Some miscellaneous thoughts to round out your week:

Try to keep your kitchen knives as sharp as possible. Do whatever it takes to keep the edge unblemished and finely honed. In The Making of a Chef, author Ruhlman describes accidentally grazing the edge of his hand on a knife. It was so sharp, the knife didn’t move – his flesh parted to go around the blade. Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!

I have 2 knives that I use almost every day (er, whenever I cook, that is). One is a Wüsthof chef knife, and the other is a Henckels chef knife. I love them both, but if I could only have 1, I think I prefer the Wüsthof. It seems to fit my hand better.

In college, my parents bought me a Chef’s Choice 3-stage diamond sharpener. It worked pretty well and was easy to use, but my knives were never quite like the factory edge. (I think the preset sharpening angle was 25 degrees.) I could sort of deal with this, but at some point, I sawed through a piece of meat and thought, y’know, this sucks. These knives are great quality, and I’d be much happier with their performance if I could just sharpen them correctly! I did my homework and ordered this:

I bought mine at Bronk Knife Works (I bought the #1 special and a ceramic sharpening rod). It is amazing. The first time I sharpened the knives, I needed an hour for each knife because they were so damn dull, but subsequent sharpenings have not been “events.” I use 3 stones (water stones, not oil) with gradually finer grit and finish with the ceramic. Everything is sharpened on an 18 degree angle.

The knives are a little more dangerous this way, but I love them again. And truthfully – if I have to get cut, I’d rather have a clean cut from a sharp blade than a jagged wound from a dull one.