Tools of the Trade: Specialized Knives

CEBU, Philippines - A good kitchen knife is often likened to a seasoned dance partner, for how they make the chore of mincing, chopping, slicing and dicing a pleasure for users - professional chefs or otherwise.

But as subjective as the act of determining a good kitchen knife can be described, there are certain food preparation tasks that require the use of specialized knives - as the tourné knife, the mezzaluna and Japan's maguro b?ch? would poignantly show.

Though these knives look nothing like the average Cebuano household's trusty kitchen knife (that look more like weapons, really), they are widely used in the preparation and making of different culinary specials and dishes all over the world.

Tourné knife

As a specialized type of knife, the tourné knife falls under the paring knife classification of kitchen tools and implements.

Also known as "peeling knife" or "Bird's Beak knife", tourné knives are mostly used in carving decorative garnishes and/or side dishes, apart from being used in slicing out blemished sections of vegetables and/or fruits.

Generally, a tourné knife is characterized by a pointed tip blade that curves downwards. They are usually made with high carbon steel blades which are often matched with durable, slip-resistant handles.

Mezzaluna

Also known as "herb chopper" or hachoir in France, the mezzaluna is a specialized type of knife that's used to finely chop herbs.

Its name translates to "half moon" in Italian, and is identifiable by a crescent curved blade with handles on each end. There are also single-handle mezzalunas, but these are not as popular as the two-handle variety.

Made in different sizes and types, mezzalunas come in either single blade or in double blade variants. Specialized chopping boards that have shallow indentations in the middle are also often bundled in the sale of mezzaluna knives.

Maguro bocho

The maguro bocho is a long special knife used to fillet tuna and other varieties of fish in Japan.

Japanese in origin, its name translates to "tuna knife," with the blades of different maguro bochos measuring somewhere between 16 to 60 inches in length. Their handles, like their blades, are also long.

As a specialized type of knife, a maguro bocho can fillet tuna in a single cut. A variant of the maguro bocho is found in the maguro kiri bocho, which translates to "tuna cutter."

Given their generally large sizes, maguro bochos are often mistaken for being weapons - usually as Japanese short swords or the tant?.

They are not always found in the kitchens of Japanese households and are mostly being used in large wholesale fish markets and in the kitchens of big restaurants in the Land of the Rising Sun.