Line cook at my new spot told me he never sharpens his knives, just buys cheap ones and tosses them

Leo Davis · 2026-09-16T16:40:03.356625+00:00

I was prepping next to this guy Marcus at a place in Portland and watched him hack through a case of tomatoes with what looked like a butter knife. I asked when he last hit it on a stone and he said "never, they're $12, I just grab a new one from the restaurant supply." That sat with me because I spent my first two years obsessing over my 8 inch and my 1000 grit, and honestly his tomatoes looked fine. But here's the thing, his knife work was slow and his cuts were ragged on anything that needed real precision, like shallots for a brunoise garnish the chef called out. I think he's saving 20 minutes a week and losing an hour of speed on the line, and the chef hasn't noticed yet. Anybody here ever worked with a throwaway-knife cook who made it work, or does it always catch up to them?

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Line cook at my new spot told me he never sharpens his knives, just buys cheap ones and tosses them | Chefs - Babble Community