Cooks tend to be geeks about their equipment (viz: eGullet, Serious Eats, or Chocolate & Zucchini). I always love it when I'm allowed to check out other people's knife kits, seeing what gets them through their workday. A guy with whom I went to cooking school carried a decently-sized toolbox with seemingly dozens of knives. Contrast him with the sous chef at a restaurant I staged at who carried one chef's knife in a rolled-up apron.
So, I'm always curious -- what's in your knife kit? Or, if you don't cook for a living, what are your essential tools in your kitchen?
My knife roll is a Koobi Kit which has served me well for 26 months of near continual usage. My current kit consists of the following:
- 8" Global G-2 chef's knife (for finer work, though I use it almost exclusively)
- 8" Wusthof Grand Prix II chef's knife (granton-edged, used for heavier work)
- 5 1/2" Global G-5 vegetable knife
- 3 1/2" paring knife
- bird's beak knife
- 12" slicer
- 12" serrated slicer
- channel knife
- 12" tongs
- Microplane
- swiss vegetable peeler
- digital thermometer
- candy thermometer
- needlenose pliers (great for pin bones in salmon)
- small narrow spatula (comes in handy for plating)
- 10" Best whisk
- Best roux whisk
- 2 saucing spoons (repurposed baby spoons)
- small container of bandaids and finger cots
- sharpies
