Do you have a favorite kitchen knife? Right before the holidays last year, I took all my Henckels knives to be sharpened at the Epicurean Edge, a local knife shop. To be honest, I’d never had my knives professionally sharpened before. But this same set of Henckels knives has lasted me the 22 years of my marriage, so since they’ve been such a great investment, I thought I should do the right thing and have them sharpened by the pros. I brought all of my knives, thinking the lovely people at Epicurean Edge would sharpen them for me while I waited. I was mistaken. The sharpening would take a few days. Hmm, what to do. I needed my knives – every day. So, I kept my one favorite knife, and handed the rest of them over to be sharpened. A week later, I picked up my individually wrapped, better than new, Henckels knives. Now, did I bring my favorite knife and have it sharpened? No, I didn’t. I was too consumed by holiday prep at that point. And the irony is, that is pretty much the only knife I use. That was the only one I couldn’t do without when all the others were in the shop.
Now, six months later, on the Today show, I learned that Anthony Bourdain– renowned chef, author of “Kitchen Confidential,” and host of several TV shows – says all those other knives I invested in, are really not needed. He says, all we need is one favorite knife. I think he might be right. The proof is sitting in my sink, my still unsharpened, but still my favorite ONE kitchen knife.
The next time you open up your knife drawer, consider, do you use all those knives? Which kitchen knife is your favorite? Consider decluttering and freeing some drawer space by letting go of some of the unused knives. If you have a bulky knife block on your counter, try a space saving drawer knife organizer which will keep our knives protected and out of sight.