What knife set does chef Gordon Ramsey use in his kitchen?

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Knife Outlet said:
Most of those Japanese knives to which you refer use stabilized or resin impregnated wood handles so they perform in a similar fashion to other resin type handles. Some are natural wood, of course, and that would be just a matter of tradition. There are some manufacturers that make POM handles like you would see on a Wusthof or Henckels. Masahiro is one that comes to mind. I have a japanese made Henckels M66 utitliy knife that has a paper micarta handle. Personally, I see no negatives to a plain wood handle. Nice look and feel. Just a matter of preference, I guess.
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Love the wooden handles. I have a few Kershaw Shun models and they cut like crazy. A few swipes on my Sharpmaker every once and a while keeps my santuko razor sharp. The rounded wooden handles make for comfortable use when there is a lot of prep work.
 
CWL said:
Nah, more likely good-quality commercial-grade forged knives with real comfortable grips.
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Remember it's high end rated restaurants, your underestimating what's required to obtain a career touchdown slot to be working in one of them.


SShepherd said:
I do agree though that unless it's in a japanese resturaunt, or in a chefs own personal kit you're not likely to see them "on the line"
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Of course it's their personal kit certainly not house supplied.
 
................ excessively hard blades

thats opinion. Japanese blades are hard, and require different cutting techniques than "western" , softer knives.
I do agree though that unless it's in a japanese resturaunt, or in a chefs own personal kit you're not likely to see them "on the line"
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Yup, my personal kit is composed of Japanese hand-forged knives that I've collected over the years in my visits to Japan. They reside in their cases in my knife drawer for until I need them. I keep a set of Shun knives on the counter for my wife to use...
 
Remember it's high end rated restaurants, your underestimating what's required to obtain a career touchdown slot to be working in one of them.
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Ramm9,

I am proud to be a San Francisco, California Culinary Academy drop-out. My father used to own 3 restaurants. I am familiar with how long and difficult the hours are for chefs at every level, and how hard real knives get used.
 
Ramm9 said:
Remember it's high end rated restaurants, your underestimating what's required to obtain a career touchdown slot to be working in one of them.




Of course it's their personal kit certainly not house supplied.
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funny, the yanagi I make are used as "house" knives at the local sushi resturaunt, if they want something special above "house" they buy it themselves
 
A.L. said:
And a childish, misbehaving, hot tempered brat.
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The question that comes to my mind is; why have none of the abused apprentices put one of those chef's knives between that ill tempered prick's ribs.
 
Knife Outlet said:
Most of those Japanese knives to which you refer use stabilized or resin impregnated wood handles so they perform in a similar fashion to other resin type handles. Some are natural wood, of course, and that would be just a matter of tradition. There are some manufacturers that make POM handles like you would see on a Wusthof or Henckels. Masahiro is one that comes to mind. I have a japanese made Henckels M66 utitliy knife that has a paper micarta handle. Personally, I see no negatives to a plain wood handle. Nice look and feel. Just a matter of preference, I guess.
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True, and after a brief email exchange with Shun I found out that even their Pakkawood handles are FDA and NSF approved for commercial use. Apparently, Pakkawood has the same mechanical characteristics as brass.
 
The only chef I would trust as far as which knives to use is Alton Brown. He uses Shuns, and he even has his own line of Shuns. Not only that, but he is a knife nut and is often times seen using a Kershaw to cut food in his shows.
 
Brutus013 said:
The only chef I would trust as far as which knives to use is Alton Brown. He uses Shuns, and he even has his own line of Shuns. Not only that, but he is a knife nut and is often times seen using a Kershaw to cut food in his shows.
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Same thing as Gordon Ramsey. The only difference is Brown uses the knives you like. I'm certainly not knocking the Shun knives. They are better than anything made outside of Japan. But he uses what he is paid to use and endorses what he is paid to endorse just like every other TV chef. He's a great entertainer and quite knowledgeable about food science. That doesn't necessarily mean he's a great chef or knowledgeable about cutlery. TV chefs are not a good place to get advice on endorsed products, any more than former basketball players are the best place to get advice about underwear. Stick to studying their recipes and methods.
 
actually there is another forum that deals with chef stuff, including knives.

cheftalk.com

Great place to hang out if you are a real foodie.
 
I have a forum dedicated specifically to kitchen cutlery at http://www.foodieforums.com and obviously all of you are welcome. We have some very knowledgeable and experienced folks there on the subject of kitchen cutlery. Lots of real chefs.
 
I don't know anything about the quality of Wusthof knives, but they did do a cheesy give-away to the contestants on "Hell's Kitchen" in one of the episodes, so I would infer that it Ramsey gets paid to use them.
 
Brutus013 said:
The only chef I would trust as far as which knives to use is Alton Brown. He uses Shuns, and he even has his own line of Shuns. Not only that, but he is a knife nut and is often times seen using a Kershaw to cut food in his shows.
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I like Alton Brown as well; he seems to know a lot about food and history. But his and most of food network cooking shows aren’t very educational in terms of teaching someone how to cook or use a knife. Most of the food networks “celebrity chefs” have atrocious knife skills. They’re able to get away with using nothing more than a can opener or short, dull knife by not doing anything that requires any type of fine, precise cutting. Everything is a rustic, rough cut using a “rock-chop” or heel cut. The knife need only be as long as the food their cutting and by pressing straight down with enough force to split the food, they can compensate for not having a good skills or a sharper, longer knife.

The older cooking shows and the ones on PBS, which feature chefs that demonstrate and stress the importance of good knife skills are way better.
 
CWL said:
...My guess would be non-famous French or German knives that can be touched-up really quickly -rather than super-steel knives with excessively hard blades.
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Actually you got that one wrong. Those excessively hard knives are the ones that can survive with quick and light touchups for months in home use and softer western knives need serious sharpening monthly or even more frequently.
Watnabe Nakiri which I use very often so far (1+ year) needed nothing more than 2 touchups on 10K stone and regular maintenance on 0.25mic and plain leather strops.
Same with Honyaki gyuto from him. Same for Moritaka chukabocho, Takeda chukabocho and the rest of them... All of those knives are in 63-65+ HRC range...
 
My suggestion is to go to your local restaurant supply shop and look at
what inexpensive chef knives they have. I have picked up my best cutlery and pots and pans at these places. You can't go wrong with 5 dollar clevers, knives, and heavy steel pots.
 
Actually I have asked a lot of chefs what they use. Same for the butchers in local stores. In probably 90% of the cases they use whatever the place owner provided. Knowing some of the owners, what they buy is what's the best price on sale when they buy....
So, it's hardly an indicator of anything.
 
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