Fabulous Faraday's

My new Wüstof Nakiri knife. This is a sponsored post.

Faraday's? New restaurant? What kind of food? The short answers are sort of and every type imaginable. The long answer, Faraday's is a kitchen supply store where you can find every knife, gadget or piece of cookware needed for YOU to cook up the best food possible in your own restaurant, aka your home kitchen!

Speaking of knives, Faraday's partnered with Wüsthof and hosted a knife skills/cooking class for the Austin Food Blogger Alliance, of which I am a member. A HUGE thank you to both of them for organizing the class and the amazing giveaways -- more on those in a second!

Faraday's is located on Hwy 71 at the Shops at the Galleria in Bee Cave. From my house in South Central Austin, it only took 20 minutes on a Saturday morning to get there with no traffic. I've been in the past, but it has been a few years. Y'all need to go! They are locally owned, and have over 5500 items in the store from cutlery, cookware, bake ware, gadgets and grills. Their staff is extremely friendly, knowledgeable and helpful, and they hold cooking classes in the back of the store. They are absolutely a hidden gem in the Austin area.

AFBA provides educational, social, and volunteer opportunities for its members. This was one of the educational classes that members could sign up for, and Faraday's and Wüsthof literally rolled out the red carpet for us! We got to choose between a 6" or 8" chef's knife, 5" or 7" Santoku knife, or a 7" Nakiri knife. To KEEP! I won't disclose the normal retail price of the Nakiri knife, but it's not inexpensive. And like the other Wüsthof and Henckels knives I already own, this will last me a lifetime.

What's a Nakiri, you ask? Well I certainly asked because I wasn't familiar with it (plus I already owned chef and Santoku knives). Characterized by its rectangular blade, it has the feel of a chef's knife but makes more precision cuts, and lends itself as an excellent produce knife, as its hollow-edge blade creates air pockets so food doesn't stick to the blade. This is a particularly good knife for Japanese cooking, as presentation is extremely important. It can also handle some light meat cleaver duties as well.  We got to practice cutting vegetables with our new knives.

Wüsthof rep Andrew Wellings gave us some history on the company. They are a 7th generation family owned business, based in Solingen, Germany since their start in 1814. Knives are the only thing they make, and they should be professionally sharpened once a year, which removes the micro-particles of metal. Honing with a steel should be done frequently, as this will realign those micro-particles but won't actually remove them. Andrew's demo of how to hone a knife:

He also talked about how a knife is the most important tool in the kitchen, and there is an art to selecting the right knife for the job. In the photo below, the three knives at the top are all different cheese knives, the third from the bottom is a butcher's knife, followed by a brisket slicing knife and very heavy cleaver. Apart from regular sharpening, do NOT put these babies in the dishwasher!

Following Andy's talk, Faraday's Chef Scarleth Aguilar sauteed our chopped vegetables for the base of a stuffed tomato recipe. She made us a salad with edible flowers, roast asparagus and halibut with a sundried tomato pesto over a bed of saffron rice, and stuffed heirloom tomatoes. It was quite the feast, on top of the massive cheese board they prepared for us! She will soon be leaving Faraday's to be the corporate chef at Siete Foods.

Chef Scarleth Aguilar, on Instagram @cookingatx

Not only did Faraday's give us Wüsthof knives, they gave us swag bags that had even more stuff! A big thanks also to Siete for providing the items. AFBA is extremely grateful for everything that Faraday's and Wüsthof provided for us! Thank you!

Lookin' sharp on the red carpet!