Source: Unsplash

There is an old saying, “A bad workman quarrels with his tools’. Nonetheless, no craftsperson is likely to disregard the importance of a tool, and for a chef, for instance, that would be a knife. Knives come in many shapes and sizes, each made of different material. Do chefs develop a special bond with any of their knives? Do these knives come with any stories? POSCO Newsroom met with the Chef Jan Jun-Woo, a newspaper reporter who one day took off to Italy to study cooking, who is now a published author of the book, “A Chef’s Vagabonding Across Europe – avec Camera and Kitchen Knife.”

When the title of my book ‘A Chef’s Vagabonding Across Europe – avec Camera and Kitchen Knife’ dawned on me, I was prepping a meal in the small corner of a kitchen for a restaurant customer – in the town of Sicily. Of course, I didn’t travel to Europe with a knife literally in my hand. If I had, the title of my book would be somewhat different: A Guide to Food in European Prisons, perhaps. No law enforcement officials would welcome the sight of a foreign traveler with a knife in his hand.

I was fortunate enough to start my career writing for a prominent newspaper. By nature, I was a curious soul, and being a reporter would suit me, or so I thought. With each passing day, I realized news stories didn’t nurture my curious nature as much as I had expected. Bouncing around different departments within the newspaper still didn’t help spark passion inside me. The spark came from elsewhere – from cooking. I found preparing meals for and entertaining my friends and loved ones more fulfilling than scribbling away news articles on my computer. As soon as I heard myself saying, ‘If not now, when?’, I bought myself a plane ticket to Italy to learn more about cooking – before it’s too late.

As I was naturally drawn to the unfamiliar, I found myself more intrigued by Western cuisine than the Oriental cuisine. My zero knowledge in Western cuisine made me hyper-responsive to the new knowledge, so learning how to cook itself posed as less of a challenge. Without the proper contextual understanding of the food, however, I felt like a blind man touching an elephant.

I didn’t just want to learn to cook; I wanted to learn the stories behind each food. I guess I was always hungry for the answers to endless whys: why certain ingredients were preferred over others? Why did they cook pasta the way they did, etc. etc. etc. I couldn’t find answers to these questions from the confined space of a kitchen. To quench my thirst, I needed to get out – onto the streets, exploring, and talking to people. That’s how I started my journey across Europe in search of answers. In a way, I was reporting on stories about food in Europe to answer my questions. It was my cooking training guided by my – and only my – curiosity.

Photo Courteousy of: Chef Jang Jung-Woo

From the title of my book, ‘A Chef’s Vagabonding Across Europe – avec Camera and Kitchen Knife,’ the phrase ‘avec camera and kitchen knife’ has both symbolic and literal connotations. On the one hand, it’s an expression of my identity as a reporter as well as a novice cook telling the stories of food from a reporter’s perspective. On the other hand, both tools were my faithful companions – they were literally ‘with’ me throughout my travel in Europe. Traveling with a knife in my hand could lead to tricky situations, so to stay out of trouble, I chose a small pocket knife over a kitchen knife to carry everywhere I went.

The first knife I got my hands on was Opinel’s Slim Line 08 Beech during my travel in Italy. It was a foldable 8 cm stainless knife, small enough to carry around, and since the design was visually less threatening, I carried it inside my pocket everywhere.

Chef Jang’s first pocket knife during his travel in Europe, Opinel (Source: Blade Forum)

Traveling in Europe, a pocket knife is essential, not optional. I came to own a pocket knife out of pure need for survival. In the land of 24-hour convenience stores like Korea, food is available 24/7 just about everywhere – but it’s a whole different matter in a small remote town in Southern Europe where one can come across a restaurant only once in a blue moon. Even if there is one, they keep their doors firmly closed except for an hour two during the meal time. Missing the right time for lunch, or dinner, meant having to starve until the next meal. No exception.

After muddling through several near-starvation, I realized I needed to do something. I decided to carry with me a few non-perishable food items like fruits, ham, and cheese, perfect for whenever I missed a proper meal. They all happened to require a tool, which was a knife. To cut salt-dried ham especially, there was simply no other alternative. A sturdy pocket knife was a good companion that allowed luxury to a tired and hungry traveler anywhere in Europe: a feast with a glass of wine.

Sadly, the Opinel pocket knife that rescued me from hunger several times didn’t stay with me for very long. Its extreme portability meant it could get lost easily. I’m not even sure when and where I lost it. Perhaps I wasn’t too attached to the knife. If the knife had been pricier, would I have been more careful with it? After losing the first Opinel, I bought the same knife again, but this time, I lost it in just three days. I decided the problem was with the knife, not me.

After vagabonding through Europe for three months, I eventually came back to Korea. I still had the chance to visit Europe a few more times after, when I finally had the chance to fill the void of my lost Opinel pocket knife. It was at a corner market in the small town in France where I met the One. The handle was made of an olive tree, and the back of the knife was quite thick, and the blade was very thin. Though it didn’t have any fancy brand name, it was a solid steel pocket knife from a nearby blacksmith. The blade had an elegant S curve, quite charming. It even came with a corkscrew hanging on one side.
Unlike the slick – perhaps too sleek – and convenient Opinel knife with which I didn’t develop good chemistry with my hand, the new steel pocket knife was quite sturdy, and I liked the feeling I got when I was holding it. To test the blade, I cut a piece of saucisson, a French-style salt-dry sausage, then the once-solid piece of saucisson was sliced like a piece of soft tofu. I’m pretty sure the knife was made by a French craftsman, and after this, this knife of no-name became my favorite. I carried it around everywhere whether in Korea or abroad – that was until it got mercilessly tossed into a trash bin at an airport security checkpoint in Portugal.

No airline would ever allow a knife inside their passenger aircraft – I KNOW. Which is why I always made sure I checked my knife with my luggage. On that particular day, however, I completely forgot to take it out of my carry-on luggage. I mustered all kinds of facial expressions and bodily gestures to gain the officer’s sympathy, but nothing worked. I still can’t forget the vivid clanking noise my beautiful knife made. My knife with an olive tree handle while getting tossed inside the cold stainless trash bin at the airport. As it dropped into the bin, my heart sank, and the sound was as good as the agonies of death. It was a break up I was neither prepared for nor wanted.

Inside the plane back to Korea, I couldn’t quite get over the feelings of loss. I knew it would be impossible to get the same kind of knife unless I fly all the way back to that small village in France, which made me even more upset. As soon as I got off the plane that day, I made up my mind like someone who recently got dumped in a relationship: that I’d never fall in love with or get attached to any other knives ever again.

After the unintended breakup with the French knife, knives became a mere tool, from an object of attachment that used to give me butterflies. Of course, if I see a nice sleek looking knife, I still want to own it, though I don’t expect to get much more than an aesthetic pleasure. Because I know it takes time to get to know a tool, and only after getting used to the tool and making it genuinely mine, it becomes an instrument that will carry out the job it’s meant to achieve.

Chef Jang Jung-Woo’s book, “A Chef’s Vagabonding Across Europe – avec Camera and Kitchen Knife.” Source: Geulhangari

Because of the two words in the book title, ‘Camera and Kitchen Knife,’ people ask me recommendations either for a ‘good’ camera or a ‘good’ knife. I find myself perplexed every time because being ‘good’ is quite subjective depending on individual circumstances and preferences. I always give them the same answer: get the most expensive tool that their budget allows. Though it is not always the case, it’s generally true that the more expensive the price, the better the quality. We tend to get more attached to the things we pay the higher price for, and if we feel more attached to an object, we get to touch them more often. That’s how we get used to our tools.

Both cameras and knives are merely tools we hold from which we create something. Just as good cameras do not guarantee good pictures, nor do good knives automatically turn ingredients into a nice meal. At least for me, if my hands can get used to it, whatever it may be, it is a valuable tool.
Ultimately, a knife is a tool to cut something. For that, good steel material is important, but even more important is the habit that regularly takes care of the knife prepping for its use: sharpening it, for example. No matter how expensive and good quality of a knife it is, if it gets rusty or chipped, it’s just a piece of metal that can’t even cut a piece of carrot. Good for nothing.

I sharpen my kitchen knife before every use, but sometimes I ask myself: whether my mind and attitude are sharp enough; whether somewhere inside my mind, things are getting rusty.

Whenever I feel myself getting rusty, I throw myself into a new environment. My vagabonding avec camera and kitchen knife is ongoing. With a sharp perspective, I will continue traveling the world and tell stories about food and cooking. I just hope the next pocket knife I get my hands on will stay with me a bit longer.

Compared to aluminum, stainless steel is rust-free, durable and harmless to the human body, so it has been considered the best material for kitchens where hygiene is the utmost priority. However, it comes without the benefit of the aluminum’s high thermal conductivity, which puts stainless steel at a critical disadvantage. As stainless steel doesn’t spread heat as evenly as aluminum, a brilliant control in the kitchen is a tricky business with 100% stainless steel.

So what would be the answer? What is the best-suited material for kitchenware? Clad steel plate might hold the key to the solution. It’s a composite steel plate made by bonding aluminum to stainless steel. Together with a world class steel producer POSCO, KCT (Korea Clad Tech Co., Ltd) developed this innovative material, now pioneering the domestic market for clad steel. POSCO Newsroom reports.

┃Clad Steel Plate: A Modern-Day Alchemy

A clad steel plate is produced by combining different metals (or non-ferrous metals) using only heat and pressure. The whole process is not just about attaching different materials. It creates an entirely new product by optimizing the natural asset of each component while remedying the shortcomings of each. The clad production procedure is even comparable to Egyptian alchemy, which was all about concocting an original material through an intricate process of mingling pre-existing materials. The analogy is fair: clad production technology transforms original materials to create an entirely new element.

┃Clad Steel Plate, an Up-and-coming Star of the Kitchen

Clad steel is most welcomed in the kitchen — it’s where clad steel truly shines. Once cooking pots started using clad steel, not only did it improve food taste but it also brought convenience and hygiene up to a new level. How?

Mainly because of its high heat conductivity, most kitchenware used to be in aluminum which allowed timely cooking. On the other hand, because it is a very soft metal, it tended to warp easily — not as durable. Another to keep in mind was potential exposure to aluminum poisoning, a known cause of Alzheimer’s disease.

Of course, both stainless steel and titanium are good alternatives for aluminum as they are both rust-free, durable and harmless to the human body. Unlike aluminum, they came with no health risks and were highly hygienic. The low thermal conductivity of both materials, however, sacrificed cooking efficiency.

Clad steel plate comes to the rescue: it’s made by pressing stainless steel (or titanium) to the front and the rear of an aluminum plate. It’s a cutting-edge, dream union between the high thermal conductivity of aluminum and the durability of stainless steel.

“The demand for clad steel is growing. POSCO interviewed the celebrity chef Yeon-Bok Lee some time ago, who talked about how often he had to replace his cast iron wok because it just doesn’t last long. So we collaborated with KCT to custom-make a clad wok for him. He was very pleased with the product.” – Hyun-Wook Chang: POSCO Stainless Steel Marketing Dept.

┃KCT and POSCO Collaboration: Why It’s Special

On top of its pioneering role in the domestic clad steel market, KCT also invented ‘coil style rolling’ method for the first time in Korea. POSCO’s stainless steel on its part also deserves special notice. First of all, it’s exclusively developed for clad steel plate where stainless steel is the external material, which is visible. So a delicate finish is a must. POSCO meticulously adhered to all the complex polishing process required for clad steel plates, producing stainless steel with excellent moldability.

Japan used to lead clad steel industry, but KCT-POSCO partnership took Korean clad technology up a notch. Korea now produces high-quality clad steel plates whose quality surpasses that of Japanese products. Korea’s clad steel rice cooker is being exported to Japan, dominating 60% of its market for induction rice cookers.

KCT continues to spearhead the domestic clad market with its tireless dedication to new material development for various industrial components such as home appliances and automobiles, well beyond kitchen utensils. Likewise, POSCO is devoted to providing top quality steel material for clad steel plates. The POSCO-KCT joint effort that created an innovative solution out of obstacles will continue to inspire the industry as an exemplary and ideal collaboration.

Thanksgiving offers one of the best culinary experiences of all US holidays (Image source: Ambit Energy)

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, urban families are opting for simpler approaches to preparing Thanksgiving dinner – without compromising the gastronomic experience.

Thanks to stainless steel, preparing a proper Thanksgiving feast is easier than it seems. Stainless steel kitchen tools that are specifically designed for the holiday, or the “Thanksgiving gadgets”, can turn Thanksgiving cooking into a joy, not a chore. It’s no wonder the famed cooking show, America’s Test Kitchen, even did a segment on stainless steel utensils.

In celebration of one of the biggest holidays of the year, POSCO Newsroom shares a few fun and painless Thanksgiving recipes and stainless steel utensils, with which even a novice cook can create a sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner.

Juicy Turkey Roast, Just a Roaster Away

Stainless steel turkey roaster. (Source: SAVEUR)

First, for the star of Thanksgiving dinner, a juicy turkey: preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. After drying the turkey with a paper towel, rub mixture into the cavity. Stuff it with chopped celery, orange, onion, and carrot. Then, place the turkey in the “roaster,” a roasting pan-and-rack combo made of stainless steel.

A roaster is a handy tool not only for Thanksgiving but for any other occasion at home, whether it’s a family gathering or a house party. Inside the oven, the pan maintains the shape of the turkey while the rack drains excess oil. The most impressive feature of the roaster is, how evenly it distributes the heat inside the turkey.

On this Thanksgiving holiday, the perfect turkey that is crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside is just a roaster away.

Lifting  Turkey? No Muss, No Fuss

Stainless steel turkey lifter (Source: The Green Head)

Anyone who has ever tried to lift a full-size turkey would know how messy it can get. It is no easy task, especially when you are also trying not to burn your hands.

It requires advanced skills, but those who have yet to master the art of clean (and burn-free) turkey-lifting, need not worry.

Meet U-shaped lifter, a magical tool that will help you get the job done. The stainless steel construction makes it sturdy and it also comes with a snug handle that absorbs tension on the hand. The U-shaped spike maintains the shape of the turkey, holding it firmly from inside the cavity, and the turkey can be transferred from the pan to a plate in one swift motion.

Voila! The juicy Thanksgiving turkey is now on the table. Hello U-lifter, goodbye messy kitchen.

Steel Easier Mashed Potatoes

Steel potato masher (Source: Pinterest )

While making mashed potatoes is not rocket science, it’s not a piece of cake either. It can be made easy, however, with a stainless steel masher.

For creamy mashed potatoes: first, bring salt water to a boil, then add the desired amount of potatoes. Cook until soft. Drain the water and mix in warm milk and butter. This is where the steel masher really shines – use the masher to mash all the ingredients until the mixture gets that smooth and creamy texture.

Some of the best potato mashers loved in the kitchen are made of stainless steel. It’s built for durability and its handle is made to retain its shape after many years of use. The small inner holes and larger outer holes are intentional for quick mashing, so as not to leave any lumps.

Serving Gravy the Right Way

Thermal carafe keeps the gravy warm (Source: Unsplash.com)

For savory gravy: first, fill the saucepan with water. Add onion and turkey giblets, then bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer gently until slightly thickened. Add chicken broth and herbs, letting it simmer for two hours. Drain the soup, then add salt and pepper to taste.

Though not the star of the show on Thanksgiving Day, a Thanksgiving table is not complete without gravy. It adds flavor to otherwise bland turkey and mashed potatoes. When served in just any container, however, it can get cold very quickly.

That’s where the thermal carafe made of none other than stainless steel – comes in. While a gravy boat would be a more common choice, it is no match for stainless steel carafe when it comes to keeping the gravy warm. The stainless steel carafe insulates the heat, maintaining the temperature, and the gravy will never lose its smooth texture when kept inside the carafe.

Stainless steel, which helps retain the original taste of food, has become a kitchen essential for everyday cooking and not just for Thanksgiving. Just think how the food we consume get prepared, served and stored every day.
Thanks to its durability, stainless steel is likely to stay in our kitchens as a faithful cooking assistant for a very long while. Extra tip: All the utensils mentioned above are dishwasher safe.