What's in my Knife Bag?

A Chef's Knives are one of their most prized possessions!

So, when I started Culinary School, we were required to buy a knife kit.  The school gave us a recommended brand and store, but ultimately it was up to us to choose the knives we wanted for school.  Since I had basically no knowledge about knives before I started school, I decided to go with the recommended kit, as did most of my other classmates.  I love my knives and today I wanted to show you what all came in my knife kit!

This is what my knife kit looks like. The brand of knives I have are Mercer.  The exterior is thick, black material and has three separate compartments with a front pocket.  At Valley West Uniform this kit cast $300, which if you added up everything that came inside, would be considered a steal!

So the first couple of items in my knife kit, I actually keep in the front pocket, which you can't see in the other photo, but makes my most used items very accessible.  So first on your left, I have my wine bottle opener.  I specify because it really can't open a beer bottle very well, I've tried and your honestly better off smacking it against the edge of the counter.  In the middle is my peeler. This peeler is honestly the best peeler I've ever had.  And lastly on the right is my zester.  This is good if you want long strands of lemon zest for a garnish, for example.  But, if you need a lot of lemon zest for a more pronounced flavor, I would suggest using a smaller, finer grater.

In the first compartment of my knife bag, I have all of knives.  Starting on the left side I have my pairing knife, kitchen sheers, fine grater, offset icing spatula, and my steel.  The fine grater is not included with original kit, but I always like to stash a few things from home in there, because who knows what kind of opportunity could present itself. (;  On the right side I have my filet knife, chef's knife, slicing knife, and my serrated knife.  And in case anyone was wondering, I don't keep my knives in my bag without covers, I just wanted to give you an idea of what they look like in my bag.

In the middle compartment on the left side is where I keep my measuring cups as well as my decorating equipment.  So I have my normal measuring cups as well as my Tablespoons and Teaspoon measuring cups.  I also have my reusable decorating bag accompanied by my various tips and couplers. Only some tips are included in the kit, I have a few of my own included in this picture. 

In the middle compartment on the right side, I keep my other various tools, including my bench scraper, dough cutter, pastry blender, and a ruler.  The pastry blender is not included in the kit, but it is something I keep in there because you never know when you'll to whip up a pie crust or biscuits!

In the last compartment of my knife bag, I have random recipes and information sheets from school.  I also keep a stack of post it notes in there.  Those were from my first competition that I competed in, and were very useful! I'm the kind of person that likes to look at lists to stay organized so I used those to keep my sanity during the competition :P.

There are some items that are normally in my knife kit that didn't make into the pictures.  Those would be my thermometer, sharpies, pens, and my garde manger kit.  
I haven't had much experience with other knives, but I would definitely recommend getting Mercer knives if you are looking for some new knives!

I hope you guys enjoyed this post! Check back next week to see what 5 knives I think every kitchen should have!

Enjoy!
Abby