My Favorite Knife

There are certain kitchen tools that are so great that they truly add profound enjoyment to food preparation. Arguably the very most important tool to have in your kitchen is at least one good quality, really sharp knife. Not only is such a knife more efficient to use than a dull one, it is also much safer to use because the ease of cutting your food with it makes it less likely that you will struggle or put unneeded pressure downward upon it, and hence much less likely to become injured yourself!

One summer I was blessed with the opportunity to spend a number of weeks in the southwest of France with my family. However, the batterie de cuisine in our humble apartment did not include even one acceptable chopping apparatus and this was, well, very unacceptable to me! On a beautiful outing to the Mediterranean beach town of Collioure one day, I stopped in at a general store and picked up this fine chef's knife. Nearly four years later it is still the first one I reach for each time I need to chop an onion.

Not only is it very sharp, and just the right length with a very comfortable handle, but each time I use it, it conjures up this image in my mind:

Now how can you beat that?!

Two important lessons to take away from this anecdote:

1) Make sure that you are cooking with tools that get the job done well.

2) Surround yourself with things that give you pleasure, even in the most mundane of tasks!

In conclusion, I leave you with some advice from Pablo Picasso, who was inspired in his art by the beauty of Collioure, the same town that inspires me in memory just about every day in my kitchen!

"Never permit a dichotomy to rule your life, a dichotomy in which you hate what you do so you can have pleasure in your spare time. Look for a situation in which your work will give you as much happiness as your spare time."