manuel and christian costardi

text by christian costardi

 

“what is a knife for a chef? – this is the question we often ask ourselves – how important is this tool for our work, but even more, to get the right cut of this or that ingredient? “
for us a knife is an essential tool, in our job it is not only a tool used in cooking process, but it is an extension of our hand and the blade that cuts is the thought that comes into our heads, it should be handy, balanced, sharp and above all must be “our knife”. it is crucial for us to always have our knife with us, we know it, we know how to use it, and it knows us.

 

when we met michele massaro – “coltellinaio matto”(crazy cutler) as we call him – for the first time, we were in a jail … not like you may think, serving a sentence … but to prepare a charity dinner in favor of the detainees. he arrived with his mustache, looked coy, shy, then he opened the briefcase with his knives and from the first moment we realized that those would become our knives, we had no doubts that we wanted the extension of our hand made by a person who loves his job as much as we do.

 

 

 

 

 

we chose the blades, the weights, the thickness, the handle grip, all the colors, our knives were born to follow us in our work. during our travels we share with them our achievements and our labors and when we grasp them, we know that they were forged by “the crazy cutler”. his passion and effort have given us perfect tools with precise weight and balance.
this is what we think about the knife, which for us becomes our best travel workmate and especially when we grasp it, we know that behind it there is a person who works with love and above all creates unique pieces of craftsmanship.

 

 

our series consists of 5 pieces that we believe are essential and fundamental to our work, we have named them as follows

 

 

costardibros cut

a knife that comes from the past, born as a shot knife, often heavy, but we wanted it thin, lightweight and easy to handle, with a high blade which allows all precision cuts and also chopping, cutting vegetables and meat to perfection.

 

costardibros sfiletto

the knife that every butcher or fishmonger would like to have, thin, balanced, slightly flexible which allows boning or filleting meat and fish, an extremely precise knife and especially provided with great comfort.

 

costardibros a portè

perhaps the knife that did not exist, a mini deba that becomes the all-purpose knife, that you must always have by your side; with its leather case and cord it is perfect to keep tied to our denim apron and always have it available to cut anything.

 

costardibros spatula

a spatula that we wanted, elbow shape, small and handy with a slightly one side sharp edge that can cut several things.

 

costardibros pinza

long pliers for cooking, the idea comes from the japanese chopsticks forged by michele’s skilled hands.