002: KITCHEN TOOLS - Knives

Chris

It kinda is.

Phil

it's on everyone's registry. And if you were like me, you probably registered for more than one set in hopes that whomever would buy the nice for you would end up purchasing the more expensive set. But in all actuality, you ended up with two sets, so it kind of backfired

Chris

can't, can't say that happened to us when we just, we just went for one. but yeah, we just had that one set that we got for our wedding for a long time and yeah. This episode was actually inspired by, some realizations that we had that we didn't have to live with. That one set that we got for our wedding. All our knives don't have to match, and there's really no need for eight specific knives. And so. inspiration for this came out of that realization and the purchase of a couple new knives that we kind of like a lot better than the set that we got.

Phil

So, Chris, what I think I hear you saying is that we can throw out our knife sets or maybe not throw away, but give away or do whatever rid of them, if you will, and then get like two or three knives that you love and quality of life increases. And so does your cooking

Chris

Hmm. Maybe at least your enjoyment of it. I don't know. I think there's, there's this idea that I was actually talking with somebody about today in a slightly unrelated field, but I feel like the, concept holds and, it's a philosophy that I feel like I've really ascribed to a lot lately. but just the idea of, trimming something down to a simpler form of form that you. No is sustainable and you can actually follow through and deliver on. And, just that idea of simplifying kind of for mental energy sake, as well , as follow through. I think you can apply that to the kitchen as well. And there's nothing for me that immediately, exemplifies that idea as cookware and. Others kitchen utensils, like knives, because, you know, we get these knives sets that are filled with eight different knives that have all these different specific uses. You have a little filet knife, a couple of different varieties of chef's knives and like little

Phil

or the meat Cleaver

Chris

beak knives and me cleavers. And how many of those do we really actually need? And when I'm, cooking and I'm thinking about how to prepare something I get in this, this little, mental roadblock thinking about and questioning, am I using the right utensil? Part of that revelation that , I was talking about that we had was that it's okay to only use a couple, different pieces of cookware and a couple of different knives. And so, we've been trying to paired down the amount of knives that we have to, the ones that we really, need.

Phil

totally agree with you. 100%. If you could come up with a bullet point list of the knives that you use, if you could quantify those, what, what do you think they'd be.

Chris

I think , the very first one would be. Yeah, your, your normal chef's knife, because you can really do 90% of all of your prep work with just that knife. I love . The rhythm that you can get into chopping vegetables with that knife. And you can't quite get into that same rhythm with, with smaller knives. There's something about the, the larger blade and kind of the, the specific curve that it has, that you can just get into like a really nice little rhythm. and that ends up being the knife that I, reach for it all the time. And it's nice. feeling like it's okay. Just to have that one go too.

Phil

Yeah. And like the curves that you're talking about, I, I think I was slightly aroused. We could probably not put that in there. Continue. Oh, my.

Chris

and so. beyond the chef's knife, if there's something that feels like it's too small, for that size of knife, I'd be picking up a paring knife and the knife. That we just bought, was actually a paring knife. And, , I love the utility of, of a small knife like that. You can, you really can do a lot with that as well. , I would say the vast majority of cooking prep work can be accomplished. with just those two.

Phil

Sure. Yeah, you could probably go an entire year of cooking with just those two knives. And I think you could, you could make some pretty cool dishes, unless of course. Your wife is a world renown Baker.

Chris

Yes.

Phil

someone on this podcast.

Chris

yeah, so my, , my wife a Baker and, at their bakery, they do carry a really fantastic bread knife, which I would say is the, the last of the three knives that we use all the time. there's something about, a cerated knife that allows you to, to cut things that are generally pretty squishy really well. , you have the surveillance work instead of having to apply downward pressure. So you're not squishing your bread. Although I've seen, I've seen plenty of people. Squish their bread with a serrated knife. Just don't do that. Let the serrations work for you. but then other things that worked really well for it, two things like tomatoes. another squishy thing you can just like splat the seeds out all over the place.

Phil

Wait, wait a second.

Chris

yes.

Phil

used Serita. Nice to cut tomatoes. Does everybody do that?

Chris

If they don't, they

Phil

that thing?

Chris

honestly, it's

Phil

Why didn't I think of

Chris

things that my wife taught me, BLTs, which should be another in the kitchen episode. Cause I don't know who doesn't love a BLT. I think, I think that's, that's where I, found that one

Phil

Cutting tomatoes with Serita. Nice. I feel like I just saw color for the first time.

Chris

And Phil doesn't exaggerate at all Yeah. That, that would be my list. Those three knives.

Phil

Cool. Chef's knife, paring knife, bread knife. Get rid of all the rest. Give it away. Give your meat Cleaver to the butcher. Give your Turkey Carver to, your, I don't know,

Chris

Turkey carving friend, Paul Paul trust, poultry Geist,

Phil

you go,

Chris

your local friendly neighborhood Poltergeist.

Phil

poultry guys. That's something different.

Chris

Nah, it's the same thing. The poultry guys serve Turkey, Turkey farmers. That's her official name. Right.

Phil

Oh, I, I knew that for sure. I knew that,

Chris

but yeah, like one thing. Oh, one thing that I love about that idea of, of just trimming it down to three is you can actually get. Three different knives that you like, you don't have to get them in a set. They don't all have to match. And if you're only buying three of something, typically you might have a little more budget to buy something that you like a little bit better and suits your needs a little bit better than if you were buying nine of something or 10 of something. and you don't have to go crazy. I mean, there's some really fantastic. Knives out there and some budget ranges. maybe, maybe we'll do an episode on, on each of those three, but, yeah, since we were looking at paring knives, , you look at the reviews and one of the top reviewed knives is a $7 paring knife. So you don't have

Phil

Well, we'll have to like, yeah, we'll have some show notes and maybe throw out some ideas on what are some really good affordable knives, that can yeah, help us move along a little bit. I learned something for sure. I feel like. Maybe from a cheesy philosophical approach, which I'm kind of that guy often finding the, the value in something that doesn't actually exist. But, um, I think maybe even just the philosophical approach of figuring out the whole dad thing and trying to be a better father, trimming down, like you're saying, as cheesy as it sounds. I think there's some lessons that we can learn from, from the amount of utensils we have in the kitchen, you know, just finding something that you love and doing it over and over again with repetition is going to lead us to be more comfortable with it. And hopefully I think that would lead us to, to just be better at what we do, and be better dads. So I can translate to several different

Chris

Well, I wonder if the act of freeing up mental space, you know, if we're ever taking some of those, some of those tasks that previously seemed beyond us or overwhelming or something and, and, kind of paring them down. If that does free up mental space that we can then give to things that maybe matter more in our lives.

Phil

This podcast goes deep. .

Chris

No. And we've only started,

Phil

We are going to solve the world's problems with this thing. I'm so

Chris

Absolutely. and another thing that I kinda liked about this idea is that, it appeals to like the, the gear and gadget geek inside of me. , I love . Diving into reviews and finding like the ideal solution, the ideal like product that solves my problems. and one thing that I found is that , in that process , I was excited to use the knives that we got and it felt like I had a little bit more, I dunno, the kitchen didn't feel as foreign to me. It wasn't like all of these utensils that were my wife's or, you know, the other people bought us, but there was just a little bit more ownership and a little bit more buy in and a little bit more excitement in the kitchen for me. And I don't know, that's not, I don't think that's a bad thing when you're, when you're trying to spend

Phil

paid off for you,

Chris

Yeah.

Phil

which in turn, I think is going to pay off for me. Cause I'm not so much a researcher as I am a clicker of things that might look fancy on a wedding registry. So the things I would do, if I could do it over again,

Chris

That's why we work well

Phil

no, not that I will. Like I, I'm not going to. I'm not going to do that again.

Chris

Yeah.

Phil

She's amazing.

Chris

we like Ashley, so you can, you can stick with her for awhile.

Phil

She's she's blushing. I can, I can see it through the radio waves. I can see it through the internet. Cloud, whatever this is. Alright. Well, Chris, nicer fun.

Chris

Lemons

Phil

like the lemon zester.

Chris

You gotta be careful around those. Sometimes, sometimes.

Phil

So be safe, everybody. And thanks for tuning in.

Chris

just in case people wanted to, I dunno, figure out when our next episode comes out or give us some feedback. let us know what knives day like, or. , check out our blog, even which we'll hopefully have a little bit more info on some of the things that we like where can they find all of that fell?

Phil

Yeah. I'm so glad you mentioned that. keep the conversation rolling. at dad's kitchen code.com for the blog. And I'm really excited about that. What that's gonna look like, the show notes, obviously the research that you're talking about, but, also just some really helpful resources. check us out on Instagram. What's our Instagram handle. Dad's kitchen co yes. On the Instagram. And then I think Facebook just adds kitchen, lots of platforms, lots of mediums of communication.

Chris

So check one of those out and, uh, we hope to see you back for our next episode so thanks Phil