cafeblackthorn

[cafeblackthorn]

The Cooking Guild's Fifth Anniversary Knife

I've been a chef now for going on fourteen years, I can safely say I've ran the gauntlet of knives (mercer, shuns, dalstrongs, along with some severely expensive Japanese blades). Last year I had to bid a very tearful goodbye to a Japanese Gyuto that had been in my kit for ten years, the blade snapped in half and sufficed to say I was quite upset. I will admit here and now that when it comes down to knives I am extremely spoiled. Japanese blades have been the backbone of how I do prep and butchery for the entirety of my career. I was doom scrolling through Instagram one night and I came across the cooking guild the knives looked good and they were reasonably priced, so I pulled the trigger and got my hands on the eight inch Dynasty Series Gyuto and I was well impressed, It was a well balanced sharp as hell knife that had a hammered Damascus finish and it still performs quite well. That blade paved the way for a heftily large collection of The Cooking Guilds products and in august of 2024 The Cooking Guilds Fifth Anniversary came around and I had to get my hands on it. I finally got the knife a few weeks ago and only today did I really get the chance to play with it. So here it goes,

Pro's The Handle: The weight of the handle feels a bit heavier than the OG Dynasty knife and for me thats perfect!!!, a blade with a bit of a heavier handle is to me a perfect knife. The best thing to ask in the wake of that statement is WHY?, and it's a simple answer , a safe knife is a sharp knife, and a safe knife is a blade you can properly control. The handle on the knife makes me a whole hell of a lot more comfortable than a lot of the knives I've played with over the years. The Blade: The Blade itself is a VG10 Hammered Damascus Knife that when I am pinch gripping immediately brings me back to the obscenely pricy Japanese blades In my collection it is comfortable, I have proper economy of motion in my hand when I am prepping with it and as such the safety of the knife is also top notch.

The Sheath: Sense memory is a truly beautiful thing, and when new Items trigger powerful sense memory it breeds a sense of comfort and familiarity in the item new to your possession. If you've shopped Japanese Blades, then you know that the sheaths for the blades are made of wood and come with a small retaining pin, while this is a great system, I've had the remarkably bad luck over the years of loosing retaining pins by the bucketload. The Sheath for the Gyuto is a magnetic sheath that attaches to the knife, it doesn't shake, it's not loose, the sheath is a genuinely perfect fit and I wish that the cooking guild would forego leather sheaths in place for these magnetic wood blade covers. Cons: I know this comes as a bit of a shock, (amped up knife lover that I am), before I am a knife lover, I am a chef and I am a chef who knows what he wants and knows what a perfect blade should be, and frankly there are only two flaws I genuinely find with the fifth anniversary blade. Out of the box sharpness: Not a major issue, out of the box it got the job done, I will flat out admit that it left a bit to be desired to a few passes on a honing steel and the blade went from knife to lightsaber really quick.

Handle Construction: While the weight is superb the wood while quite well worked is not perfectly fit to the tang of the knife, it is quite small and would go unnoticed to the home cook, however as somebody who has been cooking for quite a long time I noticed it quite immediately Overall: The Fifth Anniversary Knife is an incredibly solid blade and for a limited run blade it is (forgive the aweful pun) a cut above the rest and it has employed technology in its construction that TCG should employ elsewhere within their product line

Final Grade: 9.5/10

[cafeblackthorn]

I'm finally where I belong

  �� I'm a chef, a hiker, and a pagan. During my thirteen years as a chef, I've done and seen quite a lot of interesting things. In the time I've slogged it out in kitchens, I've always found myself returning to three things in my life: cooking, writing, and telling stories. I sufficed to say that the restaurant industry has given me a great deal of perspective on many, many things, quite a few of which I genuinely found to be superbly unexpected. In the immortal words of Ray Liotta in "Goodfellas", "All my life I wanted to be a gangster". From childhood to my early teen years my Saturday morning cartoons were replaced with cooking shows. "The Essence of Emeril", "Emeril Live", "Bobby Flay's Grillin and Chillin", "Molto Mario", "A Cook's Tour, and despite his current universal dragging by Uncle Roger "The Naked Chef with Jaime Oliver"

                    I genuinely give a lot of credit to my father, our bonding during my childhood was spent traveling across Queens where I currently live eating my way through every ethnic group to call Queens home. Those times exploring with my dad helped me come out of my shell and paved the way to becoming who I am today. A place my father and I regularly ate at was Rosa's Pizza in Maspeth, it was in this temple of Red Sauce Americana that exposed me to what would eventually evolve into my loving cooking. My Dad and I always and nearly without fail sat within the same three rows of booths and my culinary education as a New Yorker began. Whether you're a New Yorker for life or a transplant with a few years in the city we all accept a few simple truths, no matter how hard you try you can't get all the grease off of a regular slice, the corner slice of a Sicilian pie is the best piece (I defy you to tell me otherwise), and no matter what you do fountain soda from a pizzeria just hits different.

               In Rosa's you had the regular crew slinging pies in the open kitchen, and if you were in the mood for something heavier you had the closed-off portion of the kitchen where one of my favorite people in the world cooked day in and day out. Pete was an older guy when I was a kid and he still made some of the best Italian-American food you could ever sink your teeth into, and eventually, he would become like a second grandfather to me. The days he was at work and my dad and I happened to be in we'd walk away with a free soda here, a free slice there and I remember he even comped a meal for us, which for the time was unheard of (and it's even more so now). Pete had this uncanny ability to always make you smile and I remember the day he changed my life forever. Pete walked out of the kitchen in his sauce-stained waist apron, salt and pepper hair, and that caterpillar mustache that was almost a pre-requisite if you were cooking in a pizzeria in the 90's

               "Your dad tells me you want to be a cook?" I remember having a chunk of Sicilian dangling in my jaws, all I could do was nod like an idiot, I looked at my dad and he smiled knowingly. Pete took me into the kitchen where I saw three bowls and an eggplant cut into rounds. "Eggplant Parmesan, it's easy, I'm gonna show you how". Pete proceeded to show me how to pass the eggplant from flour to egg, to breadcrumb and how to put them into a deep fryer, I remember the sensory overload that making that food did for me. The slime of the egg, the powdery POOF the flour made when my eggplant hit the bowl and the crunch of breadcrumbs through my fingers, I even remember the squeal of delight and terror I let out as I saw produce deep fry for the first time. I'm not gonna lie, looking back on it now the thought of a nine-year-old kid rocketing food into a deep fryer gives me all kinds of anxiety, Pete showed me how to assemble an eggplant parm step by step with the most patience I've ever been shown in a kitchen and when all was said and done he laid a takeout container in front of me, It was my eggplant parm that I made and ya know what? It was fucking delicious.

                My Dad and I would take a nearly five-month break from visiting Rosa's and when we came back, I remember something felt off. The giant dining room somehow seemed bigger, the shine I always remembered gleaming off the tables seemed to dull somehow. My dad ordered for us our usual and we took to our usual booth. I remember saying to my dad "I wonder if Pete's working". Looking back on it now, I should have realized something was amiss when my Dad's absent gaze locked on me "He died..a few days ago", I remember finishing that slice of pizza with a tear in my eye understanding the importance that love had on cooking. Pete was gone, and it felt as though the love had gone from that restaurant.

               Pete's lived in my memory now for twenty-six years. A sadness admittedly enters my mind, I mourn the fact that Pete showed me what I was meant to become, I mourn the fact that I couldn't return to show him what I've learned. I said to myself when I began a writing effort, to putting my thoughts, and opinions on food, where I started would be important, and despite the fact, I would gain an Idol who left a permanent mark on my soul, It all comes back to Pete, and though he's gone I'm still a chef because of him, I'd raise a toast to you Pete, thank you for giving a fat little nine-year-old the realization he had a place in the world. I thank you for instilling in me a sense of pride in my work and working with my hands. Grazie Pietro, se non fossi entrato nella mia vita. Non so la direzione che avrebbe presso.