Why You Need a Serrated Knife 

Also being acidic tomatoes can ruin chef knives :)

@@dimmacommunication Excellent comment Andrea. Acidic foods are brutal on edges, certainly if not washed off soon after.

A “well polished chefs knife” will destroy any tomato in its path. To me, these are useless knives if you have a quality/sharp chefs knife. It’s almost only useful to someone who doesn’t properly care/sharpen their knives. Look at any chefs knife video. They ALWAYS use a tomato as an example

@@mikechivy This video is about cutting bread though Mike Did you watch it?

The question does come up which is why we decided to answer it. We're all at different levels in some area of expertise.

(totally agree/excellent response/answer)

I was 25 when I discovered this and it was only due to me buying a knife on sale that came with a serrated knife. Had no clean straight edge knives one day when I needed to cut bread and the rest is history.

I know they exist, but my Chef's knife is so sharp and well maintained that a serrated knife is like using a chainsaw, while I have a lightsaber.

Serrated will always be better for soft and spongy foods like cakes, bread etc. They tend to be around 10 inches in length (and they are much cheaper) which makes it easier for dividing cake layers and large rustic/artisan breads. Even a really sharp chefs knife will squish soft white bread, sponge cakes, pretty much anything really malleable, if you aren't careful. Have those serrations is important to grip onto the surface and provide support. Just based on blade geometry alone is what makes bread knives essential to your arsenal as they provide effortless cuts. Also, if he tried to make the chef's knife look worse, he would be slicing straight down with a lot of pressure (like those poor informercials). As you can see in his video, you can see him slowly slicing his way to the bottom. You can also see how the 8inch length works against him. He was trying to show the knife's best potential. If you compare the two, 99% of the time it would be a clear that the bread knife will surpass any chefs knife for it's dedicated application.

Agreed. I have both and I never use the bread knife. My Japanese chef knife slices through anything without the slightest squishing effect. And rock hard sour dough crust as though it was butter. The key is a straight blade and a very hard edge. Like a sushi knife.

@@MrJackieLantern I deffinetly made the sjef knife look worse, I can litterally preform almost pushcutting on bread wiht a non cerated knife. You can also tell he doesent use knives much by the way he holds the shef knife.