KITCHENALIA

KITCHEN KNIVES

OTHER guests arrive at a dinner party bearing gifts of flowers, wine or chocolate, but the father of a friend of mine just carries his old velvet-lined carving case of horn-handled knife, fork and steel. So legendary is his carving prowess that no self-respecting hostess would overlook it. When the roast is placed on the table, he springs to his feet and with surgical skill transforms it into slender, shapely slices, fanned out on a serving plate.

It's a maxim of catering that profit lies in portion control and that skilled carving is paramount - the thinner a slice of meat, the more there will be. Of greater interest to the eater is that food can taste differently according to its thickness. Just compare nibbling a fine matchstick of raw carrot with munching a mouthful of the whole root. Furthermore, a sliced or chopped ingredient cooks quickly.

The two virtues are cleverly exploited in the cooking of the Far East. Chinese and Thai dishes often depend on skilfully cut ingredients, while in Japan immaculately cut and carved food - either raw or cooked - also has aesthetic importance. But what kind of knife should you use to achieve such artistry? Most oriental cooks use a single instrument, a large rectangular cleaver, available here in specialist shops and oriental supermarkets. Admittedly, whenever I try to manoeuvre my heavy Chinese cleaver over a small chilli pepper or a slippery fish, I usually conclude that the deft cleaver-wielder is born with the skill, or at least has been taught by a master.

A good knife is the essential kitchen implement. The earliest were made from a splinter of flint, animal bones or antlers, tapered and sharpened by grinding against a rock to produce a cutting blade. Since the Bronze Age, metal has been the preferred material. The principle is simple enough - a strip of metal is given a handle at one end and a blade at the other. Knives used in cooking well predate table knives - for centuries you used your dagger a mealtimes.

In the medieval kitchen the carver used a long, sword-like knife to cut meat. Smaller knives were obviously needed and used, but since they rusted readily in our damp climate few have survived. Keeping knives clean and rust-free was one of the many grim tasks of the Victorian kitchen. Saw- tooth serrated bread knives, often with attractively carved wooden handles, date from the mid-19th century. Around 1890 wavy-edge serrated blades were produced. The first stainless steel knives arrived during the 1920s, though to begin with they were not especially sharp.

Now that improved technology and stainless steel alloys incorporating vanadium and molybdenum have been developed, the steel centres of Europe are producing a new generation of high quality kitchen knives. From Solingen in Germany come the magnificent Zwilling-Henckel knives; the cutlery towns of France manufacture a vast family of excellent Sabatier knives; while in Sheffield the old-established family of Richardson has developed a new range, described as Fusion Edge, with a ridged tungsten-carbide blade that they claim will never need sharpening. I've been using a Richardson vegetable knife for some months and find it first-rate.

Kitchenware shops now sell a bewildering array of superb quality knives. So which are essential in the domestic kitchen? In The Gastronomic Regenerator, published in 1847, Alexis Soyer wrote that 12 different knives were sufficient for the kitchens of the Reform Club. He advised six knives for a wealthy home, two for an ordinary one.

On a magnetic rack in my reasonably ordinary - though reasonably well equipped - kitchen I store 10 different knives. All are stainless steel, except for a big old Sabatier carbon steel chef's knife with a stained but fearsomely sharp blade. After it, comes my heavy Chinese cleaver, a wavy-edge bread knife, an English carver with a 30cm straight-edged blade, another French narrow-bladed knife, and my favourite - a beautifully balanced Sabatier cook's knife with a 20cm curved blade. Next is a shorter straight-edged German version, a neat little palette knife with a serrated blade, the Richardson vegetable knife and a small German boning knife with an incurving blade.

My collection has been assembled - by chance and choice - over the years. If you are about to buy new, it's worth looking at some of the knife collections on offer. Some come in Excalibur-style wooden storage blocks, though you may prefer to buy one at a time since a high-quality knife can be quite expensive. Before buying it is important to hold the knife to check that the handle is comfortable and the blade well balanced, with its shank riveted into the whole length of the handle. Whenever possible, try out the knife in the shop by scing an apple or carrot.

Store your knives separately from other kitchen implements. If you keep them in a drawer, impale corks on their points to protect them - and yourself. Always use a knife on a proper chopping board, not on a plate or a plastic work surface, which will blunt it. And keep kitchen knives sharp by honing them with a steel or modern sharpener.

To discover which of my 10 knives is the most useful I counted for two days last week how many times I used them. Second in frequency came my favourite Sabatier cook's knife. But, unexpectedly, the knife I used most is a French stainles steel one made by Nogent; it has a bendy blade and was bought very cheaply in a supermarket in Greece.

So much for theory; what works matters.

TROPICAL FRUIT SALAD

For the best flavour all the fruit should be perfectly ripe.

Serves 6

1 each: large mango, papaya, guava and star fruit

12 Galia melon

2 slices of fresh pneapple

12 lychees or Chinese gooseberries

seeds of 13 pomegranate (optional)

For the dressing:

4 kumquats

30g/1oz caster sugar

4 passion fruit

Peel the mango, guava, papaya, melon and pineapple and discard the stones and pips. Use a sharp knife and a clean chopping board to slice the fruits thinly, lengthwise. Arrange the slices, a few at a time, to radiate from the centre of the dish like a sunburst, leaving a gap in the middle. Cut the star fruit into star-shaped slices. Peel the lychees and discard the stones. Place the star fruit and lychees in the centre of the dish and sprinkle the pomegranate seeds on top.

Wash kumquats and slice thinly. Dissolve the sugar in 150ml/5fl oz water in a small pan, add the kumquats and cook for five to 10 minutes or until softened. Remove from the heat, cool slightly, and add the flesh of the halved passion fruit. Spoon the dressing over the prepared fruit. Serve the salad within an hour, before the fruit has lost its fragrance.