About to spend several thousand pounds, dollars or euros on a monster set of knives? Before you dip into your pocket, it may be wise to recall that Gordon Ramsay has suggested that "you basically need three knives: A heavy duty chopping knife, followed by a small paring knife… and a serrated-edge knife for carving and slicing."
You’ll use an 8 to 10-inch chef’s knife for over 80% of all your slicing needs in the kitchen. The fact is, a high-quality chef’s knife is good for just about everything, while the small paring knife is designed to handle the smaller detail work, like boning, fileting or trimming. Of curse, it’s nice to have more specialized slicing cutlery, but we’re talking basics here, not a 45-piece block of equipment. Our third basic slicing tool to always have on hand is a serrated knife, enabling it to bite into the likes of bread without the need to press down and crush a loaf.
Finally, you’ll need kitchen scissors to cut, trim and prune herbs, but also to slice a pizza, cut through crab and lobster shells, and trim and cut poultry.
One last piece of solid advice, don’t forget to thoroughly wash and clean your knife or scissors after each use to avoid any risk of cross contamination
