Chef's Dish: Different Types of Kitchen Knives for Homes and Commercial Kitchens

There are so many different types of kitchen cutlery to choose from when shopping for your commercial kitchen or home kitchen. So how do you know which knives you need? Well, we’re here to cover all the different types of kitchen knives for homes and commercial kitchens. That way you can know exactly which ones fit your specific needs and which are considered essential.

Types of Kitchen Knives

There’s a wide variety of kitchen knives to choose from. Here are some of the most essential types of knives for a commercial kitchen or home. 

Chef’s Knife

According to Executive Chef Frank Barrett-Mills, your Chef’s knife will do about 85% of the work in your kitchen. You can find a chef’s knife in a variety of sizes by length as well to give you some options. 

• Uses: A chef’s knife is considered to be a multipurpose knife. You can use it for mincing herbs, julienning vegetables, or for larger cuts like slicing chicken or other meat. 

Serrated Knife

These come with a more offset blade and are serrated unlike a chef’s knife. They’re also sometimes referred to as a bread knife. 

• Uses: These are predominantly used for slicing breads. However it can be used for vegetables with thick skins and soft insides. 

Paring Knife

These small blades give you more control for precision or detail oriented cutting. 

• Uses: This knife also can be considered multi purpose since it can be used for skinning, trimming, and artistic use in fruits and vegetables. 

Boning Knife

These knives are considered to be quite powerful despite their small size.

• Uses: Boning knives are used for removing any leftover meat from bones.

Cleaver

These knives you’ve probably seen in cartoons. They’re incredibly powerful thanks to their size.

• Uses: Cleavers are best suited for cutting large cuts of meat, softer bones, or even hard vegetables. 

Kitchen Shears

You may be thinking, those are scissors not a knife. Well, kitchen shears are still an important part of any kitchen cutlery collection.

• Uses: Shears are best for cutting fresh herbs and scallions, removing florets from broccoli, or disjointing chicken bones. 

Santoku Knife

These knives share a similar style to a chef’s knife but have a lower tip to give it more precision. 

• Uses: Just like the chef’s knife, the santoku knife also has a lot of uses. This includes being used for chopping or dicing vegetables or slicing sushi and chicken.