Aman

I have lost count of how many times a knife has slid off a wobbly, overloaded block and clattered onto my countertop. After the third near-miss in our test kitchen, I went on a hunt for the best knife blocks that actually hold their own – and protect an edge instead of dulling it. Our … Read more

I have spent the better part of two years chopping with Chinese cleavers, and I can tell you the hype is real. A good cai dao, the rectangular Chinese chef knife you see flying across wok stations, does 90% of my kitchen work: slicing scallions, mincing garlic, dicing onions, breaking down boneless chicken thighs. When … Read more

When I first pulled a whole chicken out of the package and tried to break it down with my 8-inch chef knife, I nearly bent the tip. That was the day I started hunting for the best meat cleavers, and I have spent the last three months chopping through poultry, pork ribs, and beef shanks … Read more

I still remember the day I bought my first Chinese cleaver. I had been struggling through piles of cabbage for a stir-fry with my old chef’s knife, and within ten minutes of switching to a thin cai dao, my prep time had nearly halved. That was the moment I realized the best vegetable cleavers are … Read more

After shucking my way through roughly 400 oysters over the past few months, a dozen raw-bar sessions, and one very memorable backyard oyster roast, I’ve learned something the hard way: the knife makes or breaks the experience. Finding the best oyster knives isn’t about buying the sharpest thing on the rack, because oyster knives are … Read more

I learned this the hard way at a dinner party last year. I pulled out a regular chef’s knife to slice a wheel of Brie for guests, and the cheese glued itself to the blade in a single, embarrassing smear. That’s when I started hunting for proper cheese knife sets. After testing eight different sets … Read more

I’ve spent the last 60 days slicing salmon, tuna, and vegetables with eight different sushi knife sets in my home kitchen. My goal was simple: find which ones actually deliver restaurant-quality cuts without forcing you to spend a fortune. After dozens of pounds of fish, hundreds of test slices, and more than a few bandaids, … Read more

I still remember the dull, rusted set that lived in my first apartment drawer. Every tomato turned to mush, every roast required sawing, and I almost lost a fingertip trying to pry open a butternut squash. After 30 days testing the eight chef knife sets below in my home kitchen, I can tell you this: … Read more

I used to think a knife block on the counter was just part of owning a kitchen. Then I moved into a small apartment with roughly four square feet of usable counter space, and that block became the first thing to go. Switching to an in-drawer knife organizer gave me back that space overnight, and … Read more

When I started staging at a Michelin-starred restaurant in 2019, I watched the line cooks roll up their stations every night like surgeons packing instruments. One chef pulled out a waxed canvas roll that had clearly survived five years of nightly abuse. That image stuck with me. A quality professional knife roll isn’t just storage; … Read more