As the cooking craze sweeps the nation with My Kitchen Rules, Masterchef, and even The Iron Chef we’re all being bombarded with new methods of kitchen wizardry from the finest culinary masters throughout the land.

One sign of a great chef is their ability to handle a knife, and while watching a cooking video passed on by a friend I was amazed at the chef’s ability to slice and dice so quickly and efficiently. After watching the video I just knew that I needed a new set of ceramic knives for the kitchen as my tarnished stainless steel knives seemed fairly inadequate compared to the knives in the kitchen of a true chef.

While I’m pretty convinced that the ceramic knives make me a better cook, I thought I’d list some fun facts for anyone out there comparing them to a stainless steel set. It’s still handy to have a set of stainless steel knives but since getting my ceramic knives I’ve actually been finding reasons to slice things – fresh lightly salted tomato slices for all!

A few facts about ceramic knives…

Ceramic knives are typically made using zirconia and sharpened using a diamond-dust coated grinding wheel – so these should be a lady’s best friend by association.

Ceramic knives are much harder than stainless steel knives so they will keep their sharpness for much longer but will require special tools to resharpen the knife if it ever does become blunted.

Interestingly, an apple or lettuce sliced using a ceramic knife will brown slower than if cut by a stainless steel knife. When cutting with a metallic knife the ions transfer from the steel knife to the food which speeds up the oxidation process.

Similarly, zirconia is not a metal which is why ceramic knives do not rust.

Using a ceramic knife is healthier as the denser surface of the knife will not catch and breed as much bacteria, or odours as a stainless steel knife.

But importantly, ceramic knives should NOT be used for cutting into hard surfaces such as boned meat or as it can cause unwanted chipping.

Hopefully this has helped a few people decide whether they should stick with stainless steel or grab a set of ceramic knives.

If you’ve got any questions about kitchenware, feel free to send ‘em through to us at sales@avancer.com.au