality product. Stay away from those knives you see on TV that can cut through a can and then a tomato. In my 30 years of cooking, that scenario has never presented itself. Those knives are usually made of a very hard steel. And while they are extremely sharp when you first buy them, once they lose their edge, you will be doing a whole lot of grinding to get that nice sharp edge back.
Filet/Boning Knife
The knife I consider the second most important is the filet/boning knife. This is a much thinner blade, but needs to be just as sharp. Need to take down a chicken? Filet a side of salmon? This is the knife you want. High speed, low drag as the military would say. With the fine tip on this knife you can work your way around joints and bones. Its not as sturdy, so you're not going to want to go hacking at things. But if you have to make small, precise cuts, this is the knife you want to grab.
Slicer
The slicer is another important knife in the block. While this one probably doesn't get as much use as the other knives, its long and sharp edge are what you need for, well, slicing! Whether its the Thanksgiving turkey or a nice fish filet, you want to be able to make nice, long cuts with the minimum amount of sawing. I would say 12 inches is the minimum size you want for a slicer. Mine is a 14" model.
Serrated Slicer
The kitchen cousin to the long slicer is the serrated slicer. This knife probably gets the least use of all my knives, but still has its niche. Although its probably the most specialized, it is a necessity in my opinion. Generally used for slicing bread, try cutting through a crusty loaf of sourdough with a smooth edge and you'll know the meaning of kitchen frustration. The serrated slicer is also good for hard cheeses.
Paring Knife
The last knife every chef should have a is a good paring knife. The tournée, the bane of every budding chef's culinary school career, would be impossible without a paring knife. These knives also come in handy for peeling vegetables. Yes, there was a time before the vegetable peeler. They are also used to do decorative work like those cute tomato roses you see on buffet tables. With a blade about 3-4 inches long and a handle that's about equal to the size of the blade, this is the smallest knife in your drawer. Speaking of drawers, if you absolutely have to keep your knives in a drawer, invest a couple bucks in blade guards. They will save you hours of sharpening time.
Speaking of sharpening, now that you have some nice steel in your collection, you need to keep it sharp. Sharp knives allow you to make more precise cuts, make cutting easier and in the event that you cut yourself, which undoubtedly you will at some point, the cuts will heel much faster and leave less of a scar. The first thing you'll need is a sharpening steel. This is generally a long, slender, round tool. Despite the name, it does not actually sharpen the knife. It hones or trues the edge. After use, the edge of a knife will go from a nice, sharp, angular point to something that looks like the top of a teardrop. The steel will straighten this back out. However, after a while, the edge will begin to dull and become rounded. When this happens, you'll need a whetstone or other grinding device. A whetstone should be soaked in mineral oil or water. I prefer mineral oil as I think it makes the blade glide more smoothly over the stone. You need to use mineral oil versus an organic oil like vegetable oil, so it it won't become nasty and rancid when stored. 10-20 glides over a whetstone every six months or so, depending on how hard and often you use the knife, and you'll have a nice sharp blade. About every one to two years, I'll take my knives to a professional to have them sharpen them, generally on a belt sander, and get them back to almost new condition. I do this more out of convenience than necessity. And never EVER put your knives in the dishwasher! They will bounce around and vibrate, prematurely dulling the edge.
Honorable Mention: The Meat Cleaver
If I was going to add one more knife to collection, it would be the meat cleaver. These are large, wide and thick blades used to hack through bones. If you take down a lot of larger pieces of meat and poultry, they are invaluable. Incidentally, while the largest blade in your arsenal, this is the one I have spent the least money on. My cleaver gets the most use on chicken carcasses. I'll start cutting the chicken's legs and thighs and then wings off the body with a filet knife. Then I will use the cleaver to separate the breasts from the carcass, split them in two, separate the thighs from the legs and hack the tips off the wings. It also comes in handy when chopping up some beef tenderloin into steak tartare.
Just a few words on steel and country of manufacturer... while the good old USA does make some fine blades, the most popular companies come from Germany: Messermeister, Henckel's and Wüsthof. The second most popular country, who has a long and proud tradition of blades would be Japan. While I own blades from Japan and the USA, most of my knives hail from Germany, where quite a large portion of my ancestors come from. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. These manufacturers make blades at all levels that will satisfy everyone from the most casual home cook to a celebrity chef. While you may find an entry-level selection at places like Target, Macy's and Amazon are great places to hunt for good deals on higher end blades.
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