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The Knife Rack THE KNIFE RACK www.kitchenwarenews.com ■ JUNE 2014 ■ KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW 1 7 Online Source for Japanese Artisanal Cutlery BY LORRIE BAUMANN Ask around enough, and you'll find many, many accomplished chefs who are passionate about their knives. Hosea Rosenberg, Owner of Blackbelly Catering in Boulder, Colo. and the fifth-season winner of "Top Chef," says he grabs his eight-inch WÜSTHOF chef 's knife for most tasks around the kitchen, but he uses Shun to fillet fish. "The thing about knives is that it 's much more important that you have a sharp knife and a flat cutting board than a particular brand of knife," he says. "It 's like a car; you want to test-drive it first." Matt Greco, the Executive Chef at The Restaurant at Wente V ineyards in the Napa Valley of California, loves his Misono knives. "There are a lot of good knives out there, and they get beat up because you work with them every day. Misonos do a good job," he says. Should you happen to ask Chef Suvir Saran, the Executive Chef of Devi in New York City, about his favorite knife, this New Dehli-born chef with lifelong passion for the traditional flavors of Indian cooking who serves as Chairman of Asian Culinary Studies for the Culinary Institute of America will tell you that his absolute favorite is his Takeda Aogami Super Gyutou. It's an 8.3-inch chef 's knife made in Japan that sells for around $300. He also recommends the 8.2-inch Sakai Takayuki 33 layer Damascus Gyutou. "These are good beginner knives that will last a lifetime," he says. And then he might, with just a little prodding, tell you where he's buying these knives. It 's one of those best-kept secrets that New York chefs are passing around among themselves, he says. And then he spills it: he's buying them f rom Chubo Knives, f rom Owner Jeremy Watson, an American who has lived in Japan for many years and who's selling Takeda, Sakai Takayuki, Misono and other Japanese cutlery brands online at chuboknives.com. Prices are very reasonable, Saran says. Shipping is f ree on orders over $100. The chefs who know about Chubo Knives haven't done a very good job of keeping the secret, because Watson himself says that he's selling to any number of people who aren't professional chefs. "I don't know if there's a difference between knives for home cooks and knives for professional chefs. A quality knife is a quality knife. More than half go to professional chefs but a large number also go to home cooks," he says. "Many chefs in culinary school get a starter kit of European knives, but as they start working in the restaurant world, they tend to pick up an interest in Japanese knives that way," says Tara Hohenberger, Chubo Knives Marketing Director. "They want to be using the knives the chef de cuisine and executive chefs are using, so the learning curve happens that way." "European knives are great, but if you start with European and move to Japanese, you'll notice that Japanese are lighter," says Watson. For chefs who are using their knives for long hours at a time, lighter weight means less strain on hands and wrists. Coupled with that, the Japanese blades are thinner, so the users are able to get ver y precise cuts, and they 're typically made of much harder steel, so that less sharpening is needed. "The angle is steeper, which gives you a precise cut. For professional cooks that's what it 's all about is not damaging the product when you're cutting it," Watson says. While Watson founded Chubo Knives only two years ago, he's been selling kitchenware, and knives in particular, to restaurant chefs for much longer. "I've had a lifelong love affair with all things Japanese, and it came f rom that – things Japanese and things food-related," he says. "I started working in the hospitality industr y, in restaurant supply, for a company that dealt with a lot of Japanese products, and that 's how I became intensely interested in and passionate about knives." He currently has offices in New York, Florida and Tokyo. All of his retail sales happen online. "It's been a long process of selecting products. I spoke to a lot of chefs about what they were using and what worked for them and what didn't work," he says. " W hen I launched the company, I went to Japan and talked to bladesmiths and looked for products that weren't part of the American market." Naturally enough, his own favorite knife is Japanese. "I have a couple [of favorites], but if price isn't an object, I really love the Takeda knives. They're just beautiful, hand-forged, have an awesome balance, and they keep an incredible edge," he says. " The other one I like is the Sakai Takayuki. It's the 33-layer Damascus that's just a really beautiful knife, and they perform really nicely. A nice hand- hammered look and nice mahogany handles." BY LORRIE BAUMANN Opinel is an iconic brand name in France, where the very word has been adopted into the official lexicon of the French language as a recognized name for a penknife. These affordable examples of practical elegance have been recognized as Phaidon Design Classics and as a Museum of Modern Art design of the century. The company still offers the classic No. 8 Opinel Folding Knife that was first produced in 1890, exactly the same as it was made then except for the addition of a safety locking ring that was introduced in 1955, and although it's still cautious about straying too far away f rom the product designs upon which it has built its reputation, it 's also begun adding new products to its line that will meet the needs of outdoorsmen and craftsmen who use specialized tools, said Luc Simon, the company's Head of Sales & Marketing. Opinel's factory today is located about 60 kilometers f rom where the company got its start in the family workshop of Joseph Opinel, who created the company's original folding knife. "We've always stayed in Savoie, and we've been producing all of our products in Savoie since 1890," Simon said. The company still belongs to Maurice Opinel, the grandson of Joseph, and his son Denis is its Managing Director. The company employs about 100 people, 70 of them directly in production of about 20,000 knives per day, and the other 30 in the company's business functions. Along with its history of loyalty to its birthplace at the foot of the French Alps, Opinel has always stood for quality and affordability. Opinel has managed to accomplish those two goals simultaneously by incorporating automation into its manufacturing process much earlier than other small French workshops, which has enabled the company to avoid offshoring its production or importing elements f rom Asia, Simon said. "If we managed to do it in 1890, it was thanks to a lot of industrial investments," he said. "At the same time, there are still some handcrafted processes. It is a mix of very automated operations and manual processes." Final finishing and sharpening of every blade is still done by hand. Opinel: A Tradition of Quality Over the last decade, the company has added two more ideals to its raisons d'être: innovation and communication. Opinel still intends to make the same high quality products and is still dedicated to doing so at prices affordable for average working people, but is expanding its range to include knives for every moment of life, Simon said. O ver the past few years, those have included folding knives with colored handles and bigger kitchen knives and table knives. Recent developments include specialist knives for outdoorsmen. For instance, Opinel recently introduced a folding knife for sailors that incorporates a shackle key, a safety whistle, and a serrated edge for cutting ropes. The company has also introduced its Couteau de Bricolage for do-it-yourselfers, which includes screwdriver tips, wirecutters and a wire stripper. In keeping with the desire to make products for every moment in life, the company is also introducing this year Le Petit Chef, a set of kitchen tools designed for children. The Le Petit Chef set includes a small chef 's knife with a rounded tip and a safety ring that guides small fingers into the proper grip and prevents the knife f rom slipping, a finger guard to protect the hand that 's holding the food being cut and a peeler. As for communication, Opinel is now aiming to increase its brand recognition outside Europe and to make younger people more aware of the company and its products. "Our first communication is the product and the quality of the product," Simon said. Opinel knives are currently exported to more than 70 countries around the world, and as the company expands its markets further, it 's being very cautious to ensure that it doesn't make commitments beyond what its inf rastructure can support, so that product quality doesn't suffer, Simon said. Over the past seven years, Opinel has doubled its sales, thanks to new products and exports to new markets, according to Simon, and now, someone in the world buys an Opinel knife every six seconds, on average. "In the USA, we are still a little company, but we are increasing every year," Simon said.

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