Kitchen knives

The length of the blade decides what a knife is good at. The garnishing knife of 7.5 centimetres has a slightly curved edge and is made for work where you cut around a shape: balls from a melon, a spiral from a peel, a lemon zest without the pith. The paring knife of 9 centimetres is the all-rounder for citrus and small fruit; it works in your hand rather than on the board.

The utility knife of 15 centimetres is the one you reach for most often: chopping herbs, quartering an apple, slicing ginger. The nakiri of 16.5 centimetres has a straight blade that touches the board along its whole length, so you cut fruit and vegetables into even slices without sawing back. If two of you work behind the bar, take at least two lengths so nobody has to wait.

Put a damp cloth under the cutting board so it cannot slide, and hold the product with curled fingers so the blade runs against your knuckles instead of your fingertips. Cut with a pulling movement towards you; pressing turns any knife into a blunt one.

For an old fashioned you cut a wide zest from an orange with the garnishing knife, without the white pith underneath, and squeeze the oils out over the glass. For a gin and tonic the nakiri works better: it cuts cucumber into even ribbons that do not curl up. Keep what you have cut in a garnish tray within reach, separate from the ice.

Wash knives by hand and dry them straight away. In the dishwasher they knock against other cutlery and sit for a long time in aggressive salt, and that dulls the edge faster than the cutting itself. Store them in a knife block, on a magnetic strip or in a sheath, not loose in a drawer.

Hone the edge regularly with a sharpening steel. That removes no material but straightens the wafer-thin edge that has folded over, and with daily use that is what keeps a knife sharp. Only when honing no longer helps is it time to sharpen.

Garnishes you have cut go onto cocktail picks, and the bites you serve alongside go into amuse-bouche dishes. For the rest of the kit behind the bar, from shaker and strainer to jigger, there is the page with bar tools and the category bar accessories. If what you are after is the glass the cut fruit ends up in, start with the cocktail glasses.