Posted by Olly on 10th Feb 2022
Which Japanese-style kitchen knives are best for the serious UK kitchen?
British kitchens can be neatly divided into those who already use a Japanese-style kitchen knife every day, and those who don’t know what they’re missing!
Japanese culture takes their food preparation extremely seriously, with the correct knife being needed for each separate food being prepared, from the deba kitchen knife through to the yanagiba sashimi knife . In professional kitchens, it’s not unusual for Japanese chefs to maintain their knives for many years, honing them and caring for them every day, and giving them a dignified burial in a knife-cemetery if the knife ever fails.
In the time-pressured British kitchen, it’s rare to have the luxury of space or time to select a different knife for every step of food preparation, so here’s our suggestion of the three key Japanese knife styles that each British kitchen should keep:
Santoku
The favourite, general purpose knife. The name of this knife, translated from the Japanese means “three virtues”, and translated into your kitchen means that the Santoku is ideal for cutting meat, fish or vegetables. The characteristic dimples on the blade prevent food from sticking, allowing you to blitz through those onions, and chop with speed and accuracy. Our pick of the bunch of Santoku knives is this Due Cigni model. This Italian knife is crafted from German stainless steel, in a Japanese style - a truly international foundation to your kitchen.
Nakiri
The Nakiri is the fundamental vegetable knife, ideally suited for vegetable preparation. The flat-grind blade usefully pushes the slices away from whatever you’re cutting, keeping your chopping area tidy, and removes the need for any to-and-fro of the knife, which in turn reduces strain on your wrist. Coupled with the nifty cylindrical handle, this knife is the best friend of the hard-pressed commis chef, with a mountain of mushrooms to process. We’ve chosen this Samura Blacksmith Nakiri - the smooth blade is wonderfully offset by the worked “lunar” surface of the top of the blade, a really elegant feature.
Bunka Bocho
A favourite in every Japanese home, the cultural knife is a pointed general purpose knife which comes into its own whenever you need to carry out fine preparation work. The version of the Bunka Bocho that we’ve selected here is from Spyderco’s premium Itame series of laminated steel knives. The softer carbon steel centre of the knife is razor sharp, and super thin, and is protected from damage by being sandwiched between two layers of harder Japanese Super Blue steel. This knife has incredible cutting performance to last through your career.
