For knives, mirror finishing not only can enhance appearance but also can increase sharpness and durability.
Mirror finishing is to polish the surface until it shines and gets reflection like a mirror. Such maintenance of knives is the base of Japanese cuisine.
Today we are going to tell you about the advantages of mirror finishing and the features of mirror-finished knives.
The products we used:
Advantages of Mirror Finishing
Maintenance of knives is the basics for chefs. It directly affects the outcomes of cooking especially for Japanese cuisine, in which fish is cooked delicately with knives.
Restaurants can show its cleanliness or good hygiene management to customers by using knives with good maintenance. This is why top-class restaurants conduct thorough management of knives.
An Advantage of Sharpness
Sharpness is the first advantage of mirror finishing.
Knives can get more sharpness when sharpened with finer whetstone. Sharpness is crucial as it directly affects cooking efficiency and outcomes.
For example, raw fish including sashimi that was cut with dull knives would get watery and lose freshness. When cut with dull knives and pressed with excessive strength, cells of fish meat get destroyed, resulting in excessive water coming out. This leads loss of good flavor and texture. Also, it badly affects the appearance of dishes as the cross-section gets less glossy and loose. When cut with sharp knives, the dishes will noy only look more delicious but also taste more delicious in fact.
This is not only true of fish but also true of vegetables or meat. You can see the difference clearly if you slice a tomato with a dull and sharp knife to compare.
An Advantage of Increased Resistance to Corrosion
Another advantage is increased resistance to corrosion.
Metals have micro-sized holes or scraches on the surface that are invisible. Rust is likely to occur if the water, oil or lye coming out of ingredients go into those holes or scraches . Mirror finishing can flatten the surface to smoothen those holes and scraches . This prevents knives being affected by the water, oil or lye from the ingredients. In this way, mirror-finished knives can have increased resistance to rust and corrosion.
An Advantage of Being a Proof of Chef’s Values or Attitude
Providing mirror finishing takes time and effort. Also, maintaining mirror finish is not easy. So, it can be a proof of chef’s sincere attitude/pride toward cooking and their services. Beautifully polished knives will bring not only dignity but also trust from customers.
Summary
Most Japanese chefs acknowledge that the status of knives can show the quality of the restaurants. Bad knives would result in bad quality of cooking and bad business conditions. Cooking starts with maintenance of knives. This is a common idea among Japanese chefs as well as worldwide.
Would you like to show your pride and values for cooking with well-sharpened knives?
