This is not about my Napoleon complex. I really mean it. We little people work better with a bigger knife. Actually, mostly, big people chop more efficiently with a bigger knife too.  Why? The heaviest part of any knife is where the blade meets the handle. This is where you should position your “victim,” aka the item you are going to chop. If you put your vegetables or herbs or whatever you are chopping right at that spot the knife will naturally come down heavily on top of the vegetables. You don’t have to force it, the knife does the work for you. But something else is going on here. The “sweet spot” on a larger chef knife is a lot longer than that of a small chef knife. This means that you can chop more of an ingredient with a lot less work when your knife is bigger!

Zwilling, a proud sponsor of my forthcoming season of “Sara’s Weeknight Meals” on PBS,  is celebrating their 290th birthday this year. They have been crafting high-quality knives in Solingen, Germany, known as “The City of Blades,” since 1731. Join us in wishing them a happy birthday and take a look at their website to learn more.