About to spend several thousand pounds, dollars or euros on a monster set of knives? Before you dip into your pocket, it may be wise to recall that Gordon Ramsay has suggested that "you basically need three knives: A heavy duty chopping knife, followed by a small paring knife… and a serrated-edge knife for carving and slicing."

You’ll use an 8 to 10-inch chef’s knife for over 80% of all your slicing needs in the kitchen. The fact is, a high-quality chef’s knife is good for just about everything, while the small paring knife is designed to handle the smaller detail work, like boning, fileting or trimming. Of curse, it’s nice to have more specialized slicing cutlery, but we’re talking basics here, not a 45-piece block of equipment. Our third basic slicing tool to always have on hand is a serrated knife, enabling it to bite into the likes of bread without the need to press down and crush a loaf.

Finally, you’ll need kitchen scissors to cut, trim and prune herbs, but also to slice a pizza, cut through crab and lobster shells, and trim and cut poultry.

One last piece of solid advice, don’t forget to thoroughly wash and clean your knife or scissors after each use to avoid any risk of cross contamination

What's cooking in the near future? According to forecasts made by The Culinary Institute of America and published in USA Today, all (!) of the following:

• Classy comfort food – upscale versions of down-home recipes.

• Turnips. Expect to see them in exclusive restaurants and on dessert menus.

• Peruvian cuisine, Filipino cuisine, the New Nordic Cuisine, Turkish cuisine and "Next-Mex" – modern ideas applied on classic Mexican ingredients.

• Fermentation. The process is both delicious and healthy.

• Root-to-leaf cooking. An ambition to consume every part of a plant.

• More quinoa. Expect to be introduced to different varieties (there are more than 120 species).

• Pressure cookers. Lack of time meets love of slow cooking?

• Vegetables for dessert. Hence the tunips, see above.

• Japan again. Or rather: Applying French techniques on Japanese ingredients.

Read the whole article here.

From a foodie point of view it seems that an army of devoted small scale entrepreneurs (many of them on wheels...) as well as high profile chefs in star-studded restaurants are all putting everything they've got into creating the ultimate hamburger. But interest in the world's largest hamburger chains is waning, not least back where this humble meal in a bun once came from, the USA.

Within as little as one year a hamburger will no longer be the USA's obvious number one fast food choice, this according to a study carried out by Janney Capital Market and recently published in the Huffington Post. Today McDonald´s, Wendy´s and Burger King are three of the largest fast food chains, but out of them McDonald's seems to be the only one that is holding ground. The cause, it is said, is a growing awareness among Americans that makes them drive that extra mile for fast food experiences with more quality.

Hopefully, this is one of those trends that we will see over here soon...

PS

To make a spectacular hamburger it's a good idea to start here.