Latest features Jay Patel: The sharpest knife in the drawer

Date Published:

31/03/2009

Jay Patel of the Japanese Knife Company gives us the lowdown on how to buy blade

Times are tough – can we do without an expensive knife?

If you can go out and spend £20 to eat an indifferent curry or £30 on a couple of take-away pizzas, then you’ve got enough money to buy a good knife. You don’t have to buy at the top of the scale – it can cost as little as £16 for a good chef’s knife. Even in the hardest times, if cooking is an important part of your life, that’s not much. What people need to spend on a good knife is £70-£80. At that point, you get to the apex of price and performance. After that, you’re paying more and more money to get a lesser increase in performance. What you’re paying for is that final improvement and the feel. It’s like buying a jacket – you can go out and buy a great jacket for £80 from the same factory that turns out much more expensive jackets, but one just seems to feel better – that’s something that’s indefinable. It’s passion and it’s the same with any tool.

If you had one tip to give buyers, what would it be?

Don’t go out and buy a set of knives. You do not use a set of knives – you may use a number of blades, but you don’t use them the same amount. Your main chef’s knife, which you use 70-80 per cent of the time, your favourite one, is the one you should spend 70-80 per cent of your money on. Identify a good blade, and that’s all you buy. Use it for two or three months, and then you will know what its shortfalls are – it's too long, too short or whatever. Then go out and buy something to do that job, for £10 or £20.

What are the key things to bear in mind when buying knives?

- Only ever buy from a place that lets you try the blades – out of the packaging, on a board, with some food. You wouldn’t buy a pair of shoes without trying them on, so why would you buy a knife without seeing what it was like? You need to try it in your hand.

- Get three blades, different weights, different lengths, different shapes, and try them in the hand and go for the one that feels the best.

- Buy from someone who can show you exactly how to sharpen your blade – not just tell you or show you, but lets you do it, hands on. Unless you can get that service, don’t buy anything. Or buy cheap until you can get that service.

- Also, don't look for brands – you're not paying for the name on the side of the blade, you’re paying for the edge. You want to look for something where the money has been spent on the making of the knife, not the branding of the knife.

Find out what Gordon can do with his knives by trying his recipes