wow

I worked an 800 guest banquet yesterday. Here's one of the entree courses we served.

Grilled & seared chicken/ roasted mushroom demi-glace/ green beans with bacon/ rosemary potatoes.

We had planned on creamed kale and roasted fingerling potatoes, but our produce order got messed up apparently.

I got a new toy for Christmas

Nice! Tojiro is a great starter jknife. Be careful tho, jknives are much harder steel so if you dont maintain it you will regret it.

Oh yeah for sure. I've got a few Tojiros already and I've loved them. They take an edge super quick and hold them surprisingly well for Japanese knives. I paired this against a shun and misono that my chef has, and I really think that (some) Tojiros are a better bang for your buck. I like the fact that they are high maintenance knives.

Oh yeah tojiro are way better value than shuns. Once celebrity chefs started using shuns the price went WAAAY up, and the quality went down. Do you sharpen your own knives? I've been doing it for about a year now and it's very therapeutic after a crazy busy day to just get home and sharpen the knives.

If you ever think you're gonna make a knife purchase let me know and I can help point you to the best bladesmiths, japanese or american. I've done a significant amount of research and have a decent collection going on now.

Shuns are stupidly over-priced. They're heavy in hand, the blade wedges and loses it's edge super fast. The only good thing that I can say about a Shun is that (for the most part), they are very reliable in the sense that they can take a beating. A few people I work with prefer Global, but I just can't really get into them. The main knife that I have been using for both prep work, and on the line is a 240mm Tojiro ITK Wa-Gyuto. It's a carbon steel knife that comes with a Kurouchi finish. I refinished it by sanding off the Kurouchi finish, and forcing a heavy mustard patina on it since carbon steel is so reactive. It's an amazing knife (especially for the price), but at 240mm it was at times inconvenient on the line since the blade is so long. The knife I posted the picture of is a 180mm Tojiro DP so it's like 3-4 inches shorter roughly? I've used it on the line the last couple of services, and it performs so well. I'm going to replace the handle with a D-shaped handle like my 240mm has, as I'm not the biggest fan of western knife handles. I am trying to save up some money and get a handmade Florentine knife. My chef has one and it may be the best knife I've ever used.

I definitely sharpen my own knives. I (personally) think that knowing how to properly sharpen knives is something that every chef should know how to do, and should do. I always keep my knives extremely sharp. I've got a few different stones that I use. I've got a 5,000 grit Naniwa, a 120/1,200 grit Nubatama combo stone I use for repairing, and a 8,000 grit Kitayama that my chef gave me.

Yeah agreed 240mm is a bit long for a line knife, I prefer 210 or 180. Right know I'm waiting for a new line knife, It's been on order for ~8 months, should be finished soon. It'll be a Devin Thomas ITK 210 Wa-Gyuto in AEB-L. It is stainless, but I prefer that for a line knife, I don't have to worry about reactivity at all that way, some carbon knives I've had have reacted with meat juices even with a forced petina, and AEB-L is a breeze to sharpen if it was heat treated properly. Pretty pricey, but I've used his knives before and they are incredible. The only knives I've had more joy in using were Murray Carter's knives. I've always wanted to try a Florentine, I don't have a knife yet that was made outside of North America/Japan.

Do you know Thomas Keller?

I wish. My chef has met him and said that he was a really cool dude, though. It would be pretty awesome to meet him, for sure.