The Three Knives Every Cook Should Have

Here’s one of my strongest opinions:

Most cooks only need three knives. 

That’s right. Just three knives will get you through almost all the food prep you’re likely to do as a cook.

And the amazing thing about these cutlery basics is that you don’t have to spend a ton to get great quality. Put together, our favorites will set you back less than $100—a true bargain, considering all the use you’re going to get out of them. 

Below are the top three essentials plus a few extra bonus knives if you’re building out your set.

A good chef’s knife is the most essential, versatile, and indispensable knife you can own. You can use it for pretty much any task, large or small, that you might do on a cutting board–everything from breaking down a chicken to chopping up a butternut squash and mincing parsley. 

What to Buy: We like chef’s knives with sharp, gently curved 8-inch blades and large handles made from grippy materials. Our longtime favorite is the Victorinox Swiss Army Fibrox Pro 8” Chef's Knife. It’s lightweight and has a superkeen blade; testers of all hand sizes loved its grippy (but not restrictive) handle. 

If you’d like a slightly heavier option, we also like the Mercer Culinary Renaissance 8-Inch Forged Chef's Knife. And if you are looking for the greatest bang for your buck, our Best Buy is the Mercer Culinary Millennia 8-Inch Chef's Knife. 

You can also get a gyuto, or Japanese chef’s knife, in place of a chef’s knife if you prefer, but note that it isn’t quite as versatile as the Western-style chef’s knives we list above. Made from hard Japanese steel, gyuto are more likely to chip and get damaged if used to break down chickens or cut denser foods such as butternut squash. 

A paring knife is the best option for any small task that you might do either on or off your cutting board: slicing a little block of cheese; peeling, quartering, and coring an apple, or cutting limes into wedges. 

We also use them for more intricate work, such as mincing a shallot, deboning a chicken breast, or cutting slits in pork chops for stuffing. And we use them to poke potatoes and other root vegetables in order to see if they are cooked through.  

What to Buy: We prefer sharp paring knives with relatively short, thin blades measuring less than 4 inches in length; these gave us the precision and agility we expect of these tools. A comfortable handle is key here too. Our favorite paring knife is the Victorinox Swiss Army Spear Point Paring Knife, which ticks all of those boxes and, at just $11, is an amazing value to boot.

As its name implies, a good bread knife is perfect for slicing any kind of bread–crusty, soft, or dense multigrain. It’s also our knife of choice for slicing foods both tough (watermelon, pineapple) and ultradelicate (tomatoes, layer cakes). And it excels at slicing foods that have layers with different textures–a BLT with slippery tomatoes and crisp, crunchy bacon, for example. 

Yes, if you buy only sliced bread and never cut any of these other things, you could probably skip this knife. But it’s worth getting one even if you cut these foods only occasionally.

What to Buy: Our favorite, the Mercer Culinary M23210 Millennia 10-Inch Wide Wavy Edge Bread Knife, is incredibly sharp, easy to wield, and inexpensive, costing just $23 at the time of this writing. It’s got a long blade that will span large loaves and bisect jumbo watermelons easily, and its handle is grippy and comfortable to hold even when it gets wet. 

While you don’t need to buy any knives beyond the three listed above, other types of knives can be great additions to your collection.

In general, supplemental knives and bladed tools should allow you to do certain tasks much more easily and enjoyably than with one of the knives we mention earlier. A nakiri, for example, might not replace your chef’s knife, but it can be a true pleasure to use, especially if you chop a slew of vegetables on a regular basis. And a meat cleaver is essential for folks who expect to do a lot of light butchery, frequently breaking down chickens or turkeys. The types of additional knives that will be useful to you depend primarily on what kinds of food prep you do the most. 

Beyond the basic three knives we think every home cook should own, here are a few of our favorite bonus knives:

When to Use Shears: A good pair of shears is remarkably handy. They’re good not only for basic scissor-like tasks, such as opening bags of rice or pasta or cutting twine for trussing chicken, but also for lots of food-related tasks, such as snipping herbs, trimming pie dough, cutting florets from heads of cauliflower and broccoli, and butterflying chickens, to name just a few.

What to Buy: The best shears are sharp, powerful, can get a good grip on the slipperiest foods, and are easy for both righties and lefties to use. Our longtime favorite shears are the Shun Multi-Purpose Shears, which snipped their way through delicate parchment and tough herb stems equally well. For less than half the price, we also recommend the J.A. Henckels International Take-Apart Kitchen Shears. They’re not quite as powerful as our favorites, but they do a great job all the same.

When to Use a Petty or Utility Knife: A petty knife splits the difference between a paring knife and a chef’s knife, with a medium-length blade that makes it a great option for medium-size tasks. It’s ideal for slicing tomatoes; mincing shallots; and slicing salami, firm cheese, and cooked skin-on chicken breasts.

What to Buy: The best petty knives are sharp, agile, and responsive. Our top pick is the Tojiro 150mm Petty R-2 Powder Steel and our Best Buy is the MAC PKF-60 Pro Utility 6". But we also highly recommend several other petty knives if these two options aren’t available.

When to Use a Slicing Knife: As its name implies, a slicing knife is ideal for slicing large cuts of boneless meat such as roast turkey breasts, flank steak, or a brisket. It’s also great for portioning bigger baked goods such as sheet pans of pizza or focaccia and baking dishes of cake and blondies. Basically, its long blade spans those big pieces of food easily so that you can cut evenly. 

What to Buy: Our favorite slicing knives have especially long 12-inch blades with grantons–special indentations that help keep food from sticking to the knife as you cut. They also have big, comfortable handles that raise your hand above the cutting board as you work. The Victorinox Swiss Army Fibrox Pro 12” Granton Slicing/Carving Knife is our longtime favorite, and a great option for anyone who regularly roasts or barbecues big cuts of meat.

When to Use a Boning Knife: A flexible boning knife is one of the most basic butcher’s tools that home cooks might find useful. Its thin, narrow blade is great for trimming silverskin or fat off of roasts, deboning chicken breasts or thighs, and getting around joints to cut both raw and cooked meat free. Doing any of this work at home can save you money at the grocer’s. Instead of buying pricey boneless chicken breasts, for example, you can buy slightly less expensive bone-in versions and debone them yourself. (An added advantage: you can also save the discarded bones for stock!)

What to Buy: The best boning knives are ultrasharp and have relatively short, nimble blades. Our favorite is the Zwilling Pro 5.5" Flexible Boning Knife, which made quick work of all the fussiest tasks we gave it. For slightly less, our Best Buy is the Victorinox Swiss Army Fibrox Pro Boning Knife.