Chef's Knives & Santokus
A chef's knife is the most essential, multi-purpose knife in a cook’s arsenal. Its Japanese counterpart, the santoku, is equally versatile, but it has a shorter, straighter blade. Some cooks prefer the heft of chef's knives, while others prefer lighter santokus—it comes down to personal preference. These knives can chop, slice, dice, and mince ingredients large and small.
Knife Sets
From starter sets with the essentials (chef's knives or santokus and paring knives) to comprehensive 10-piece sets, find the team that works best for your cooking habits and kitchen counter space.
Utility Knives
A utility knife is perfect for avocados, lemons, cheese, cured sausages, and sandwiches—stuff for which a chef’s knife might feel too clumsy, and a paring knife too small.
Bread Knives
A long knife with a serrated edge, a bread knife is for foods with tough exteriors and soft-interiors—like bread. It can also be used for pineapples and melons, but to keep it at optimum sharpness, it's best use it primarily for bread. Bread knives cannot be sharpened at home, but their serrated edges don't require as much, because they 'latch on' to ingredients before going through, rather than relying on smooth movements.
Paring Knives
A small, manoeuvrable knife perfect for cutting small fruits and vegetables, as well as detail work (deseeding chillies, deveining shrimp, hulling strawberries).
Steak Knives
Why should restaurants have all the fun? Steak knives, whether serrated or straight, make cutting meat at the table easy, not awkward. We prefer straight-edged steak knives for the smoothest cut.
Boning Knives
Boning knives are shaped to work around tricky bones in order to release as much meat as possible, with a pointed tip and heel to help remove tendons and fat.
Fish & Seafood Knives
More flexible than boning knives, with a super-sharp point for precision, these knives are made to remove the thin bones and delicate skin of seafood.
Carving or Slicing Knives & Forks
Meant to slice cooked meat, carving and slicing knives (interchangeably used) are meant to be longer than the slice of meat it cuts, with sharp points that can manoeuvre around joints. Carving forks, often sold alongside carving knives, are for holding meat in position as you carve.
Chopping & Cutting Boards
Chopping boards aren’t just surfaces; they should be able to withstand the pressure of knife blades, keeping them sharper for longer.
Chopping & Cutting Boards
Since you’ll use them pretty much every time you cook, your chopping boards should be easy to use, not unwieldy. Our Borough Kitchen boards are excellent all-rounders, as they are compact, resist deep knife cuts (where bacteria can flourish), and easy to clean, in the dishwasher or by hand. They are made in Holland from recycled wood fibre. Our thicker wooden Borough Boards are made from natural olive ash or olivewood, especially end grain varieties, are excellent for all knife blades. Kai's Japanese cypress Hinoki Boards offer the softest wood surface, and are ideal for Japanese knives. However, these thicken wooden boards and the Hinoki boards require extra care and maintenance, and will wear down over time. Read our guide on how to best maintain natural wooden boards here.
Carving Boards
These large boards come out during the big feasts, or every time you need to cut food that will release a lot of juice—since their key feature is deep grooves along the edges that prevent spillage.
Cheese Boards
The key to a good cheese board is picking a material that does not absorb the aromas or residue of cheese—non-porous wood, like olive wood or birch. Since it starts the party, it should look nice, too!
Bread Boards
Bread boards have slatted surfaces and a tray underneath for catching crumbs. It's ideal for households who go through whole loaves of bread quickly.
Knife Sharpening & Storage
Sharper knives mean safer and more effective knives, so they are worth nurturing and storing well.
Knife Sharpening
Whetstones are a knife’s best friend—however, they take time to use, and some skill and guesswork to reap its benefits. They are the gentlest way to sharpen a knife, and will respect the natural angles of your knife blades. Chefs and knife experts consider this the purest, most traditional way to sharpen a knife. As home cooks, our favourite sharpening method is the Horl 2 Rolling Sharpener, which has a clever mechanism that sets the angle for you (15° for Japanese knives and 20° for Western knives). To read our review of the Horl 2 sharpener, visit our blog here.
Knife Racks & Stands
Don’t stuff your top-tier knives in a drawer where they might bite you, unless you cover the blades with knife guards. Instead, keep them within reach near the counter for ease. We like magnetic stands and racks because they keep blades sharper for longer (due to minimum contact with other materials), which is especially important for Japanese knives—but wooden blocks are also a great option for storage, for Western knives in particular.
Knife Rolls & Bags
Whether you need to transport knives or keep them safe from kids (or dishwasher addicts), these containers provide perfect blade cushions.