I’ve got a pile of coupons for Bed, Bath, and Beyond, so I’m going to make a trip to replace my chef’s knife. Any recommendations?
If they carry the Wusthof Grand Prix II line, their 10" chef’s knife is excellent. Henckel knives have a good/decent blade, but in my experience are poorly balanced as their handles tend to be on the heavy side.
I have a Shun elite 10" chef’s knife, which is very expensive but is easily the best chef’s knife I have ever handled. Most of my coworkers agree, and a couple of our Sushi guys who have thousands of dollars invested in knives think my “cheap” one is great. In general, I believe Wusthof to be a far superior brand to Henckel’s, and I have owned/used a lot of knives.
Also, BB&B is a pretty expensive store, and everyone has a 20% off coupon lying around somewhere. Even with the coupon, you’ll be spending a lot more money than you would online.
Hehe I’m sitting here right now sharpening my chefs knife.
I like my Heckle four star. The balance seems great for my hand. Yeah the handle looks like cheep plastic, because well it is, how expensive can you make plastic. But I’ve never cared about the knife as a decor, it’s just a tool, and it’s a good tool.
Here is what’s available.
Never shopped there, so (to me) seeing those full bore retail prices is kind of amusing. Do they really get those prices in the stores? Most of the time even top end knives are sold at huge discounts off retail pricing. Amazon is a good pricing reference. If you have (say) 100 worth of coupons you might be better off using them on something BB&B is more competitive on vs buying a 100 knife from BB&B which can be had for half of that elsewhere.
Try a santoku instead. I have both a 7" and a 5" from Henkels that get used 10 times as much as any other knife.
I’d recommend going to the store and actually picking up different knives. We all have differently shaped and sized hands, so one person’s dream chopper might fumbly nightmare for you.
So amazon price is a good index?
From the site, BB&B doesn’t have the 10" Wusthof Grand Prix II, but they have the 8", and at the same price as Amazon (even including Amazon’s discount). Not that I’m recommending it, never used it, just pointing out the pricing.
ETA: The Shun Elite 10" is the same price as Amazon, too.
I love my Wusthof classic chef’s knife–do check your coupons–I think they exclude premium brands such as Wustof & Henckell’s (at least the BB&B coupons I get!).
One thing I forgot to mention is that you should consider a Chinese chef’s knife. We use this one at the restaurant where I work, and it’s got a very sharp blade for such a cheap knife. It’s also much more difficult to cut yourself using this knife, as the large blade is always in contact with your knuckles (which serve as a guide.)
Someone mentioned upthread trying a santoku. They work well if you’re not comfortable with a large knife or have small hands, but I don’t think they have any real advantage over a good chef’s knife. But, different strokes.
Moving from IMHO to Cafe Society.
Yeah I looked and the coupon doesn’t apply to Wusthof. But if Runcible’s right and the price iscomoetitive with Amazon it might be worth it. My wife wants a Japanese style one but we’ve been using an 8-inch chef’s knife for years.