For henkles make sure you only get the German ones. the Brazilian ones are garbage.

from my time in the kitchen the only great brands were

Henkel
Victoriaknox
Global

Probably not the best on price but check out JB Prince. A lot of cool kitchen stuff for sale.

http://www.jbprince.com/

I rarely use the chef's knife from the set.. but the spatula spreader is awesome for cheese and spreading things. Probably the most used knife in the kitchen

Personally my go to knife is a Victorinox 8" chef's knife that I've had for 15 years, and the other one is a Wustof 6" Sankotu. I'm not a fan of buying a set of knives, since most of the time there are really only going to be a few that you use. Go to a place that sells knives, and hold them. and see if they are for you. If your hands are bigger, you may not have a deep enough heel on the knife and you find you bash your knuckles as you are chopping. Or the knife doesn't have a great balance for you, or the handle is too heavy, or too thick. You wont know until you try. You will also need a good honing steel.

get ceramic ones

made in Japan by Kyocera

Real men have bad ass kitchens.

I thought the best cooks are male! (and hairdressers)

They are, but they are also gay.

I vote ceramic.

You should read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential.

About the only knife I use is an 8 inch chefs knife. I'm going to replace my recently broken one with a $20 Oxo goodgrips one. Because money doesn't grow on trees and they get good reviews.

I know what you are saying.

I own a $300 Japanese sushi knife - that knife is truly in a class by itself. I feel like a fricking Samurai just drawing it from the scabbard.

However, I have owned Wustof, Henkels, etc. but I have bought knives that are equal to or better than those from Ross and Marshalls for about $20 - the same exact quality - probably even made in the same place because the steel, shape, weight, balance, etc. are all the same, but only lacking the "Williams Sonoma" or other overly expensive brand mark-up labeled into it.

Cutco is by far the best. Yes they are MLM but very much worth it. I buy them all the time as presents for my family. I don't need anymore. They last a lifetime. Also check out their lifetime warranty. It can't be beat.

I bought my mom a few last year and she freaked out. she went in her drawer and pulled one out and said it was 30 years old but still her favorite knife. She said she didn't know where to get another one from.

Here is my reps url:
http://www.mycutcorep.com/aaronsahr

Ceramic ones ( I have those http://goo.gl/cGy59 )

Pros
- sharp
- easy to clean
- no iron in your food
- last 10x than steel ones and they stay sharp
- cheap
- 21 century technology from Japan

Cons
- can be broken
- can't cut meats with bones or really hard stuff (since it could damage them)

Check those out http://goo.gl/cGy59

Tojiro or Kin tanaka. Not fan of ceramic.

:thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup

I lost a handle on one of our ceramic knives... the portion of the handle that attaches to the blade started getting cut by the blade... one day it just came right off. Had to toss it.

Can't wait until I upgrade our knives to some of these Wustof Culinar knives.

http://www.wusthof.ca/isrenderingeng...d=detail_block

And then a set of All-Clad Copper-Core pots and pans... and Le Creuset bakeware...

Then my OCD perfect-kitchen will be fulfilled...

And I can be fully domesticated.