Buying guide all-round kitchen knives: which kitchen knife do I need?

You use a chef's knife to cut vegetables, meat and fish. But also finely chopping herbs, crushing pepper corns and peeling cloves of garlic is easy with this all-rounder. Because of the round belly of the blade you can 'rock' this knife and easily cut herbs or spices.

The name often given to a Japanese chef's knife is santoku. A santoku is enhanced with a straight and short blade that doesn't end in a tip. These knives were made to cut in a Japanese way. Namely with short cutting movements instead of rocking the knife back and forth. But the purpose stays the same. Use this knife to cut vegetables, meat, fish and herbs.

The paring knife looks a lot like the chef's knife. It is, however, smaller. With a paring knife you carry out different smaller peeling and cutting jobs. You can peel vegetables and fruit, garnish and, for instance, cut an apple into pieces. From finer carving tasks to light peeling jobs, the paring knife can be used anywhere.

In terms of size a utility knife falls in between a chef's knife and paring knife. Because of its all-round shape you use it finely chop herbs, cut vegetables to size or even to clean meat.

A bread knife is a long, serrated knife that is used to cut all types of bread. From hard to soft crusts, from soft buns to baguettes. But did you know that a bread knife can also easily be used to cut cakes and pies and hard vegetables such as melons and pumpkins? A real all-round knife!