A number of years in the past, a blurb in a meals journal caught my eye. In it, a chef advisable a unique-looking Japanese chef’s knife with big dimples on just one facet of the blade, designed to maintain meals from sticking to it. Knives with little dimples are widespread, however these have been huge, and it made me surprise if the producer was on to one thing. That knife turned out to be as attention-grabbing because it seemed. Whereas it seems to be specialised tools, it will probably assist any degree of residence cook dinner. Whether or not you’re searching for your first good chef’s knife or your eternally blade, this Japanese gyuto suits the invoice.
You will have seen dimples (aka hollows or “kullens”) on different knives and questioned whether or not they stored meals from sticking to them, however on Glestain’s blades they’re supersized, they usually work. The Glestain’s dimples—two rows of them on the gyuto, no much less—are excessive, like a neat double row of thumbprints on just one facet of the blade. Lefties like me order theirs with the dimples on the left facet and righties get them on the correct. Lefties can use the right-handed model (and vice versa) and nonetheless find it irresistible; all they’d lose is the non-stick impact of the dimples. I used to be excited to place it to an extended-use check.
Arduous and Sturdy
A gyuto is a kind of chef’s knife that has a form in between the curvy stomach of a German chef’s knife and the near-flat chopping fringe of the French fashion. There are two variations of Glestain’s gyutos, Skilled and House. I examined each and located them each to be pro-level tools. The foremost variations are that the Skilled has each a bigger tang (the steel half that passes by the deal with) and a steel plate on the butt of the knife. That makes it notably heavier–it feels a bit like a tank. Most residence cooks and line cooks will favor the House model for on a regular basis use.
Each variations characteristic a tough metal blade—59 on the Rockwell hardness scale—in a combination that features chromium, carbon, molybdenum, and vanadium. That mixture creates a tough, skinny, and sturdy blade that resists rust and holds a imply edge. (For extra knife nerdery, try Chad Ward’s wonderful reference, An Edge in the Kitchen.) The Glestains are Japanese-made Western-style knives, high-end Japanese blades with a handles such as you’d discover on a conventional French or German knives. It’s fairly comfy and evenly balanced and can preserve you cheerful as you plow by piles of produce.
Actually, although, we’re right here for these dimples. It is a “common” knife, so there is no particular flick of the wrist to benefit from them. It simply took a minute to know what to anticipate and the way successfully they functioned.
The dimples are fairly deep and far wider than on different knives. I personal an previous Mundial-brand slicer, and the Glestain’s dimples are a lot deeper and simply 3 times as extensive. The actual magic occurs when what you are chopping is wider than the dimples.
I acquired chopping, actually fortunately so. Dimples or not, it is a lovely knife to work with. Dicing onions felt like I used to be doing it with a supremely good blade, not a magic one. For these used to the curvy stomach of a German-style chef’s knife, the flatter arc of the gyuto takes some getting used to. I cooked Moroccan rooster stew from Vishwesh Bhatt’s cookbook, I Am From Right here, a favorite from 2022. It featured chopped dried figs, which didn’t stick an excessive amount of. I cherished the crunch-crunch-crunch feeling of chopping toasted pecans.
Pulling out the brand new Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Extra Good Things cookbook, I made a daikon model of its kohlrabi tonnato recipe. The daikon was about two inches throughout. I began out by making quarter-inch-thick slices with each the Glestain and my santoku, a extra vegetable-focused Japanese knife. The slices lay down neatly subsequent to the Glestain, however once I switched to the santoku, they caught to it as they might to virtually some other knife. I had comparable outcomes once I quartered and sliced the daikon.