“You can cook, if you need to, with a fire and a few ingredients. You can make things simple with a pot or two. But cooking changes the day you choose a decent knife. A good knife is probably going to set you back a few quid. It needn’t cost thousands, but you’re certainly going to choose one that’s suitable for the upper limits of your skills. Choosing your knife is a statement about yourself “I am a cook - not just someone who cooks”.

Once that choice, that declaration and that investment is made, everything changes. Every piece of knifework you do becomes easier but you also begin a relationship with the knife you’ve chosen. With every use you become more skilled, adapting to the knife. With every sharpening, with every nick you put in the edge, the blade adapts to you. In a remarkably short period of time you and your knife grow together. As in any relationship, there is always, still, a long way to go. The knife, mishandled, can do you enormous damage. If you mistreat your knife, you too can damage it. If you keep it as sharp as you should, you will never lose respect for it’s awful capabilities, even as you become more and more skilled in using them.

But because of this, the cost, the time, the development of a ‘relationship’ something wonderful happens. You are so invested in the blade you own that you will not take it in your hand without the intention to enjoy it. Every time I take it from the roll and wrap my fingers around the handle of my favourite knife, I know that every single cut I make will be a pleasurable experience, something honourable, meditative, physical yet calming.

A good knife will, indeed, transform the way you cook”