Chef's knife

In cooking, a chef's knife, also known as a cook's knife, is a cutting tool used in food preparation. The chef's knife was originally designed primarily to slice and disjoint large cuts of beef. Today it is the primary general-utility knife for most western cooks.

A chef's knife generally has a blade eight inches (20 centimeters) in length and 1 ¹⁄₂ inches (3.8 cm) in width, although individual models range from 6 to 14 inches (15 to 36 centimetres) in length. There are two common types of blade shape in western chef's knives, French and German. German-style knives are more deeply and continuously curved along the whole cutting edge; the French style has an edge that is straighter until the end and then curves up to the tip. Neither style is inherently superior; personal preference will dictate the choice.

A Japanese chef's knife is known as a gyuto (牛刀 ぎゅうとう）, gyūtō), literally meaning 'beef knife'. Its blade resembles a flatter version of a French chef's knife. Japanese cutlery is known for sharpness due to its acute blade geometry, and the hardness of the steel used, often exceeding 60 HRC on the Rockwell scale. A typical western chef's knife may be sharpened to an edge angle of 20-22°, while a Japanese gyuto generally has a sharper edge angle of 15-18°, which requires a harder, more brittle grade of steel. In recent years Japanese gyuto have gained in popularity with western chefs.