Knife Crime

I've always preferred carbon steel knives. I inherited my first carbon steel knife from my (French) grandmother when I was in my late teens. I remember it well: it's greying blade honed razor sharp had a pronounced curve to it's edge. I thought it was supposed to be like that and it wasn't until a year or two later when I bought my own first cook's knife in Paris that I realised that it's shape was the result of several decades use of the steel.

Carbon steel is softer than stainless. This means that it can be honed more easily and it's possible to get a brilliantly sharp edge to it. Of course it also means that it blunts very quickly. Carbon steel also rusts and discolours and many people wouldn't consider them as they (mistakenly) think them unhygienic and unattractive. But for a cooks knife I wouldn't consider anything else. Unfortunately, as they need sharpening often and as sharpening them is so rewarding since one ends up with such a sharp blade, it's easy to end up with a knife shaped like my grandmother's. Knife crime! it's easy to do...

Carbon steel kitchen knives are hard to find. It's really only the French who continue to produce them - usually one of the Sabatiers producers from around Thiers. But all these producers now offer knives directly to cooks around the world on their web sites. This year I realised that my own 20 year old 6" cooks knife had begun to be shaped like my grandmother's and it was time to buy another. I chose a Sabatiers 'K' knife and, having ordered it it arrived in just 48 hours. And here it is...



We're very glad to have it in Devon (though it will go back to London at the end of the summer). It joins my 8" cooks knife (also London based) and forms the base of the kitchen's preparation batterie. For preparing vegetables, chopping, mincing and slicing there's nothing to beat them.

We do use stainless knives. There are two Wusthof flexible slicing knives that are also indispensible for slicing meat and fruit and for carving. All of these are maintained with a fantastic Wusthof diamond coated steel. A cook and his knives...how obsessive is that?

Swine 'Flu

It turns out that the young man does have Swine 'Flu. This means departure to Salcombe is delayed until Thursday morning. At least this will give us a chance to see Harry Potter in London. Meanwhile my thoughts turn to moving the kitchen.

We bought the house in Devon on our wedding day in 1993. Having sold the wife's flat we moved into my house in London and the contents of her flat moved to Devon. Over the years we've acquired most of the hardware we need for the kitchen and we have an enormous collection of Solimene tableware so we can accommodate a supper for 12 people.

But I always worry about whether I will have enough knives. I usually end up taking my carbon steel cooks knife for the summer as there are often large amounts of vegetables to be prepared and I don't have one in Devon.




What I miss most from the London batterie when we're in Devon is the various Le Pentole tall cook pots with their associated drainers and steamers. But I have to draw the line somewhere...The wife's original Le Creuset (in deep red) is still going strong.

This year I've bought a new Risoli griddle from David Mellor (this is a steal at £16 and out performs the higher-sided and more expensive versions). I've also bought a larger and heavier non-stick tin for baking focaccia.




But the hardware is less of a problem than the consumables. Food shopping is a completely different experience in Devon. Whilst there are several good butchers, a great fishmonger and a good greengrocer the deli is only OK and the supermarket is awful. I'm used to popping into Waitrose on the Kings Road and ordering from Ocado but there is no Waitrose for miles. The only supermarket delivery is Tesco which doesn't really cut it when it comes to food.

So shopping in Devon takes more time as the shops are in different places. And some things are impossible to find so we end up taking a stack of stuff down at the beginning of the summer. Badoit for example, Spanish cured meats such as Jamon Iberico and Chorizo and house wine.

This year the house wines are two d'Arenberg wines - the 2006 Twentyeight Road and the 2006 Galvo Garage.

So what with various cases of wine, water and a bin full of other important food there's a rather large pile of stuff accumulating in the kitchen that will now be there until Thursday.

I console the wife by explaining how much more complicated it could be and set her to read 'eat and dust' - where Pamela Timms travels for 16 hours from Delhi to reach their summer house and fills one complete car with the kitchen contents.