Top Three Knives

1. THREE KNIVES

Both Nitahara and Sexton agree you can skip the full knife set (you know, the one that comes in a fancy wood block) and instead invest in a few essentials. According to them, all you need are a chef’s knife, a serrated bread knife, and a paring knife. “To me, these three knives would cover basically anything you would need to cut,” Sexton says. “And if I was stuck on a desert island, and I could still cook, these three knives would be what I would need.”

Sexton also recommends going with forged knives over stamped knives because they are higher in quality and will last longer.

Buy it: Paring and chef’s knife, Amazon; bread knife, Amazon