I’m a home cook, an enthusiast, and someone who likes to explore and even evaluate technology and business models.
I have almost no interest or knowledge in the professional world of cooking. As far as I can tell, Mercer has found a a very worthwhile niche in this world–especially for startup professional–and they market primarily through restaurant supply. They clearly know their market.
Other manufacturers market to home cooks–through very different outlets–and deal with very different concerns–with a much wider range of products and prices.
Crossover is more difficult than you think. IMO, of course.
Depends which way you are crossing. Everyone I know who has worked in any commercial kitchen (not sure I count McDonald’s since it so specialized and automated) can acquit themselves well in a home kitchen. Although it is contrived as heck and the coaching is edited out, a show like Master Chef shows how home cooks, even very good ones, struggle to up their games, getting flustered by the speed, forgetting to preheat pans, omitting steps or ingredients, not using the appropriate amount of seasoning, failing to hit cooking temperatures, and so on, especially unable to achieve consistency.
I use a Dexter 8" chef’s knife, Dexter boning knife, a Wusthof utility, Dexter and no-name parers, and a Pfaltzgraff bread knife my wife bought years ago for the cabin when some other one we had got misplaced but was eventually found. Probably need to replace the bread knife.
I usually get a couple thousand dollars or so worth of knives a year as gifts which are given away, unopened. The last couple years’ worth were donated to a culinary school in Manhattan.
I don’t particularly like the Wusthof Classic handles as I believe I’ve mentioned before. If I went back to work full-time in a professional kitchen I’d most likely use a Global 8" or maybe something else in that range. Or maybe not. Dexter and certainly Mercer would work. I don’t use the Wusthof utility that much. It’s honed at a low angle, and comes in handy at times when dealing with fish.
Edge longevity isn’t a big deal for the home chef. The worst knife on the planet will get you through the kitchen prep for even a decent-sized holiday gathering, much less day in and day out meals.
There are some truth of this, but i think it has more to do with expectations and the tasks. I was using a very dull knife for a long time. When I first shifted to a sharp good quality knife, I was constantly cutting into the cutting board ( I was so used to using a large force to cut). So obviously one can use a dull knife for many kitchen tasks, but i think once the person has experienced more refined and better knives, then they know what they are missing.
Case in point, when i was in grade school, I honest to god believe McDonald makes the best hamburgers on Earth. I can still eat a McDonald burger but now I appreciate there are better burgers.
OK - I watched it 4 times, then went into the kitchen - I had half an onion in the fridge, already pole to pole cut, got my Victorinox chef’s knife (which is kept sharp, than you for asking) and set about to conquer a new skill. Oh, and my fly-tying magnifying glasses. Seriously. What’s the first thing I learned? Why. Why that small a dice. That was the most important take-away! The second thing I realized, aside from the fact that I don’t have those kind of knife skills, of course, was that I could take my time. As much time as I wanted, because I don’t have Chef wanting to kill me, or a deadline. All I’m after is results. So … pretty small dice, not that small, but smaller than the first dice, and then I cheated and I rock chopped my mass into a finer mass. I told you it was my kitchen! But then I got some butter and a pan ad=ne I sweated the onions. I was grinning like a Cheshire Cat. Ooooh. Wow. Cool. I have sharpened my skills, not my knife. And guess what? A fancier knife would have done absolutely nothing to help me. NB: I know how to do the first dice. That’s standard operating procedure, but I swear I thought some one was saying Cajun School and not Catering School …
Shows how completely different Marco’s world of knives and cooking prep is from an enthusiast home cook like me.
I play with cutting up onions many different ways with a variety of knives: exploring the possibilities. Marco seems to be almost a comical alternative. I don’t know why Marco chose a “beater” knife with a belly (or that cutting board)–or how he taught himself to hold that knife. Does he really think he knows enough to teach a culinary student or anyone else anything about prepping onions? How much does he really know about a “domestic cook” like me?
Recent knife designers for home cooks offer half bolsters that encourage a pinch grip–and allow the user to easily change that grip. They afford rock chopping or push cutting–with a significantly reduced belly profile.
Marco’s aggressive rock chopping on an onion fragment with a beater knife is hardly a best practice I’d care to emulate.
My first choice for decades of vegetable prep has been a nakiri–and it hardly has any belly at all. It screams “push cut” or “vertical chop”–not rock and roll.
For Marco’s more aggressive style, one could even go to a vertical chopping vegetable cleaver, and blast those onion pieces into tinier and tinier bits.
A petty knife would give better control–and Marco wouldn’t need to stick his index finger along the spine.
I think I’d have lots more fun than Marco exploring in my more leisurely way…
Hi Ray,
If we are refering to the video that Justcharlie posted then I would find it hard to have control of a knife while sitting and chopping. I have more freedom and would be more relaxed standing up.
Perhaps that would explain his grasp?
A run-of-the-mill knife reasonably sharp at the start of prepping a meal at home is highly likely to stay sharp through the whole, rather short, process.
A prep chef working for a big NYC caterer like Sonnier & Castle (RHC), might be a slightly different story.
Ray, your general philosophy is unfortunately the current that runs through all these equipment threads no matter the forum.
I used to think it was just you, but it’s not, so take solace in that.
It’d be really great if one could buy their way to culinary artistry, Michelin stars, and the whole bit. If that were the case, I’d have a knife collection that would put yours to shame.
Any chef, home or otherwise, who thinks it’s the equipment holding him or her back is just making excuses.
I am not sure that captures Ray. He seems to enjoy new things, experimenting with them, and linking it all with his ideas about markets, emphasizing the PRC, and his perceptions of fusion. I think some of us, myself included, enjoy collecting stuff. Some of us spend a lot on collecting, and some of us keep it more reasonable. If I had not picked up my stuff in earlier times at reasonable prices, I would probably have Cuisinart or Made In pans and Victorinox or Dexter knives. Even though my old Sabs are pretty snazzy, I have never been close to dropping $100 on a knife, but I could be sorely tempted for morels, a great load of veal or skate, or a great bottle of wine. Sadly, I always get to Central Market after the morels have sold out. I think this board is more all over the map than CH was. You are among my favorite posters. You have the endearing knowledgeable snark Tony Bourdain had.
Back on Mercer knives, Ray’s stance confuses me. He like MIC, he likes good deals, and I believe he has recommended Alibaba. Mercers sound as if they would be his trifecta, but he also finds the process very personal and requiring tryouts with carrots, which to me just proves “Yep, it is a sharp knife.”
