You May Not Need a Giant Chef’s Knife When a Midsize Knife Does the Trick
Key takeaways
- There's a lot of space between most chef's knives and paring knives.
- What if you're a smaller person, or have smaller hands, or just think a smaller but still high-functioning all-around knife might be your jam?
- With equal parts luck, research, and trial and error, I found both new and existing-but-flying-under-the-radar examples of midsize knives that were wonderfully functional, in part because of their size.
Why this matters: a development in AI with implications for how people work, create, and decide.
Photo-Illustration: WIRED Staff; Courtesy of ZWILLING J.A. Henckels,Seisuke Knife, Messermeister Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Kitchen knives are so personal. You can do almost everything you need in a kitchen with a chef's knife, paring knife, and a bread knife. But the more time you spend in the kitchen, the more you develop preferences, and soon it becomes a bit of an n+1 thing, and there you are, pondering a cleaver.
There's a lot of space between most chef's knives and paring knives. What's in that space—often called petty, prep, or utility knives—is often pretty weird. Consider the knives that you never use from a set and you'll likely think of the short, serrated knives or the petty knives with no room for your fingers between the handle and the cutting board.
What if you're a smaller person, or have smaller hands, or just think a smaller but still high-functioning all-around knife might be your jam? What if the right version of those midsize knives turned out to be really useful?