Chef's knife

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In cooking, a chef's knife, also known as a cook's knife, is a cutting tool used in food preparation. The chef's knife was originally designed primarily to slice and disjoint large cuts of beef. Today it is the primary general utility knife for most Western cooks.

A European chef's knife generally has a blade 20 centimetres (8 inches) in length and a broad 4 cm (1½ in.) width, although individual models range from 15 to 36 centimetres (6 to 14 inches) in length and may be as slender as 2 cm (¾ inch). Longer and wider knives are more frequently called chef's knives, whereas shorter & more slender knives have a tendency to be called cook's knives. The shortest and narrowest knives overlap into the general utility kitchen knife category that are too narrow to have a heel to the blade, like the smaller paring knife.

There are two common types of blade shape in western chef's knives: French and German. German-style knives are more deeply and continuously, but gently curved equally along the whole cutting edge and the spine - a symmetric elongated arrowhead; whereas the French style is not symmetrical and has an edge that is straighter, until the end and then curves strongly up to the tip. This asymmetric style of blade is synonymous with the renowned Occitan French Laguiole knife and Opinel knife; the Laguiole is the template for the modern steak knife.

Japanese kitchen knives differ from the European style as the latter typically have a thickened heel at the base of the blade where it meets the handle at the bolster. This heel is often shaped into the handle's form at the bolster. This can clearly be seen in the photograph above. The handle is typically bi-laterally flatted to allow for it to be rivetted together through the tang, whereas the oriental style typically has an off-circular cross-section. In Japanese kitchen knives, the blade and tang has little difference in thickness throughout it length, except at the tip when sharpened - there is no bolster - it is inserted into the handle with a separate collar to hold the assembled knife together.

With modern kitchen knives, these distinct styles have merged to a degree and particular characteristics have been swapped between the two regions, as can be seen in the photograph of the kitchen knife below.

Japanese kitchen knives have come under Western influence since the Meiji era, and many hybrid versions are available. The gyuto (牛刀 ぎゅうとう, gyūtō) 'beef knife' is the Japanese term for a French (or Western) chef's knife. The gyuto were originally, and sometimes still called yo-boucho 洋包丁 meaning 'Western chefs knife'.

The santoku 'three-virtue' knife is a style hybridized with traditional knives for more functionality. It is smaller, lighter and sharper with a different blade shape.^[1]

The Chinese chef's knife is completely different and resembles a cleaver. It is, however, functionally analogous to the Western chef's knife in that it's a general-purpose knife not designed for breaking bones.

A modern chef's knife is a multi-purpose knife designed to perform well at many differing kitchen tasks, rather than excelling at any one in particular. It can be used for mincing, slicing, and chopping vegetables, slicing meat, and disjointing large cuts.