How to cook steak well and the mistakes that ruin it, from underseasoning and stabbing the meat to forgetting how thick a steak should be.
Sofia Lindqvist
Sofia writes from a Northern-European kitchen about folding Japanese tools and ideas into everyday cooking — gifts, seasonal tables, and the slow business of building a kitchen you keep for life.
Best Way To Store Kitchen Knives Around Children
The safest way to store kitchen knives with children around, weighing drawers, knife blocks and wall-mounted magnetic strips on safety and care.
Secrets Of Japanese Business Etiquette: Business Meetings
How Japanese business meetings run, from seating by rank and tight timings to interpreters, confirmation calls and slides translated into Japanese.
10 Best Storage Ideas For Small Kitchens
Ten storage ideas for cramped kitchens, from magnetic knife racks and cabinet-top bins to floating spice strips and islands with built-in drawers.
10 Steps To Achieving Flow – Zen And Happiness At Work
Flow is the absorbed state where time disappears, and it leads to happiness at work. Ten steps draw on Zen to help you reach it.
10 Tips On How To Decorate Home With Cushions
Ten tips for decorating your home with cushions, covering how to match existing decor, go bold with colour, layer textures and mix prints.
How To Clean A Rusty Kitchen Knife?
Yes, stainless knives rust too. What iron oxide actually is, why the dishwasher ruins a blade, and the ways to scrub the orange flakes back off.
What Is The Difference Between Scissors And Shears?
Cross six inches and it’s shears, not scissors. The larger handle gives leverage for tougher cuts; scissors stay small and multipurpose.
Japandi – Merging Japan And Scandinavia In Your Home Decor
Scandinavian cool meets Japanese warmth: Japandi leans on wabi-sabi and hygge for rooms that stay minimal without feeling clinical.
What Japanese Knife To Buy?
First proper knife? Buy a gyuto. Add a nakiri and a petty later, and those three handle most of what a kitchen throws at you.
Knife History – Forging Methods
Sakai’s blacksmiths turned samurai sword craft into tobacco-cutting knives after the Portuguese brought tobacco to Japan in the 16th century.
Kumihimo – The Japanese Art Of Silk Braiding
One suit of samurai armour needed up to 300 metres of braided silk cord. Kumihimo’s patterns were guarded like family secrets, and some still are.
6 Magnetic Products That Will Make Your Life In The Kitchen Easier
A towel holder, a clip-on meat thermometer, measuring spoons that nest together: six magnets that claw back counter space in a small kitchen.
Declutter Your Kitchen Using Japanese Methods
How to declutter your kitchen the Japanese way using danshari, taking stock, paring down glassware, and storing daily items within easy reach.
The Ultimate Kitchen Tool Essentials List (Our Top 8)
After advising thousands of customers, here are the eight tools we’d actually stock a kitchen with, and yes, we lean hard toward Japan.
Guide: How To Choose Your First Japanese Kitchen Knife
Buying your first Japanese knife feels like a gamble. Here’s how to read shape, steel and handle so it isn’t, plus the 100-day guarantee that softens the risk.
How To Fillet A Fish With A Japanese Knife (+ Video)
Trim the fins, open the belly, run the blade along the spine: filleting a round fish like sea bass or mackerel with a Deba, with a video to follow.
Are Japanese Carving Knives As Good As The Western Ones?
The Sujihiki packs 240-300mm of thin, double-bevel blade, and some sushi chefs reach for it over the yanagiba when slicing sashimi.
Knife Drawer, Knife Stand or Magnetic Rack – What Is Better?
Knife drawers, blocks and magnetic racks compared on space, usability, hygiene, child safety and price to help you store blades well.
How to Prepare Wagyu, The Most Expensive Steak Ever, At Home
Wagyu runs around £200/kg, but 1kg feeds six and the cooking is almost insultingly simple: sear, season, serve from a screaming-hot cast-iron pan.
Different Types Of Kitchen Knives, What They’re Used For
Most homes own three or four knives without really thinking about it. Here are the ten common types sorted, and the four worth buying first.
All About Cooking Knives
The chef’s knife began as a butchery tool for slicing through cartilage. Here’s how the gyuto and its French and German cousins compare today.
Our Latest Trip To Takefu & Sakai – Japanese Knife Villages
Back from the forges of Takefu and Sakai, where an ageing trade and few young smiths explain why a handmade knife can take months.
The Most Comprehensive Guide To Japanese Kitchen Knives You’ll Ever Read
Nine blade shapes, six steel finishes, and how to keep any of them sharp. If you read one thing before buying, make it the long version.
Top 10 Most Expensive Knives In The World
A $5,300 Yoshihiro Honyaki with a hamon shaped like Mount Fuji is only number ten here. Above it: diamonds, gold and rare wood.
Do I Need a Special Knife like a Sashimi or Yanagiba Knife for Sushi?
Can you make good sushi at home without a Yanagiba? Where single-bevel slicers ground 70:30 or 90:10 actually earn their keep, and when they don’t.
Guide To The Best Knife Steel: VG10, Blue Steel And More
A guide to knife steel including VG10 and Blue Steel, explaining hardness, toughness, wear resistance, and edge retention in plain terms.
3 Ways You May Be Ruining Your Japanese Knives
The three most common mistakes that ruin Japanese knives: the dishwasher, loose storage in drawers, and how to avoid both with simple care.