Ask an Expert Knife Questions On Shop Girls 107.1 in Minneapolis And Saint Paul
Kitchen Knife Questions
Our founder Joseph had the pleasure to join Ali and Harmony on Saturday morning to chat kitchen knives. A few questions included:
- How do you know when a knife is dull?
- How many knives do you have in your kitchen?
- What's your favorite knife
The show page is here.
An audio feed is here (start at 20 mins)
An Edited Transcript follows
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Ali: [00:00:00] You're listening to Shop Girls on MyTalk 107.1. I'm Ali Kaplan with my mom, Harmony. Thank you for tuning in. Mom, you were just telling me, I was actually with a friend last week who bought a new knife and literally has texted me twice this week to tell me how much joy this knife is bringing.
She's like, I can't even tell you. It is so fun. It is such a pleasure to use. You know, there's nothing like that. Like really, when you just get that really sharp. Yeah. Now you on the other hand, we're saying you haven't sharpened your knives in more years than we should mention. Where should you go? What could you do?
I don't know. Let's ask an expert. We need an expert expert time now for the shop girls to ask. She really knows what she's talking about. He knows everything, everything, an actual expert. Yeah, we've got an expert here. Joseph Rueter from Vivront. He is our expert. Joseph, I am saying that right. Aren't I?
Joseph: Oh, yes.
Ali: Oh, good. Vivront. Otherwise, you'll change your name, right? Joseph, do you say can or [00:01:00] con? Con film festival or con?
Joseph: Well, I'm, very American, so I'll say it however I say it. The French don't typically include that last consonant, French.
Ali: Yeah, I know. We had that debate earlier in the show. Anyway, we're here to talk about knives.
You are the owner, the founder of Vivront, which is now at 50th and France. Bigger and better than ever before.
Joseph: Yes. Thanks for having me on this beautiful kind of pre summer spring weekend. We are at 50th and France. We're so happy to be in the business district, there among so many other lovely retailers and restaurants and it's twice as big as it was when it was in Wayzata and we're so happy to be there.
Ali: Okay. So tell everybody where exactly you are, if they're trying to find you today.
Joseph: Certainly. So if you're on 50th and France, that corner has the [00:02:00] Paper Source on the Northwest side. And we're two doors North on the West side of France.
Harmony: Wow. That's a good spot, Joseph. Really? Across from Anthropology.
Joseph: That's right. I live in the area.
Harmony: Yeah.
Joseph: I always wanted it back in town to put the joy of sharp knives and great craftsmanship into the neighborhood. I certainly hustled to find that spot.
Ali: I love it. Oh, that's great. Well, let's start with, I mean, obviously you sell knives, you teach things about knives that I didn't even know I should know, but let's start with the sharpening because my mother really needs to get over there.
Harmony: There seems to be a problem I have with my knives. I've had them a very long time, and my husband always says, those need sharpening, and I say But he doesn't do it. Well, then go do it.
Ali: How often, Joseph, how often should you sharpen knives?
Joseph: That's a really good question. Until we get [00:03:00] AI to install service lights on our knives, we'll have to, you know, use other means.
For the discerning among us, those chefs, they're going to sharpen or hone really, really regularly, especially when you're working with a fish knife, like sushi knives. You want those to be able to slice the cells instead of tear them. And they're going to cut often. As soon as you want it to be sharper, that's the time to get it sharpened.
And frequently you can test with a sheet of paper - to pull the knife through a sheet of paper, maybe a newspaper or some junk mail. If it hangs or it doesn't slice cleanly, it'll tear. That would be a time to service it.
Ali: Oh, interesting. Joseph, talk about… is something I never even considered, but you said that dull knives actually not just are annoying to use, but they can actually squeeze flavor out of [00:04:00] food.
How is that possible?
Joseph: Well, different than, you know… you would never take a bread knife and run it completely up and down like a chopper. Right? You want to slide them back and forth. And that's because you'll squish the bread, right?
We're right in the middle of grilling season. You have very well prepared meats, let's say, or dense water bound vegetables. When a dull knife tries to slice those, they'll press the flavor, the moisture, out onto the cutting board. Whereas if it's sharp, you can use the length of that knife to slide through the cut and then leave more flavor in the food.
Ali: Wow. I never thought of that. This could be the key to my cooking right here. So, Joseph, can, [00:05:00] people bring any knife in to Vivront to have it sharpened or does it have to be one that they purchase at your store?
Joseph: Absolutely. Bring them all. All the kitchen knives. We certainly can sharpen other things, but we are focused specifically on kitchen knives from around the world.
You'll find knives from three continents, but it turns out the knife world is really big and it's not just the mainline players. We carry some very small, producers all the way up through the larger players. And we certainly can sharpen brands of any kind.
Harmony: What are your, if you had to pick, what are your favorite knives?
What brand?
Joseph: So anything that's a harder metal. So it's different than like, you know, steel for a bridge. We want that to be like silly hard. But some of these harder metals that are crafted or [00:06:00] ground thin will create cutting experiences that are just super delightful. Talk about bring joy to the kitchen.
Customers that, come back and show us pictures of their refrigerator. There are stacks of pre made food [in them]. Initially, I was confused, like, why are you showing me a picture of your refrigerator? This has happened multiple times now, where they'll say, No, no, no, you've helped me find a knife that I enjoy.
It fits me, and I've prepped my meals for the week. That's the knife that I like the most. And if it's, for me, if it's like, mango - I'm going to pick a different knife than if it's a steak. Oh,
Ali: How many knives are in your kitchen at home? And just curious. And do yeah, let's hear.
Joseph: I cook all the time. I have a particular affection for a blade smith [named] Yoshimi. Kato or Kato. Kato is how you'd say it if you're Japanese. [00:07:00] And he's out of the Takefu Knife Village. We've got an order coming in from them. It takes us two to four months to get knives from him. But a longer blade is commonly more delightful to use because you can slide it versus press it. And a 240, gyuto or, chef's knife, in a Japanese shape is just absolutely lovely to use.
Ali: And we, need more loveliness and delight in our lives. We really do. What, I mean, what a great idea for Father's day. Just thinking ahead, you know, for, if you've already done all the golf gifts, he doesn't wear ties anymore.
How about a good knife? What is a knife? Joseph, that. Maybe most people don't have, that's not considered kind of one of the staples, but yet it would add more delight to your life.
Joseph: Yeah. For the, the vegetarian type salad crew,
Ali: that would be me.
Joseph: [00:08:00] Absolutely. The Nakiri Bocho is a knife that doesn't have a point. It’s usually, you know, six to seven inches long and it's a square. That is absolutely lovely, and you can graduate up from that into a single bevel Uusuba if you're really crazy - looking for performance. It's the difference between, like, an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar. And then the other would be a Bunka.
A bunka shape. We have a couple in from Running Man right now, out of Sacramento California - American made, but in a bunka shape, it's about the same length, but it's got, some, a little bit of rock in the front and folks are just buying those off the shelves rather rapidly as we help them through learning how to use it in our fittings. When you come in, we've got loads of carrots people cut with the knives and then decide what they like most.
Ali: I was just gonna ask if you have actual [00:09:00] vegetables that people can practice cutting and you have classes too, right?
Joseph: Yes, absolutely. I mean, in the end, everybody wants a knife guy or a knife gal, and it turns out that my shoulder is a different height from the counter than most, and my hand is the hand my hand size is. Those two factors will impact which knives people like, and the quickest way to learn the knife that you'd like is to cut with them.
Our knives are out. We have 84 feet of kitchen knife display. [Wow] And loads of options to be able to put them into a carrot. And then whether it's Dad or Grandpa, or Mom, or Grandma, or you name the person that walks in, we are looking for those moments when persons go, oh, and you have a lot of those all the time.
Ali: Yeah. So that's why you needed the larger storefront, which brings us full circle to your 50th in France location. So you could have more knife cutting going on.
Joseph:[00:10:00] Yeah, absolutely. It sets up our class space for Power Lunch on Wednesdays. We have a kitchen knife skills class that we've run over a hundred times that's really dialed in and so much fun. Those run Friday nights and Saturday mornings. We have Sharpening on Stones [too]. We’ll teach you how to sharpen with stones on Thursday nights. And in the new space… it was inspired by a 1940s aircraft hangar, we have a sharpening room that kind of isolates all of that mess but puts it still in the same space right there at 50th and France.
Wow.
Ali: I love it. Can you sign up online?
Joseph: Absolutely. V I V R O N T dot com will get you to all those services. Okay.
Harmony: I want to know, Joseph, how did you develop your interest in knives?
Joseph: Aha, thank you for asking. I, like many of us, did a bunch of strange things during the pandemic. And while I haven't yet made my [00:11:00] first sourdough, I certainly got exceptionally good at sharpening knives.
And that's where it started.
Ali: We all have our special skills.
Joseph: Yes, we do. And we look forward to helping everybody increase joy and that next skill down the path in the kitchen.
Ali: I love it. Well, it's so good to have you back on the show. Congrats on the new, uh, bigger space. We will come check it out. You can start online at vivront.com, V I V R O N T. Dot com.
We'll put a link on the shop girls page.
Harmony: And I'll bring all my knives over to get sharp.
Ali: Oh boy. Get ready, Joseph. She's coming. Oh, my mother is coming. t
Joseph: Guilt free. Guilt free. Just in whatever state they're in, we help. Thanks for having me.
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