A few weeks ago I received a 20-piece cutlery set at a PR event here in New York (it's up for grabs so click through if you want it) and it got me thinking about how many people buy knife sets. As you have probably heard me say before, I believe you only really need two knives: a paring knife and a chef's knife. If you can only pick one, it's obviously the chef's knife. If allowing yourself three, a serrated bread knife is handy.

Now, back the issue of the knife set: I'd like to take an anonymous survey, and please do tell the truth:

Just before the cake was cut at a wedding we recently attended, we saw the mother-of-the-groom ceremoniously hand this family cake cutter to her new daughter-in-law. What a sweet moment! More

I guess I've been in a mushroom mood lately. This morning, I joined the Mycological Society of San Francisco, and this week I've written about pink oyster mushrooms and abalone mushrooms. More

Chopping chocolate for things like brownies and fudge was always one of our least favorite kitchen tasks. That is, until a pastry chef friend suggested we try using a serrated bread knife! More

After Sara Kate's post on the crazy All-Clad Tomato Slicer and in light of Faith's upcoming wedding, we thought we'd share one of our favorite wedding gifts... More

Last weekend we went to our local farm's annual tomato tasting (yum, 52 varieties!) and at one table I spotted a volunteer slicing her batch with this crazy implement. Made by All-Clad, it has the typical serrated blade, but it sports an enlarged, rounded tip that is for serving (perfect for a tasting, but my guests usually aren't so hungry that I need to serve slices right off the knife!).

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Ah IKEA. We spent a few hours there on two separate trips recently, and we were reminded of how much we love and hate the place. It's maddening yet delicious; inexpensive yet deceptively pricey. Some of their kitchen goods are not worth even the $2 they cost, but there are others that we have found to be good buys. We'll look at a few favorites this month - feel free to chip in with your own!

Here's the first installment: the RATIONELL wooden cutlery drawer. More

Recently I came home from a tradeshow with the usual bag full of goodies that usually get donated or given away, and came across a tidy little package from SwissMar: three peelers with different blades. I was about to put them in the give-away pile, when I noticed that the three blades basically mimicked the functionality of my beloved Benriner mandoline. Hence, the perfect mandoline replacement for a small space and a small budget. More

We're not proponents of having a dozen knives hanging around your kitchen. You really need only a few essentials — a chef's knife and a small paring knife are two important ones, and many folks would add a bread knife to that list. But when it's not being used for baguettes, a bread knife is perfect for slicing tomatoes... More