Knives for tiny kitchens?

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XooMG

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While there are elements of a "what knife should I get?" post in this thread, I am really more interested in what people would choose for themselves under the circumstances that apply to me. Part of that is because I'm still slowly exploring and expanding my cooking repertoire and haven't established a fixed set of usage criteria.

Anyway, I've got this pretty tiny kitchen. 2.3x1.7m total including counter and refrigerator, counter offers about 60x70cm of total workspace if there's no rice cooker or anything else on it. Cutting board is 33x26cm.

I cook for 2-3 people, maybe 4 at most. Rarely deal with meat or fish (not vegetarian, but my cooking leans that way), and would call my style Chinese with SE Asian influences (probably appropriate since I live in Taiwan and have a Vietnamese/Indonesian/Thai grocery store around the corner).

Ignoring my cooking preferences (substituting with whatever you like), but considering my cooking environment, what kind of knives would you personally use? Would you insist on a 270+ gyuto or would you try to scale things down? Would you use specialized knives or try to find an all-in-one solution like a mini gyuto, tall petty, or santoku; or perhaps a cleaver/petty combo?

I frequently read that knife xyz might be good in confined spaces, but I wonder how many folks here would actually use xzy in such spaces.

Thanks in advance.
 
I have a tiny kitchen in my apartment and space is at a premium, especially when I'm not using the knife. I use a 190mm Gyuto, a small 140mm Petty, a 75mm paring and a 165mm Nakiri, generally only using two knives per meal. In my kitchen anything larger isn't needed for preparing veggies/fruits and meat for one or two and it would take up too much space/be in the way when not in use.
 
man, if i lived in Taipei..i would close my kitchen.. haha.

i love the cooking over there. my wife is taiwanese. she took me back and we ate and ate. the simplest food is so good. lucky dude!

i have a small kitchen too..by american standards. for me, it is about storage. magnet bar only. my counter space is at a premium. nothing comes thru the door, unless it can do more than one chore. (well, the fire extinguisher gets an exemption)
 
I used a board about that size for years in smaller kitchens, with a small cleaver 175mm x 83mm and an 80mm paring knife. That was before I got into knives much, so it was just a cheap stainless cleaver and the paring knife I got from my folks. Nowadays, I'd probably opt for a CCK 1303 cleaver (or something around that size), and a 120mm petty for that space. And I'd probably throw in a cheap Victorinox paring knife, too, for in-hand stuff and for guests to use. And store them on a magnet bar or something like half a magnet bar.
 
I'd go with a 165mm nakiri bochō & an 80 to 150mm paring/utility/petty knife. If slicing meat was involved, I'd switch to a 210 gyuto instead of the nakiri.
 
I have a small kitchen and use a Takeda Banno Bunka and a 4 inch paring knife almost exclusively. I use a 270 chef knife to cut pizza and watermelon.
 
Chuckles, Have you thinned your T Bunka? I love mine to but feel that its kinds thick behind the edge when cutting vegetables. I use this knife almost exclusively for butchering primals.
 
I haven't thinned mine much. And it does get its convexing done real quick. It is thicker than the Takeda Nakiri i have used. I like it on the small veggies I cut for preschool lunches and it cuts the crust off of cinnamon toast like a champ. To be honest I think if it cut much better my wife would stop using it. She already doesn't like it when I sharpen it. :D

She is a pro and out of the seven or eight knives of this size I have forced her to try the takeda is the only one she has preferred to a grand prix santoku. This includes a fowler, 2 carters, a blazen, and a suisin.
 
I have a small kitchen. When I use my 20 x 30 cm board, I prefer my 165mm santoku. For my larger boards (30 x 46cm) the 180 gyutos come out. Depending on the santoku, you get a decent length of flat blade and a usable point. Plus the height is useful for transferring food.
 
This is fun! If I had to have three or so space conscious knives, I'd choose:

A killer nakiri (stainless)

A 210 gyuto

A parer

And a 150 petty

*** Good call, Lucretia! My 180 Shige Santoku could take the place of both the nakiri and 210 gyuto. ***
 
For one knife I'd go with a Yoshikane 180mm petty, which has more weight and knuckle clearance than most, runs long and is a nice hybrid of slicer and small gyuto.
 
small space, santoku without a doubt. short gyutos are not flat enough profile and things get tedious/annoying real fast when you have to do more than cut up a few items at a time. nakiri's i find useless as there is no tip.
 
Wow, got a better response than I was initially expecting. Thanks everyone so far.

I've waffled a bit about the different directions I could take my "collection", given the limitations of my kitchen (which may change at some point) and the malleability of my cooking style (which hopefully will diversify a little more).

I have an inexpensive small Chinese cleaver (165-170mm edge, 80mm height, Maestro Wu brand) and it is a reasonably OK knife for a lot of the prep I've done, and is a style that I am fairly accustomed to. Never cared for the bigger >200mm Chinese cleavers, and always had a sort of secret desire for a nakiri that would give me equal or better performance while not being quite as tall. I rarely do much point work, but that could well be due to adapting to the tool (cleaver) at hand. Thought about the Takeda with stainless cladding, or a Watanabe, or an Asai, or...or.... Waffling has prevented me from scratching that itch.

However, instead of outright replacing the cleaver, I spent my first "real kitchen knife" money on a Sakai Yusuke 210mm gyuto. Honestly, my first impression was that while a very nice knife, it was a bit long and too light. However, it's since grown on me and I'm feeling more comfortable with it every day.

Second "real knife" purchase was going to be a Harner stabber since I'm in line for one of his razors. Through the help of this forum, I was gently talked out of it, but Butch offered a 140mm "tall petty" with a flat gyuto-ish shape that got my attention (it's the bottom one in this post: http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/s...-Petty-Suji(-)?p=248747&viewfull=1#post248747 ). Tom sold it off to someone else, but Butch offered to make me one too.

In the meantime, I signed up for a Delbert Ealy parer in his new style, which should satisfy any handheld tasks that the bigger knives are less ideal for.

This so far leaves me with:
Yusuke 210mm Stainless
[maybe] Harner 140mm "tall petty"
Maestro Wu 170mm cleaver
Ealy new-style parer

I have neglected the santoku, and part of that may be the mediocre reputation it has among gyuto folks. Not very fair, so I'm happy that some folks have posted that they use santoku.

I admit I'm a bit blind when it comes to planning out my kitchen, so it's a real pleasure to see what solutions other people come up with, even if they do very different kinds of cooking.

Thanks again.
 
As I drink my coffee at 4:40am, I'm seeing clearly...or I'm still sleeping. However, I just had a couple thoughts. You already have a great gyuto (yes, at that price, there still is great...nice buy!), and you have a good cleaver that you like, but aren't in love with. You're also in line for a parer that is known to be one of the best you can buy. Awesome! SOOO...why not try out a knife that has you intrigued, but you aren't too sure about? I still think a 150ish petty would be great, but you mentioned always wanting to wield a nakiri. The very best knife out there, for < $10 is the Kiwi Brand Nakiri (cleaver/veg knife). I still use mine pretty regularly, eve with the great knives I have at hand. It'll give you a try-out with the style of knife, and to be honest, you might just love it and keep it for a long time.
 
What do you find is the best way to sharpen your Kiwis?
 
I noticed this AM that Keiichi has posted a Special Thin white #2 210 Gyuto on ebay. I had this knife and if you're into thin knives, this knife will blow you away. I had one a few years ago and it still haunts me that I sold it. 1.) White #2 done by Yusuke takes an extraordinary keen, relative long lasting edge that is easy to refresh with just a strop. 2.) Although the knife is razor thin, 1.7 at the heel, the blade face is still ever so slightly convexed. I now have its big brother 240 Special Thin W#2 and its one of my most used blades when cutting thin really things: herbs, onions, peppers, shredding lettuce that kinda prep.

Please note however, White #2 is reactive and will patina almost instantly and will be black if not wiped before and after use. Good news is that the patina is easy to remove with a rubber rust eraser.
 
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