The kyocera company makes much more than knives for the kitchen, beginning in 1959 the company specializing in fine ceramic has morphed into a global giant. Following their time line from the beginning the company expanded into making computer chips in the early 1970s. To a situation today where they are make not only cell phones and copiers but also ceramic photo-voltaic roofing tiles, dental implants, orthopedic joint and bone replacement systems, and even jewelry. Their roofing tiles are on several major buildings including Japanese and Swiss sporting complexes supplying all the electrical needs of those facilities. Their parts are in your computer and in your printer, your cell phone and just about any electronic gadget you pick up today. This just the tip of the iceberg, a truly amazing company. So next time you think they only make knives take a stroll on the internet to http://global.kyocera.com/company and take a look around. Kyocera Knives – One Of The Few Manufacturers Of High-end Ceramic Blades Electronics such as digital cameras and printers are what most imagine of when the hear the name Kyocera.But from where we are at, we ignore all that and just keep our focus on their kitchen gear.Their cutlery seems to offer some interesting choices, so read farther on them here.
Kyocera, the Company. Kyocera is a world wide organization that manufactures a large variety of products for many different needs. Their products are very diverse, but the biggest part of their products fall under the consumer electronics genre. However, the majority of consumers aren't aware that Kyocera was originally founded to design and create various goods from advanced ceramic materials. An important factor is that the name of Kyocera comes from a place that they were started, Kyoto, Japan, and the actual word ceramics. Their expert knowledge allowed them to create new and unique knives. Kyocera Ceramic Kitchen knives. Ceramic knives are certainly revolutionary. The blades of ceramic knives can be sharpened with an edge that exceeds commercial steel blades and can certainly be sharper as well. Ceramic knife blades are often a pleasant surprise for those use to using dull steel blades. Blades constructed of high-tech ceramics are also inherently resistant to contamination by damaging pathogens and they can not rust. What this says is that a ceramic blade doesn't have to be immediately rinsed after use like the other types of steel knives do. At last, ceramic blades will not give your ingredients a metallic taste when using. As kitchen knife sets go, this package is very engaging. The caveats to Kyocera Ceramic Knives? Well, there are really a handful. First off, Ceramic is fragile. The ceramic blade might break or shatter if it's dropped. Steel knives will not do that. Another downside when it comes to ceramic knives is that sharpening at home is a nearly impossible task. Even though ceramic knives keep their edges for a long period, when they must to be sharpened again they will need to be sent to an expert. Finally, High-end steel knives can be made thinner and sharper than ceramic knives, since ceramic knives are brittle. These downsides, taken together, mean that restaurant chefs do not generally buy ceramic knives. But many a home cook is okay with these compromises and swears by their ceramic cutlery. The Products. Kyocera's premium line is called the 'Kyotop' line. Their blades have a damascus patterned blade and pakkawood grips. The Revolution line is the more mainstream line – it's aimed to bring the gains of ceramic knives to the enthusiast home chef. Kyocera also offers a complete line of shears, peelers, sharpening devices and a mandolin slicer. By: Greg K. RoyArticle Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Greg K. Roy has spent several years learning about cutlery, including Kyocera Knives. He's an acclaimed writer who has recently published about Shun Knives, Forschner Knives and The Best Kitchen
I have been looking at my statistics for this site and find that the most popular searches are those which seek information on garnishes. I have known for a long time that we eat with our eyes. Just stand behind a buffet line for a while and observe as people go through the line and watch how they avoid an item with even the slightest blemish. Or when adding a new batch of whatever to a platter they will stop in mid swing, tongs in hand, and take the “new” item you just placed on the tray, even though the food was all prepared together.
So making food look beautiful and eye appealing is the name of the game. Later this week when I figure out how to make HTML talk to PHP I am going to put up a most burning question page and ask for your input on the questions you may have about how to garnish a plate or platter. I plan to start compiling a series of video demonstrations on how to work with vegetables and use them as edible garnishes. Each week I will cover a new topic which will be posted here, I invite you to participate with your questions and if I use your question I will send you the full DVD for free when I complete the series. In the mean time I encourage you to leave a comment below. and I will respond accordingly.
Some years ago I participated in a food show. Just about every major city in the US will have one, usually sponsored by the National Restaurant Association. The show is mostly an opportunity for the local food and equipment vendors to show off their latest wares to the area restaurateurs and others. The part of the show I participated in was a judged contest among the local Chefs in a category known as hot foods shown cold. This means that you prepare 6 entrees and two platters as though you would be serving them and then you take the entire thing and refrigerate it. In order to preserve the foods for a long time of public viewing you need to coat the plates and platters with several coats of clear aspic. That will also explain the glare you see in the pictures below.
In previous articles I have shown some of the ways to decorate the outside of a plate or platter. The entree itself should be the most compelling thing on the plate. Sometimes that is not easy to do, and you have to think about it for a while. Recently for a multi course dinner we had to come up with a way to set off a serving of sea bass. The answer the chef came up with was to place the basic “white/grey” fish on a cake of dual colored beets. I did not see the finished product as I went elsewhere that night but here is the cake.
Red and Yellow Beetcakes as a base for the Entree
The entree the should become the focal point of your plate and if it is pretty enough you will not need to add much if any peripheral garnish. In the shots below I tried to accomplish that. The shot of the acorn squash flower is not mine. I took it because I really admired the amount of work involved in carving an acorn squash by hand and not slipping out of the cut to form such beautiful work.
Hand carved Acorn Squash
In this leg of lamb I used forcemeat and mint wrapped pears to add a stark white/green contrast to the yellow of the forcemeat and the red/pink of the lamb itself. The potatoes were fun to do but I was graded down for making the platter too hard for the average chef to spend time doing, whatever that meant. Yes, they did take some time and years later I found a homemade toy out of a copper pipe to make a quick mushroom in about 15 seconds. You won’t find that odd kitchen gadget in any kitchen store.
Here is a nice little article that explains some of the parts of a knife. It is interesting how you use a knife and involve the many parts. For instance when dicing an onion you would use the tip to make a series of slices across 80% of the onion leaving the last portion uncut so that the onion will hold together for step 2. Now you turn the onion 90 degrees and use the heel portion of the knife to slice across the series of slices this will yield the dice. when you get to the last 20% you lay this down and finish slicing this with tiny width slices to complete the process. By making the first series of slices an eighth of an inch apart you will get a minced onion. Increasing the width you can obviously go up to large chunks for stews.
During the course of a day I will use many different knives. For instance, if I am making Pico de Gallo, I would start with a thin bladed boning knife to separate the Roma flesh from the seeds. I would then switch to a santoku knife to dice the flesh into quarter inch squares. Next I would use the Chef’s knife to mince the jalapeno and cilantro the longer blade gives better rocking action and I can use my left hand to put pressure on the top of the blade to insure that I go all the way through the fine parts of the cilantro leaf.
While in my case I will use many knives during a days work, the Japanese chef has learned to be extremely proficient with just one. I once watched a demonstration where the chef took a Japanese chef knife similar to the cleaver and carved a fish net out of a daikon. It happened so fast I could not keep up with it but if I were to try to duplicate his efforts I would have used three knives to copy his efforts. Today companies like Kershaw-Shun and others are making a variety of knives for specific tasks. You can now buy a square tipped vegetable knife which looks like a chef’s knife with the tip cut off. With sushi so much a part of our culture, the right and left handed sushi knife is becoming popular. Another toy I picked up the other day is a wavy slicer for soft vegetables and cheeses just to vary the appearance of crudites and cheese platters. Just like every other task in life using the best kitchen knives for the job makes it so much easier.
As you might have guessed, in England a blagger is someone who comes across as far more knowledgeable than is the reality – a useful skill sometimes. Anyway, here are a few esoteric facts to keep up your sleeve for when a ‘knife geek’ gets within talking distance!
Japanese knives are sharpened to an angle of 15 degrees from vertical or less (12 degrees min.). Use diamond or ceramic sharpeners, as metal steels will damage Japanese knife blades.
The ‘neb’ is a rounded downturn at the rear of a knife handle and still features on many European knives such as Wusthof’s Classic range. These can be seen on the Wusthof pages at the Cooks&Kitchens website.
Like fish, many traditional knives have ’scales’! They’re the black plastic or wooden sides of a riveted handle.
Many Japanese knife companies are releasing new models with ’scalloped edges’, notably Global. This very effective way of reducing the sticking of food to the blade actually originates back in the mists (or smog!) of Nineteenth Century Sheffield when William Grant invented his ’scallop’ for ham slicing and named it the Granton edge after his knife company. Many European makers still use this name today.
No high-quality knife should be put in a dishwasher. Although it may describe itself as stainless steel, this is not terribly accurate – good knives have c. 5 times the carbon level of ‘ordinary’ stainless steel and this is degraded by dishwasher solutions.
The mist-like layering of top Japanese knives is the result of continuous folding of layers of steel around a very hard central layer. This process is also called Damascening – a reference to its origins in Syria. Good examples of this process can be seen at the Cooks&Kitchens website in the Tojiro section. In the Nineteenth Century, acid-etching was often used to create the appearance of layering on standard pocket knife blades.
A bolster is the ‘chunk’ of metal that lies between the blade and handle on traditional knives and contributes to the knife’s balance and heft. Many modern knives, particularly from Japan , have dispensed with these in order to reduce weight and rely on seamless welds between blade and handle.
Could You do me a favor? I am in the process of putting together a series of short video lessons on the various methods of making center of the plate and side decorations and appetizers. But there is a problem.
I don't know what my readers would like to see. You took the time to click this link. Could you spare a moment to make your suggestions in the comments?
Electronics such as digital cameras and printers are what most imagine of when the hear the name 
