Commercial Kitchen Cutlery

Three knives per chef — a chef's knife, a paring knife and a serrated knife — plus a steel, a board and a way to store them. Everything else can wait a week.

After that, the service items: serving spoons, ladles, tongs and a carving set. Buy the chef knives properly and the rest to a sensible standard.

For almost everything in a commercial kitchen, yes, because it tolerates a machine wash and acidic food. The exception is high-carbon blades, which hold a better edge but will rust if left wet.

If a kitchen is not going to dry a carbon blade immediately, stainless is the sensible call. The composition of a specific item is on its product page or specifications.

The handle. A handle that works loose lets water in, and that is both a hygiene problem and the point where the item becomes unsafe. Thin pressed items also bend under load.

Full-tang knives and one-piece or well-bonded handles cost more and last longer. That is the whole argument for buying commercial rather than retail.

Some can and some should not, and the item's own listing is the only reliable answer — detergent and high-temperature cycles are hard on timber handles and on fine edges. A commercial dishwasher will blunt a knife faster than cutting will.

As a working rule, knives are washed and dried by hand and service cutlery goes in the machine. Check the listing for anything in between.

Enough to cover a lost item without changing how a station works, which usually means one spare of each prep knife and a reasonable surplus of service cutlery.

Service items disappear into bins and bussing tubs at a steady rate. Budget for replacement rather than treating it as a surprise.

Completely. Table cutlery is chosen on weight, balance and finish because the customer holds it; kitchen cutlery is chosen on function. See tableware for the dining side and disposable cutlery for takeaway.

Do not let one buy cover both. A kitchen using table forks for carving ruins the forks.

Knives in a knife block, a case or on a wall rack — never loose in a drawer, where the edges blunt and someone gets cut reaching in.

Service cutlery in drawer inserts or cylinders, sorted, so a server grabs the right item without rummaging. The cutlery storage range covers both.

A sharpener or steel, colour-coded chopping boards, and the handling items in the kitchen utensils range — tongs, spatulas, scoops.

Cutlery that is sharp and stored properly outlasts cutlery that is replaced twice a year. The accessories are what make the difference.