What are Reliable Chef Knives?

What is the Best Knife

 Are you thinking of becoming a Chef? Are you searching for the best knife to buy?

I could give you the cliché answer, "It depends" when it comes to answering this question. Of course it really does! I did want to take a minute to list out some of my favorite knives and which company they come from. During my tenure I found that each company makes certain knives that are great and some that I would prefer not owning.

The Chef Knife

 

First off, lets talk about the workhorse of my knife kit. It's an 8-inch Wusthof Ikon Classic. This baby has been with me through a lot. I chipped its tip and still was able to bring it back. I have cut through pounds of celery root, carrots and the likes with it. Trust me, this knife is worth owning. It is not as fancy as the Damascus steel blades or the Japanese Shun. It does get the job done and keeps a good edge.

The only cons are that the steel is quite hard. This knife gets sharp, but not as sharp as a sushi knife or a Shun. It can be used to cut delicately, it just won't be at the level of some of the softer metals. This also means it holds an edge much longer, so if your like me, and leave the maintenance light on for 2 months before getting your car checked out. This is the knife for you.

Now, there is a cheaper option. You can get any of the lower tiers of Wusthof. The blade is the same. Really the only difference is the handle. I just happen to be persnickety and I love the grip on the Ikon Classic.

Boning Knife

 

When it comes to boning knives, I don't like Wusthof's variety. It is a little too stiff. There isn't the flexibility needed to pop around a joint or curve through meat. Nope, this is the one time I prefer a Global. I say this, because I often hate the grip of a Global. It doesn't have the natural hand formed shape that the Wusthof Classic offers. This being said. You can't beat that flexibility. I would always ask my Chef to borrow his Global when there was a ridiculous amount of butchery needing to be done!

Oh, 4 cases of chicken just came in! Let's get to work!

Paring Knives

Paring knives, now honestly I think you can get away with the cheap Kuhn Rikon multi palate color knife. If you feel like that is too cheap, then Wusthof or Global work great. However, if you are constantly losing your paring knife. Then get yourself a Kuhn Rikon. Why not just buy the whole
rainbow.

Maybe you can even carry it around in your chef jacket shoulder pocket.

Nakriri Knife

Finally, the last type of knife I really learned to enjoy was a Shun Nakiri. It looks like a very small cleaver and works great to julienne, brunoise, slice, and dice vegetables. Typically I don't lean towards Shuns because the handle is awkward for me. This is the one case where I find this brand superior. Most other brands that make a Nakiri seem to make it as an afterthought.

Remember, no going over your veg twice!

Dependable Cheap Knives

Let's talk about value. Most good knives are somewhere north of $100. Then you often need at least 5 knives to start out, so that is half a grand to get paid 12$-15$ an hour. That math really doesn't add up. So if you want a good knife for cheap. Honestly, Macs are great! That may sound weird, they are flimsy pieces of metal and really aren't crafted but punched out. Yet, they are so razor thin, they are great for chopping shallots, breaking down small fish and game, even going through beef. You can bring back the edge quickly by honing and minimal sharpening. My Chef bought me one before I left one of my kitchens and it worked amazing. So don't go crazy, don't get distracted by the brands, just buy what works!

Fancy and Durable Knives

Let's be honest, it is really nice to own a BMW, or Mercedes. The overall experience is smoother, sleeker and built with drivers in mind. The Nihei's Collection MORISHIGE Gyuto Japanese Chef's Knife Hand Made knife is the BMW of knives. If you have an extra grand lying around(and don't feel like sending it to me :( ). Then here is knife that you can be proud to own. It is the luxury knife, and the few times I got to use one, man...I was ready to sign away a paycheck or two.

Knives not Mentioned

You will notice I picked very few varieties of knives. Some of you are probably curious about cleavers, slicers, utility knives and bread knives. Personally, those knives aren't always needed(except maybe the bread knife). If you are just starting out as a cook, you really can do a lot with the four knives above. Yes, you should buy a bread knife. But don't spend 200$ on it. If you really think you need a 200$ bread knife to make croutons, well, maybe you are just better off than me!

Let me know your thoughts, anything I missed? Do you disagree? What is your favorite knife brand?

Also, don't forget to get a nice home for your knives!

All of the links to products are Amazon Affiliate links. I would like to be candid that I do receive a percentage of the purchase price. That being said, all the products I reference I have either used or own. I want to help people looking for products anyway! I don’t want people buying things that won’t benefit them.

Tags: Knives, What is the best Chef Knife, Chef life, I want to become a chef, Top Chef Knives, Cheap Knives, Where do I get new knives, What tools do I need as a Chef, Cooking knives, Japanese knives

Lil Woody's Burgers don't Hold the Bacon

Lil Woody's A Cult Following

Recently, I had a close friend tell me about a local burger joint that supposedly made one of the best burgers he has ever had. Now, I worked in fine dining. So I am not a great burger expert. I have seen some pretty over the top burgers. This includes burgers with black truffle on top, Wagyu burgers with lobes of Foie Gras on top and so on.

With all these fancy burgers, you would assume plain burgers would be boring to me. Yet, it is quite the opposite. I tend to prefer a good greasy American burger. I don't need thirty ingredients, or even fancy, ground up Wagyu beef (Which I find defeats the point anyway). Nope, I am all for the 80/20 100% beef 4oz burger.

Now, Lil Woody's does all types of burgers. Occasionally, they do renditions of fast food classics, including the Big Mac. My friend informed me that the best burger he had was called "Figs and Pig". This is composed of a 1/3 lb patty, figs, blue cheese and bacon.

I was a little concerned. For a burger, that was a lot going on, and a lot of heavy hitters(flavor wise). But I could not judge a restaurant by its menu, nope, I had to visit.

So, on a chilly Saturday afternoon I drove my car to the other side of the world. Otherwise known as Ballard. For those of you who aren't native to Seattle. Ballard really is in another world. If you recall from the Lion King when Simba is looking over the plains and his Dad tells him not to go to the dark region that is kind of a long fall into a weird valley. That is Ballard.

What is up Ballard?

Once you are there, Ballard is great! Filled with lots of good places to eat and lots of hipsters. I think it is where all the hipsters migrated when the brogrammers moved into Capitol Hill and SLU.

The actual building where Lil Woody's is, seems like the entrance to a typical Jonny Rockets, or classic burger joint. Inside, you are instantly welcome by a giant "Whats Up Ballard" tile message. Not much can really be said about the furniture or ambiance besides that (what did you expect, linen and a butler?).

Being a purist, I had to order a Lil Woody. What more do you need than Patty, Cheese, Pickles, maybe ketchup, lettuce, tomato, and bun. However, my friend did tell me that the "Pigs and Fig" was a good burger. So I gave in. I ordered that as well....

 

It didn't stop there, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Milkshakes made with real Tillamook Ice Cream, but it wasn't just that. They had a flavor that looked like a middle schoolers text autocorrect. Ube, did they mean to spell Uber???



Nope, they meant to spell the word Ube, or a Filipino sweet potato. Well, how could I say no? So I finished my order and sat down.

Lil Woody

While I waited, I eyed the silly Sasquatch, who I can only assume was Woody himself. The guy seems to like burgers.

This place felt good. Like, I was actually going to enjoy the burger I was going to eat and feel full at the end. Unlike Feed Co Burgers, which offer a small patty at an even steeper price. This place seemed to scream, real deal, with nothing to prove.

My burgers and shake came, and I struggled what to go with first.



Lil Woody's Burger

So I went with the small burger first. There was nothing to fancy here. It was solid, and felt heavy in the hand. If Dick's were to make there own patty and triple the size. This was it. Nothing special, but a classic. If you just want a burger, this is your choice

Ube Milk Shake

Next, I took a break and went to sip on the shake. Wow, it did not taste like what I expected. I expected something like Thanksgiving yams, or roasted sweet potatoes. Instead, it tasted like birthday cake. It was actually quite addictive. Something along the lines of freshly made French butter cream and house made white cake.

Not a lot to look at

Finally, the final burger. The one I really had my doubts about. A Figs and Pig Burger. So many things going on in one morsel. It wasn't really much to take a picture of. It was brown, black, some shady blue bits and a tannish bun. Presentation clearly was not the goal in this Burger(Although, you shouldn't spend too much time plating a burger). In one bite, I could tell..

Figs and Pig Burger

It was good! I was concerned about having so many things on one plate. Yet, the bacon, burger, blue cheese and fig were amazing. The acidic mostarda type connotation of figs and balsamic, with blue cheese was great. Then add in the salty, fatty bacon and medium rare burger. I wanted another one...maybe sometime soon.

They made one happy customer and I didn't even have fries! Next time I go, I will have to try there "Crack". This is a basket of fries served with a little bit of Milkshake. Sounds like heaven.

Thanks for reading! I always like it when I get recommendations. Please let me know if you have any places, or maybe have questions about where to take your significant other for a date, where to take a boss to impress them or just where to get good cheap eats.

Tags: Where is the best Burger, Where is Ballard, Lil Woody's, Milkshakes, Classic Burgers, Top Burger Places, Seattle, Greasy Burger

Christmas Special! What I want For Christmas

Top 9 Gifts for Chefs, Cooks and All Around Food Lovers

Hello interwebs! I am sure the music on the radio, that pesky neighbor who puts up his tree the day after Halloween and every toy store within 5 miles have let you know that Christmas is almost here! With that comes the struggle of trying to find the right gift for all your friends. Maybe you should just give them money this year, right? That is what everyone wants for Christmas, right? Please don't go to Amazon and search "Cook Books" and buy them "Thug Kitchen". No one wants that. 

 

Well, if your friend is into food, look no further. I have compiled a list of gifts that any food maker or lover would more than appreciate! If they like to bake, cook, butcher... or maybe they just like talking about all the cookbooks they have(but never use). Then this list will be great. At the very least, it will help point you in the right direction! Plus, with some of these gifts...you can convince them to make you something afterwards! It is a win-win! Hey! Maybe you will find something to give yourself!

 

First, lets start with a cookbook, but I mean a really good one!

 

1. Tartine- Either the Pastry or Bread version!

 

 

Personally, these books are more for the Food Porn. All the pictures in here are gorgeous and the recipes are great. Honestly, you should just keep this book in your house for a slow day. Get a nice warm cup of coffee and spend hours glancing at the pure beauty of the food Tartine puts out (Although, I wish they had more pictures!). They are beyond just "Solid Technique".  Just the few pictures from the front, I think tell you it all. There is a lot of technique in this book. You might want to Youtube a few things before you bake away. Nevertheless. Go at it! Maybe send me a picture of your final creations!

 

 

2. Culinary Blow Torch - Get this while it is only 19.99$ vs 50$

 

 

Don't let your friend keep using the broiler to brulee his or her creme brulee. Nope, get them a handy dandy mini blow torch. It does wonders! Instead of heating up the entire custard(as with the oven), you are properly caramelizing the top. They can also caramelize bananas, strawberries,  meringues and so much more. Get them this cute little tool, and watch their eyes glisten! 

 

 

3. Modernist Cuisine-The Home Lab

 

Maybe you don't have 500$ to spend on your friend to get the full set of Modernist books. Well Modernist has made a great version of their ginormous serious for the home cook. We all have that one friend, you know, the know it all. The person who tells you about the molecular structure of the milk you are drinking and how bad it is for your body. Maybe they don't have all the fancy equipment the Modernist Chefs had, don't worry. The whole point of this book was to allow the home cook to do some cool things, without buying 10000$ of new equipment.    This book may not be the 5 volumes...but it is a great replacement.

In case you are interested, here is the 5 volume set. Maybe you plan to spoil someone this year ;). Maybe you can ship it to me?

 

4. Knives

 

 

Wusthof has several tiers, and this is by far the most expensive. Amazon has this chef knife for a little over 100$. This is a great deal for this style of knife. What this knife offers is a sturdy structure, and hard steel. This means it retains its edge very well. This was my personal Chef knife through out my entire career. Even when I happened to chip the tip of my knife, it was easy to re=sharpen the knife and bring back the tip. It fits great in any Chef knife bag or roll and you don't have to sharpen it as often as you would a softer steeled knife. 

 

What I really like about this knife though is its grip. There are several other tiers in the Wusthof family. Each of them have the same steel and blade for the most part. The issue with the other knives is that they feel cheap. The hilts are made out of a funky plastic and it really doesn't have that full tang effect. So if you want a knife under 100$ then you could pick either the Wusthof, or Wusthof Classic. These are decent knives, but they are not on my top 5 list of knives.

  5 .Boldric Canvas Knife Bag 

 

 

 

Alright, you have got to really like the person you are getting this gift for. This is a super sexy looking Knife bag that really shows off the makers skill and craftsmanship. It allows your friend or partner to nestle each of their knives cozily into their knife bag. 17 slots allow for knives, spoons, fish spatulas and more to comfortably travel. If your friend is still walking around using a 5$ knife roll. Maybe treat him or her a little bit.

 

  6. A Pasta Machine- Get it while it is only 45$ vs 89$

 

 

First off, these are fairly inexpensive for the amount of hardware. So you might be getting something your friend always wanted, but maybe they couldn't afford it because they were on a  cooks salary(which is basically minimum wage). For home use a hand crank works great. If you are like me, you will actually start singing a little Italian Opera while rolling out the dough. Picture that in your head for a little bit. I am not sure why, I just always do it. 

 

Like I said above, with this gift, your friend can now make a Delicious pasta dinner. It is a win-win!

  7 . Gourmia GSI-400 Sleek and Serve

 

 

Most ice cream machines will be more than 200$. The best ones sadly are :(. Now if you are like most people and can't afford these. Buying a cheaper Cuisinart can work. Most of the better ice cream makers will be 200$ or more and often time, you will only find them in restaurants. This product is the first product with an actual compressor. This means it cools on its own. Unlike the Cuisine Arts that require a frozen core. It can be a little bit of a pain to clean. Any of the one piece cleaners have their difficulties because you can't really separate the pieces easily. Nevertheless, I love not having to freeze the core. Then you can easily do multiple batches. If you forget to freeze the core, no problem. This puppy just needs to spin. It can be noisy, because of the compressor. It is a small price to pay for the convenience

 

 Now here is a slightly cheaper option that the one above. It is still far above 100$ However, this ice cream machine is one of the cheaper non-frozen cores I can find. I personally can't attest to it like the one above. But try to take it for a spin!

 

 

8.  On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee

 

I have one more reference book I would recommend everybody who wants to be good at cooking get or read. That would be  On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee. If you want to understand the science behind cheese, sweetness, and food in general. This book is amazing. When I first started at the Herbfarm, the current Sous Chef handed me this book and I couldn't get enough of it. Don't expect any pretty pictures, only basic diagrams of microbes and fauna here!  I am a firm believer in understanding something at its lowest point first and then building from there. That way you can really make it your own. I say this a lot. However, if you want to break the rules like a master, learn the rules like a pro. Once you can wax on and wax off. No one can beat you! Not that this is a competition or anything.

 

 

9. Chocolate Tool Set

 

 

This one is specifically for your pastry chef friends. If they love making chocolate. Make their lives easier so they can make lots of chocolate for you! The purpose of these tools is to help them dip their chocolates and cookies into tempered chocolate cleanly. They might also want a new infrared thermometer. The best part is that these are not that expensive, so maybe buy them a pound of chocolate too! That way, they have no excuses. They have to make you chocolate.

 

If you liked this check out Part 2 of my Christmas List !

What is on your Christmas list this year? Did I write about any of them?

All of the links to products are Amazon Affiliate links. I would like to be candid that I do receive a percentage of the purchase price. That being said, all the products I reference I have either used or own. I want to help people looking for products anyway! I don’t want people buying things that won’t benefit them.
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Tags Christmas List,Top 5 gifts,Kitchen Gift IdesBest Cook books,How to bake everything,What do for Christmas Gift

Where is Oaxaca?

Not all Good Meals Need To Break the Bank

Not all great meals in Seattle will require you to take out a line of credit. Not all great meals in Seattle are cooked by culinary professionals in bleach white chef coats and hipster style aprons. Some merely require the same passion and heart that lives in the culture to flow through the food.

It is a rare event to have a meal that taste like somebody's mother made it. When I worked as a cook, I tried to stay away from anything I knew was a classic "Mother's cooking dish". Something that brings a person back to their youth. I knew I could never compete with that secret ingredient, "love". So when you find a place where you can get meals like that, you never forget it and you go back.

La Carte de Oaxaca is a small little restaurant in Ballard. It doesn't have white table cloths, or obscure meats that can only be sourced by knowing a guy that knows a guy in some foreign country. Nope, it is a simple Oaxacan restaurant that serves the classics done right.

I would like to point out that Oaxaca is a region in Mexico. However, rather than classify this as a Mexican meal, I would prefer to refer to it as Oaxacan. You might otherwise assume every plate comes with refried beans and rice. This isn't that kind of place.

Tacos and Tamales

Oaxaca is a decent sized region in the south part of Mexico. Like any other country, each region has it's own specific dishes and variations of dishes.

For instance, let's take the classic tamale. Typically you see them wrapped in corn husks and steamed. Well Oaxaca still steams their tamales. They just wrap them in banana leaves instead. It gives it a light sweetness and a slightly more difficult eating process. La Carte de Oaxaca does a Tamales Mole Negro that is worth taking time to order. If you are a Mole person, then you should order this dish.

Banana Leaf Mole Negro

If you are curious about Mole, and what it is, here is a quick link to a recipe. Mole is a complex sauce that takes many ingredients. Think of it like a everything but the kitchen sink cookie.

Tacos Carnitas

Now, for a more classic Mexican style dish, Taco Carnitas. I am a huge pork fan. Then you go and cook it for hours, crisp it up, serve it on some soft tacos with a little bit of lime and raw white onions. Where do I sign? I also really loved that fact that they didn't put cheese on it!  Honestly, the pork and raw onion combo is great. Maybe don't go meet anyone important after, unless they are also eating the same dish!

Salsa- Look at that red, that is deadly

Before the main-ish course. I need to take an interlude to talk about their salsas. We sat right in front of 4 ceramic bowls containing various salsas. Starting with their pico de gallo and ending with some nuclear red sauce. All of which were on point. Now the nuclear red sauce, is not for the faint of heart. I took a tip of a spoon and dipped it in. And I started sweating bullets. It was great.

For the last item. There was  Camarones al Mojo de Ajo (Shrimp and garlic sauce). This was my favorite bite of the night. The shrimp were grilled and had a great smoky sensation when chewing, you could feel the smoke of the grill on your nose hairs. This alone, is good, but nothing special. The sauce though, a perfectly balanced garlic, tomato-y and lime sauce. Just enough heat to have me craving more, a good splash of lime and garlic to bring out all the other complex notes. It was wonderful.

Camarones al Mojo de Ajo

The ending bill for 3 plates was 32 USD. Not cheap, but not Seattle expensive. I would say this is unavoidable if you don't want to leave hungry. The meal is worth the price. Which I don't often think can be said in Seattle. Most places try so hard, and produce such low quality product in the end. La Carte de Oaxaca was a treat.

If you ever need a recommendation, or have a recommendation you want to make. Leave a comment and I will happily get back to you. Until next time, happy eating.

Tags Where is the best Mexican food Seattle,Spicy Food,Best places to eat in Seattle,Cheap places to take a date,Late night fun in Seattle