German Steel

Last November, I was tasked to cook for a dinner party for 15 guests at a friend's house. I set aside about six hours to prep and cook six different dishes. One of the fun things about cooking in someone else's kitchen is checking out their kitchen equipment. That's when I encountered something that changed everything. I grabbed one of her knives to start preparing vegetables, and the knives cut through everything like butter. My food preparation time was drastically reduced because of these awesome knives. I asked her about the knives and she told me she got them as a wedding gift; it was a $700 set of Zwilling J.A. Heckel knives. These were high-end German knives.

As someone who has been wielding a $30 IKEA chef knife for over two years, I was in awe of these Heckel knives. Those knives just seemed to glide through vegetables, and the amount of force you had to apply was extremely minimal. The knives were also perfectly balanced and the grip was very comfortable.

As a result, I picked up a Zwilling J.A. Henckels TWIN® Four Star II 8" Chef's Knife, and I'm very happy about it. When you run the knife through water, the blade makes a distinct resonating sound. Water runs off the blade as if the blade's surface had wax on it.

I didn't bother splurging on an entire knife set since I primarily use a chef's knife and pairing knife anyways.

I've been talking a lot about this wonderful knife at work, and I seem to have sparked an arms race amongst my peers. I know of at two people who have upgraded their primary knives recently. One co-worker picked up a Heckel cleaver. Another friend picked up a Heckel santoku knife.

In either case, this is the beginning of a kitchen upgrade cycle for me. More culinary delights to come.