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| Shun's santoku knife on caramelized onion tart. Photo: Alex Van Buren |
They have a bad association as, um, dull conversational topics: There's the unwelcome knife salesman banging on the door, or that eternal infomercial ("Only $39.95 in three easy installments!"). I owned a sub-par knife for years, until a friend trained at a local culinary institute basically took it away from me.
I've been shopping ever since with an eagle eye for sales. The santoku style caught my attention for its multiuse blade (note the indentations, which purportedly help keep food from sticking) and stylish look. And when I grabbed a Shun in hand at a local shop -- its base has a slight teardrop shape, perfectly suited to that soft nub between thumb and index finger -- I fell in love.
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| The cookbook photo and the real thing. Photo: Alex Van Buren |
I'm certainly not the first to sing Shun's praises. These are pricey knives made of high-grade steel that require delicate care. But when my baked goods come out looking precisely like those in the cookbook and chopping becomes an utterly delightful task, it's hard not to proselytize to anyone who will listen.
My appetite for cooking -- already strong -- has been hugely amplified. I just visited my folks for the weekend. I brought the knife, exclaiming, "I didn't want to leave it at home alone!" We fought over who would be sous chef the whole time.
Alex Van Buren is the editor of Slashfood.
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6-29-2009 @6:53PM thefishie said... I've been replacing my Henkel knives with Shun knives for the last few years and I too was stunned by the first one I owned. To this day I adore the Shun knives I have and they NEVER see the dishwasher, by hand only. Their superior performance make it worth the hand wash time.
Oh and the santoku is an excellent knife.
For when you don't want to dish out the dollars for a Shun, try their Kai Komachi line. It's considerably cheaper but a good quality for the price.
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6-30-2009 @10:56AM MikeB said... I've adored my Wusthof Classic 10" Chef's Knife for years, However, I recently got a really good deal on a Shun 7.5" Wide Santoku and am falling in love with it! Perfectly balanced and form fitting grip. The blade is much taller than normal which is great for my big hands. I can really get a nice aggressive pinch grip going for serious chopping tasks without my knuckles ramming the block or my finger extending to the edge of the knife.
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6-30-2009 @2:49PM RT said... I've had a good Wusthof knife set for a while, and the chef's knife it came with was a solid performer, but I could never get used to the feel of it: it was just too blade-heavy for my taste. So my girlfriend bought me the Shun Kaji Santouku for Christmas. It's damn near perfect for me. It's shorter and more handle-heavy, meaning that I find it far more maneuverable when trying to do delicate slicing. It also has a bit of a belly, so that i can still rock and chop to my heart's content- one of my problems with most Santoukus. If it has a flaw it's that it's lighter than my Wusthof, which means that when I want to cut things that are really dense or big (i.e., squash), , I break out the Wusthof because it's better suited to that.
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