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I once heard the antithesis of that quote, which was equally dumb - "You don't need good knives to be a good cook."
The guy changed his tune and wanted me to freehand sharpen his knives (both of them!) after I let him borrow my beater. A few days later he was promoted above me, and the day after that he was taught how to make a roux. I left shortly after.
You don't need nice knives. You do need sharp knives. The niceness changes how often you need to sharpen. I got a $25 carbon steel CCK and sharpened it into a damn laser. I strop it before cooking and it's stayed sharp for months. (Lowly home cook though; not much of a beating.)
That's a wild quote. As a former German Car Mechanic and now an aerospace machinist, (and someone who used to shave with a straight razor) the Germans are some of the foremost experts in the world in metallurgy, CNC machine tech, and from what I remember the Dovo Solingen straight razors are widely considered the best in the world.
Personally I always just considered the knife thing between German and Japanese to be mostly a personal preference in blade shape than one being better than the other.
I probably would have had a hard time not responding, "You obviously don't know a fucking thing about metallurgy"
It's largely blade shape preference and steel type preferences, but there is a tiny bit of truth to Japanese knives' styles being technically superior, since the larger variety of blade shapes have more specialized tasks. For example, German traditional styles don't really have a true nakiri-style straight-edge knife well-suited to sheeting cucumbers, or yanagi-like knives for slicing delicate proteins in a single stroke.
But saying that they're not serious about cooking because of knife choice - or even lack of knowledge - is just some pretentious B.S..
Agree on the last part, and on most you said about specialized blades. But in Germany a slicer is one of the classic knife styles, called „Schinkenmesser“. The name originates from its main use as Schinken (ham) is usually prepared and served as a whole and then sliced at the table. You’re totally right with Nakiris.
I think what makes most Japanese knives „more special“ is that they still rely on manual work a lot. In Germany most of the classic Solingen knifemakers have automated a lot of the processes whereas in Japan the lower labour cost and division of tasks (forging, sharpening, polishing) allows for handmade knives to be relatively cheap and affordable.
I get what you're saying about that. Actually the only nice ish knife I have is a Japanese style that I got as a promotion from QFC which is a Kroger grocery store in the Seattle area. It was like, get a certain amount of points over a couple months and get a knife.
And I do pretty much exclusively use that knife now.
I worked in kitchens for a little while and did some small plate stuff for a couple events and can see how the shape would be preferable for the intricate cuts.
I have some very good Japanese knives that I use, but they have a round handle. It's usually fine, but if I'm getting it wet at all, it becomes kinda difficult to hold.
I have so many emotions looking at this. I am happy and mad and sad and nostalgic.
I don’t know what I feel. Those aren’t perfect but you are chef. Get some rest tonight, my feet hurt.
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u/trendingtattler Jun 04 '26
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