Lust of the Knives

I'm not sure whether or not it is a hazard of the profession or just a personal quirk but I figured out recently that I have a bucketload of knives.
My husband says that if anyone ever breaks into our house, forget about a gun. He's just going to grab one of my "scimitars" and go with that. I didn't even know I had a scimitar until recently. But apparently I do.
When I began working as a professional chef, I realized that I needed a serious set of professional knives. I didn't initially attend a school like the Culinary Institute. (I'm a doctor by profession - go figure. Well, cutting works there too... nevermind.) My father did attend Culinary School.
When we were younger kids, my sister and I were taught how to cook by both parents, but the more formal stuff was by dad. My sister was always way better at the presentation end of things. She could make a peanut butter sandwich look like it belonged in Bon Appetit. Me, I was happy it made it on the plate. (good grief so much has changed). But after I started cooking professionally, my father gave me all his "gear" and this included all of his knives. Some of them were rather old, and realistically, not that well cared for over the years. But, since they were his I took them, and lovingly, restored them to all their original glory. Slice and dice. I will never part with them. But I found that what worked for him, a big burly man with big guy hands, didn't comfortably fit my needs. My arms were much smaller, hands smaller and my pivot of thrust for workability just wasn't the same. It made it harder to do some jobs. (some jobs were actually easier because these knives were just so honking big.) I knew that for me I needed something different.
I got knife set number one. I went for a really good set of Henkels, which I still use at home to this day. What I did find was that after a full day at the restaurant, my arms ached. The knives, although the right size, were weighted differently than I needed, so these caused that kind of problem.
I got the second knife set a few months later. I did get a beautiful set of Wustoff-Trident knives. These had the right leverage, but what I found was that for me the weight was off.
YOU ARE A BIG BABY.
That was my husband's statement after knife set number two. At this point, I decided to really try them out, and maybe, just maybe, purchase some knives individually. This began the collection. I now have 7 knife blocks and an unknown number of storage areas for knives. All are properly stored and accessible to my kitchen prep area.
We now have Globals (my pride and joy, the absolute knife for a woman with slightly larger than normal woman hands - perfect weight, size and leverage), I have a pair of titanium-coated Kasumi knives that were my 25th Anniversary present from my wonderful husband. And one, lone, Shun.
Until today.
I could not believe my good fortune on this one.
I was at T J Maxx Home store looking for an egg cup. Again I'm going to have to digress. I was watching Nigella Lawson's show on the Food Network and she was eating a soft boiled egg with "toast soldiers". I haven't had that in years. (primarily because I never have bread in the house that lasts until breakfast). I went and bought a wonderful homestyle white bread and made the soft boiled eggs. Until I tried to cut into them and watched them roll all over the table. Tried a pyrex cup, and out leaches the wonderful yellow egginess, into the bottom of the cup, amongst bits of white and shell and bread. What a mess. I needed an egg cup.
When was the last time you saw an egg cup in the store?
My poor husband was delegated to shopping with me this trip. We started at the usual home store in our area (which is now Bed Bath and Beyond since Linens and Things closed) and they didn't have it. They had a few plates to store deviled eggs, a whisk with an egg on the bottom that had feet, and anything to poach an egg. But no egg cup. We have a serious need in our area for a Williams Sonoma or a Crate and Barrell. I probably could have looked at Pier One Imports but I didn't even think of that place until I was writing this.
Then I remembered the Home area of TJ Maxx. That place has the weirdest eclectic collection of stuff I have ever seen, but I thought, they might have it. (my poor husband hates the place. People are known to rip things right out of your hands if they want it. Kind of creepy.)
We went into the place, looked around and no. But my husband, ever willing to look with me, suggested we look at the china and not just the cooking toys. Yes, we found it. In an area that had china (some of the stuff looks good, some is mismatched plates, serving dishes no one wanted for their sets etc.) My gain was their loss so to speak. And the egg cups came as a pair of two for only $3.99. Cool. A bargain.
But, I couldn't resist looking at the other things, and of course, I looked at the rack they keep knives on. If you were me could you resist? And there they were. Shun knives. Not just one. Three of them. Ken Onion ones. MORE THAN HALF OFF. I'm still doing the happy dance.
These are beautiful, well weighted, wonderfully constructed and sharper than....well most things.
AND THEY WERE HALF OFF. There was a slicing knife, a chef's knife and a utility knife. All really useable sizes and I couldn't get over the price. A WEEK BEFORE MOTHER'S DAY! Guess what I'm getting for Mother's Day!
He did ask me this after we got home - "Is this collection complete NOW?"
I didn't have the heart to say no. After all, can I be content without a flexible boning knife???

But, in reality, if you live near the TJ Maxx in the Mid Hudson Valley NY, there are some of the Shun knives still there, and they are more than half off the price at retailers I looked at online. It is a really good deal if that is your thing.

We did finally go home, and I made us a lunch of Soft Boiled Eggs with a light sprinkling of Fleur De Sel and artisanal white toast soldiers, in yes, egg cups. And it was worth the trip finding them.

Update Time

Hey,


I do know it's been awhile, and the purpose of a blog should be communication. I just had more on my plate than food lately and totally ran out of time to talk. But... this time I have a few things to say.


How long has it been since you've been out to dinner with friends? Especially for a special event or special evening? We did that this week, as my husband and I celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary. Yep... finally getting up to the eyebrow raising years... (how many??) or the inevitable question (to the same guy???) Yes... to the same guy. Now, about dinner.

We live in the Hudson Valley of New York State. That is a 98 mile trip from Manhattan, or a full train ride up here.(About an hour). We are a stones throw from the Culinary Institute of America, so our area spawns a significant number of decent restaurants. (I admit when I travel that I see how we are spoiled in our neighborhood). There was one restaurant that I found recently, that I had my eye on. I wanted to try it, so I waited for a special event because it was nearing the pricey tag for food. (Not real expensive but creeping up there).

Our friends went with us, and that was the best part. The food, unfortunately, was not. Let me tell you about our evening.

I'll start with the service. We were greeted very well by a team of wait staff. Apparently, without saying so, one of them must have been training the other one, as she didn't let her more than a few feet away from her the entire evening. The only problem was, for me, I couldn't tell who was training whom. They started with a crucial error. Instead of telling us about the specials they could please us with, they told us what they were out of and could not have. This immediately made me disappointed. Now personally, I can live without razor clams or ramps, but after she talked about it, I wanted them. The focus wasn't about what good things were on the menu, but things that were missing. The next problem was the server really didn't know the menu that well. She confused the soup (not really knowing the product) and had to look at the menu several times to explain things. My friend and I decided to not order anything at all but to leave our meal entirely to the chef. (Her) choice. As a chef, I've had this happen some, and I enjoy doing a few new ideas with food that I have or doing something entirely off the menu. The chef didn't do this, just gave us some things that were there. I was hoping she would take the option and run with it as this restaurant had a reputation for being somewhat eclectic, but not this time.

The chef did send out an amuse bouche. This for me was the best tasting piece of food we had all evening. It was a version of hummus with peas on pita with microcelery and it was charming and flavorful. Next came our bread. The bread was a crusty loaf, sliced and grilled (you could see the grill marks). The bread had parmesan cheese on it and was served with a sun dried tomato tampanade. This was the highlight of our meal.

My friend and I tend to be rather adventurous eaters but sometimes our husbands are more traditional. For his appetizer, my husband had a lobster macaroni and cheese. This sounded good, but seemed rather bland, and there wasn't much lobster either. There wasn't much depth of flavor from many different cheeses, just monodimensional. He said he wasn't really that impressed. Her husband had a Caesar Salad. It looked good and he said it was good. (But really, not much to do with that anyway). She was served a goat cheese and mushroom strudel with a salad on the side, which was drizzled with a vinegar glaze. (I'm not sure whether it was sherry vinegar or balsamic). The product was nice, but seemed to be lacking in seasoning. My appetizer was a pate, with pistachios served with slices of toasted baguette. I can say the pate was nice, but again, as a theme to our meal, lacking in seasoning overall.

For our main courses, my friend asked specifically for seafood. She was served a crusted grouper with a fruit accompanient. It was a type of a fruit salsa which was very good, but the fish itself again lacking in seasoning was decent. My friend summed up her meal and probably the entire evening with her remark. "It's good but not WOW. I was looking for WOW." So was I. My meal was a stuffed quail served on mashed potatoes. The quail was not deboned so it was slightly difficult to eat (especially if you were unfamiliar with quail). The stuffing was nice, cornbread and sausage, but primarily I could taste the cornbread, and not much of the sausage. Sauces were demi's which were good but not a WOW. My husband had a seared Ahi tuna which to our liking, was slightly overcooked for tuna and could have used more acid. Her husband had a steak, which was somewhat undercooked. If we could have had the tuna with the same amount of doneness as the steak, and vice versa, all of us would have been happier.
Desserts were some better but they were mixed in our opinions. I had a bread pudding, one of my personal favorites. It had decent flavor but I felt it could have been sweeter. I should have gone with the creme brulee, which is another of my favorites. I might have liked it better. My friend and her husband had a sampler dessert. There was carrot cake and chocolate cake on it, some ice cream (not sure if it was a gelato or sorbet actually) and a creme brulee, all in a sample few bite sizes. The sampler was charming, they seemed to like them. At this writing I cannot remember what my husband had so I cannot comment.

Personally, when we go out with friends, the best part of the evening is the social aspect of it, but for my friend and I, who are major foodies, we love to "dissect" the food and try new things. We were hoping to love the place. We only barely liked it. We doubt that we would return.

Comments are welcome or you can email me. Or follow me on twitter @drenapaulson