Best Knife Set for Culinary Students – a Complete Review [2024]

Every new culinary student required the right knife set when to learn. This guide explains what to look for in the best knife set for culinary students along with reviews and recommendations.

We’ve chosen the three top knife sets for culinary students with complete reviews. Along with detailed descriptions, we point out the unique features for each as well as the benefits and any potential drawbacks. Our guide lets you know how certain features can help new students as they learn, and why they’re important in a knife set.

The best choice in a knife set is the one that provides the benefits that will be the most useful for you and the right knives are the ones that will offer the precise performance you need when working in food preparation. Let’s get started.

The Best Chef Knife Set For Culinary Students

Our top choices, at a glance. The Mercer set wins our vote overall, but I’ve also highlighted other great chef knife sets for higher & lower budgets respectively

1. Mercer Culinary Partners in Education 13-Piece Millennia Culinary School Kit

A great set, good value for money, and a solid choice for any culinary student.

2. Shun Cutlery Classic 7-Piece Essential Block Set

If you’re looking for something higher quality that will be a joy to use & last for many years, Shun is a great choice.

3. AmazonBasics 14-Piece Kitchen Knife Set

This one might not be the knife set of your dreams, but if you’re on a tight budget, it’s incredible value for money.

Best Culinary School Knife Set: Thoughts & Top Picks

1. Mercer Culinary Partners in Education 13-Piece Millennia Culinary School Kit

The Mercer 13 piece set in an ideal knife collection for culinary students who want a wide selection of food preparation tools at their disposal.

Comfort

The ergonomic handles are made of a blend of Santoprene which makes them comfortable to hold in the hand and polypropylene that makes them stronger and more durable under frequent use. This helps to lessen hand and finger fatigue during bigger jobs.

Textured grip

Each knife is easier to hang on to because of textured finger points that give you a firmer grip on the handle and makes them slip resistant.

Safety

A protective finger guard is built in to the knife to help prevent accidental cuts from knife slips.

High quality materials and construction

The blades of these knives are made from one single piece of stain free, high carbon Japanese steel. This means that the blade easily sharpens to a razor sharp edge and it holds the sharpness for longer periods of time needed in between sharpening.

They cut through foods faster and with less effort, cutting down on the risk of accidents that happen with dull knife blades.

2. Shun Cutlery Classic 7-Piece Essential Block Set

The Shun brand is known for its high quality and outstanding performance. The 7 piece set is the basic student knife set that includes all necessary tools to enhance the learning experience to help speed mastery of knife handling.

Plus, these will be a joy to use, and last you for many years, when being a culinary student is a distant memory!

Ergonomic handles

The Pakkawood handles are a D-shape styling that offers a comfort design for a comfortable grip for greater control of the knife and reduced hand fatigue.

High carbon stainless steel blade

The high carbon stainless steel blade is a quality material that hones to razor sharpness and holds its edge longer. The precision forging process makes the blade durable and long lasting under frequent use and maintenance. These blades are made with a process that combines 16 layers of stainless steel in a Damascus style.

Unique cutting angle

The blades of this knife are sharpened to a 16 degree cutting angle for maximum sharpness that maintains the edge for longer periods of time in between sharpening. The combination of high carbon steel set at the optimum angle is a design innovation that gives these knives an edge over the competition.

9 inch honing steel

The honing steel is included with the set for quick sharpening, edge setting and periodic maintenance to keep the knives in this set razor sharp and ready for use in just seconds.

3. AmazonBasics 14-Piece Kitchen Knife Set

The AmazonBasics 14-piece kitchen knife set is, as mentioned earlier, probably not your dream set as an aspiring chef. That being said, for the price point, I’d say the value for money is through the roof.

If you’re looking to get started on a shoestring budget, I’d go for this myself.

It includes: an 8-inch chef’s knife, 8-inch slicing knife, 8-inch bread knife, 5.5-inch utility knife, 3.5-inch paring knife, 6 4.5-inch steak knives, 8-inch kitchen shears, 8-inch sharpener, and a pine wood block.

You might find the 6 steak knives unnecessary, but even without them this set is good value.

One piece construction

Each knife blade is die cut of one solid piece of steel that is full tang and fully stamped. This means that the knife blade extends from the tip to the handle for exceptional strength and durability.

Blade material

The blades are made of high carbon stainless steel, made in China.

Triple Rivet POM Handle

The handles are affixed to the knife blade with sturdy and durable triple rivet. The POM handles make for a comfortable & secure grip.

Things to Consider When Buying a Set of Chef Knives For Students

There are four key considerations to be made when buying a set of knives for beginners who are just learning. These are: Steel quality, comfort, balance and blade length.

Quality of the Steel
The knives that a culinary student uses are going to get a lot of use. The best sets for this job will hold up under frequent use and hold a sharp edge longer than the average household knife.

Some materials are easier to sharpen but dull more quickly, while others are more difficult to sharpen, but hold their edge for longer. This means you’ll need to decide which feature is more important.

The most highly recommended types are German or Japanese steel. Japanese steel knives tend to maintain their edge for longer under frequent use and they’re more agile, offering a greater degree of precision cutting. German steel is durable and holds up in the long term. When shopping for a knife set, pay attention to the steel type along with the pros and cons associated.

Comfort

The knives are an extension of the student’s hand and must be comfortable to hold and easy to grip for safety and efficiency. It can take practice to master control of a knife, so an ergonomic design is extremely helpful in directing the blade for precision cutting.

A knife that is comfortable for one person may not be a good fit for another because the shape of the hands may vary. Try out the knife to see if the handle feels good in your hands and if it’s easy to maneuver.

Balance

Knives are created with a variety of weight distributions. Ideally, the balance point of the knife will be at the place where the handle meets the blade.

There should be an even distribution of the weight. This allows for easier and more effortless slicing, rocking, chopping and mining. This is a solid rule except for short blade knives. When the blades are short, the handles should be heavier to give you optimum control.

Blade length

The ideal length of a knife blade is 8 inches for performing a variety of tasks. When cutting or slicing through larger objects a longer blade may be suitable and for small items, a shorter blade may be needed. There should be an assortment of knives with some variation in the blade lengths.

Some Frequently Asked Questions

Which Knives Work Best for Culinary Students?

The knife set for a culinary student must come with all the knife types that are necessary for the kind of food preparation that is being taught in the class.

Paring knives are useful for peeling and boning knives for cutting through the tough fibers of the meat near the bone. Fillet knives make it easier to slice meat and they are also used for cutting certain meats from the bone. Heavier slicing knives with thick blades make it easier to cut through cooked meat while sharper, thinner blades are ideal for thinly slicing vegetables and fruits.

Each knife has a specific purpose and the culinary student needs a set that will easily perform a variety of tasks with ease. The ideal set provides you with knives for specific tasks including, but not limited to cutting, boning, slicing, dicing, chopping and mincing. There is no substitute for a complete set that covers the range of culinary tasks involved in the training.

Which Knife Set to Go For?

As you’re deciding which set to choose, keep in mind that the best is the one that most closely meets your individual needs as a culinary student. While making this decision, consider the price, the quality, special features and quality.

Are you on a budget or do you prefer to spend more on a set that you really prefer over the others? The three knife sets in this review give you options for most expensive, middle of the road and budget pricing with a choice of three different types of steel among other features.

Although the Mercer 13 piece is the lowest in price, it also has the most tools in the set and users give it high marks for quality and performance.

Bottom Line

We’ve reviewed three knife sets that can be used by culinary students, which narrows your search and cuts through hours of browsing and reading through user comments to bring us to sets that are top rated in their class.

The Shun set offers the fewest pieces in the set with undisputed high quality, with the medium priced option, the Mercer culinary set providing a solid set of 13 knives and accessories.

The AmazonBasics, as mentioned, isn’t going to be your dream set, but it’ll get you started.