Different Types Of Knives Used at Hotel Or Restaurant

In hotels and restaurants, chefs consider the kitchen knife their most valued and versatile tool. There are different kitchen knives used in hotels and restaurants, and familiarizing with the basic knife handling safety regulations helps every kitchen user use the knives properly, neither harming themselves or others with the knife. You will find different types of kitchen knives in a hotel or restaurant setting, and a chef will use a knife according to the task at hand.

Dive into this document to learn about the different types of kitchen knives, their purpose for design, the advantages, and their disadvantages. One more point, before reading this tutorial please read this important announcement. Many of you have requested for Chef/Food Production Training Materials and also a course on English learning. So here we have arranged these 2 amazing course for you:

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different-types-kitchen-knives-chefChef’s knife or French Knife

Chef’s Knife that is also called the French knife, the chef’s knife is likely the most popular of kitchen knives popularly used all around the kitchen. The knife is designed in a way that suits general chopping and cutting. Globally, chefs prefer the chef’s or French’s knife. The typical French knife has a blade of 260mm or 10 inches. Of course, the sizes vary, whereby the smaller blades suit finer and more delicate work, while the larger blade knives are best used for heavy chopping and cutting.

  • Advantage: the knife’s thick heels and sharp curved blade allow cooks and chefs to cut or chop multiple pieces of vegetables or fruits or anything fast, saving on time.
  • Disadvantage: when dull, chopping cutting becomes hard.

Forged knife

A forged knife is made by using a strong and resilient forging material to forge a piece of steel into the shape of the knife. Although many people confuse forged and stamped knives with each other, they are different. The purpose of reinforcing the metal foil is different. For the stamped knife, the process is done to make the knife light and easy to use, while the metal foil in the forged knife is meant to make it hard and rigid.

  • Advantages: forging steel into the knife’s shape makes the knife hard and rigid; hence it cannot easily break. Besides, the knife does not require costly maintenance. In addition, its hard surface eases cutting.
  • Disadvantages: the manufacturing and service costs of forged knives are expensive. Therefore, it may not be easy to find these knives since you may not find them in every store.

Stamped knife

This knife is made by stamping a piece of single steel foil into the knife. The purpose of doing this is to make the knife easy to use and light. The hardening, sharpening, and polishing stages that the knife is subjected to makes it have a smooth and sharp edge, easy to use and helps it have a leveled finish. The thin steel foil reinforced into the knife is lighter than the metals used in making other knives, making the knife lighter than most knives.

  • Advantages: they are lightweight and easy to use and can be found in most cutlery stores since the cost of making them is low.
  • Disadvantages: since stamped knives are made of light material, they will require extensive maintenance, always needing sharpening. Besides, they may not be as durable as the forged knives.

Paring knife

A paring knife is among the small kitchen knives. Its purpose is to par and core fruits and vegetables. They are easy to handle. This small knife also has a small blade, measuring 50 to 100mm or 2 to 4inches. Besides the small size of the blade, it’s also slim, sharp, and pointed. Although most hotels and restaurants use paring knives to chop fruits and vegetables, they can be used beyond that. Because of its slimness, it can cut onions as well. Besides, dexterous chefs can use paring knives to cut fish and meat.

  • Advantages: they are lightweight and easy to use.
  • Disadvantages: paring knives may not last long because of the light material used to manufacture them.

Utility knife

Utility knives look like chef knives but are smaller and slimmer than chef knives; hence the two should not be confused. Often, utility knives will have a sharp tip forged through the knife to make it easy to use the knife and cut things with it. Utility knives have a blunt tip to keep them stable and give the knife balance while using it. The knife is best used in the kitchen to cut small pieces and dice with precision.

  • Advantages: a utility knife can serve multiple purposes in the kitchen and still chop things with precision.
  • Disadvantages: the slimmer the utility knife, the less durable it will be and require expensive maintenance.

Boning knife

Just as suggested by the name, a boning knife is used to bone out poultry, fish, and meat. The blades of different boning knives vary, allowing the knife to get bones fine bones from fish or the larger bones from meat. Typical boning knives are six inches long and lightweight. Since it is the slimmest of kitchen knives boning out, it can always be found in the butcheries.

  • Advantages: a boning knife is lightweight, sharp, and quite flexible. For de-boning and mincing, a boning knife is the best due to its flexibility.
  • Disadvantages: you must have the right type of boning knife to get bones out of meat or fish, depending on whatever food you are handling.

Carving knife

People use carving knives to slice and carve out cooked meat. The blade of a carving knife is usually long, extending to 14inches or 360mm. It has a long and slender blade, making it fit for the carving and slicing role. While the blade is long and the tip and the edge are sharp, the handle is small and not sharp.

  • Advantages: because a carving knife is sharp and slim, it’s easy to cut meat and vegetables with it while maintaining precision and uniformity. It also fits multiple usages, from meat to vegetables, fruits, cakes, and pastries.
  • Disadvantages: being sharp all the time, it can easily cut the user.

Filleting knife

This is a specialty knife used for seafood, especially for effective and efficient cutting and chopping of various types of fish. Its composition is small, sharp, and thin, allowing the chef to drive through flesh and remove cavities. Similar to a boning knife in the application, a filet knife helps mince out all bones but does more efficiently than boning knives.

  • Advantages: It can be used for mincing out efficiently due to its small, sharp, and slim composition.
  • Disadvantages: getting the best results while filleting with it requires skillful use and horizontal cutting of fish instead of vertical cutting.

Slicer knife

This knife is also known as the bread knife. Its blade is long, reaching up to 14 inches or 360 mm. The slicer or bread knife is best used on foods whose exterior surfaces are hard, while the interior surface is soft. For instance, the slicer knife can be used for slicing a loaf of bread that’s crusty. Besides its role in slicing bread, it can be used for slicing cooked meat or fish or poultry, and many other foods.

  • Advantages: the knife has multiple usages, slicing bread and cakes to meat and fish.
  • Disadvantages: may not be very strong and rigid as needed for bony meat.

Salmon knife

Salmon knife is yet another type of seafood knife, used mostly for filleting bigger fish pieces. Its application may be similar to the filleting knife, but its usage outweighs the filleting knife. Salmon knives have a unique design among other kitchen knives since they have very long blades and are double-edged. It’s mostly found in premium restaurants and hotels, where it is used for chopping fish intricately.

  • Advantages: the slim, sharp, double edges of the salmon knife make it appropriate for intricate chopping and cutting.
  • Disadvantages: the double edges require cautious handling to prevent cuts while handling the knife.

Cleaver knife

Also known as the butcher’s knife, a cleaver knife may come in different shapes but will basically resemble a rectangular hatchet with a blade. The butchers and the chefs use a cleaver’s knife to drive through gristly connective tissues and hew out small and medium bones. Its blade is slightly curved, broad, and heavy to allow sectioning of meat with ease.

  • Advantages: it is made of hard material, and so it is quite durable
  • Disadvantages: the heavyweight nature of the knife may pose difficulty in handling it, and should it fall, it can harm the user.

Chinese Cleaver

This is also known as the Chinese chef knife. It is a multi-purpose knife used in the kitchen to handle most tasks. The knife has a single cleaver, is slender in shape, and performs as many tasks as the chef’s knife.

  • Advantages: a Chinese cleaver is thin and easy to use.
  • Disadvantages: the knife may not be as efficient as the chef’s knife due to its small size.

Santoku knife

Santoku knives have their origin in Japan and have a connotation for three kitchen purposes; dicing, mincing and cutting. All over the Santoku knife’s blade, there are dents, and these keep off the flesh from sticking on the surface of the knife. Although it works best with fish for garnishing and cutting, it can also be used for fruits, vegetables, and other fruits.

  • Advantages: Santoku knives are the best knives for handling fish because the denting keeps off fish from sticking to the surface, and the handle is well-placed, allowing easy cutting.
  • Disadvantages: the knife may require constant sharpening.

Nakiri knife

Nakiri knives also have their origin in Japan and look more like cleaver knives. However, they are slenderer and thinner than cleaver knives. The knife is generally thick and broad and has a sharp tip.

  • Advantage: their precision allows them to be used for precise chopping of vegetables using a chopping board. The edges are also uniformly finished and sharp, suiting the knife’s use for chopping vegetables.
  • Disadvantages: may require regular polishing and sharpening for use.

Kitchen Shears

These are also known as kitchen scissors. It’s a type of high-quality knife that comes in the design of a pair of scissors. The scissors are strong and sharp and can easily be used to cut open various food packages. Besides, the shears can be helpful in breaking down a chicken.

  • Advantages: the high quality of the shears make the knife suitable for its specified use.
  • Disadvantages: the knife’s usage is limited.

Dinner knife

This is yet another type of kitchen knife whose usage is probably the most widely spread among all kitchen knives. It is often used in households, hotels, and restaurants when taking breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Unlike most kitchen knives with mixed composition, dinner knives are entirely made of stainless steel, giving them a shiny appearance.

  • Advantages: effective for use during breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
  • Disadvantages: cannot be used for chopping or other precise cutting jobs.

Fruits carving knife

Fruit carving knives come in various forms but are slightly curved. The Garde manger chef uses the fruit carving knife mostly in the cold kitchen. There, the fruit carving knife is used for salad carving, fruit carving, or vegetable carving.

  • Advantages: the knife is one of the best for the precise carving of salad, vegetables, and fruits.
  • Disadvantages: it’s basically limited to cold kitchen usage.

Oyster knife

Just as the name suggests, an oyster knife is basically used to open and clean the inside of oysters. These types of nice are short and thick. Their composition is also dull.

  • Advantage: the knife opens and cleans oysters well.
  • Disadvantages: the knife only serves well for handling oysters.

Vegetable peeler

Although this does not look like other knives, it’s an important kitchen tool and serves like other knives. Its blade is swiveled and blotted. It’s called a vegetable peeler since its design is for peeling vegetables.

  • Advantages: the tool peels fruits and vegetables with precision.
  • Disadvantage: no disadvantage, save for the limitation in use.

Clam knife

The clam knife has a similar composition to the oyster knife, dull and short. Its edges are hard, thick, and shortened. It serves the purpose of opening and clean clams.

  • Advantages: the clam knife cleans clams easily
  • Disadvantages: no major disadvantage, save for the use limitation.

Conclusion

There are many types of kitchen knives, and each suits the usage meant for its design. Knowing the safety and handling practices and how to use each helps prevent common safety incidences. This blog has shared the different types of kitchen knives, their description, and their advantages and disadvantages.