4 minute read
Interview
The cutting edge
Meet Michael Bach, the man behind sknife – a brand which has proven so popular with Michelinstarred chefs it is only found in world’s best restaurants. HoReCa finds out more about this exceptional Swiss outfit…
Chef Franck Giovannini (right) with his special steak knife pictured with Michael Bach, sknife founder and CEO
Michael, sknife is a brand name synonymous with quality but tell us about how you came to design knives and then build your brand? Our sister company CeCo world-of-knives.ch – distributor of high-quality knives from Japan and Solingen in the Swiss market – has made excellent contacts in the top gastronomy for 20 years. Several top chefs asked for a sophisticated steak knife made in Switzerland, which resulted in the foundation of sknife and the launch of the sknife steak knife in August 2015.
Typically, how many new products do you launch annually? We have several products patented and in development. As everything is manufactured entirely by hand, finding good manpower limits us.
What dynamics are needed for a quality knife, particularly in a hospitality setting? Gong by the motto “form follows function”, the design
Did you know?
Ten chefs with three Michelin stars use sknife products in their restaurants, the most recent being chef Julien Royer in the three-star restaurant Odette in Singapore.
of the sknife knives is formed by working closely with first class cuisine and knife specialists in Switzerland. The smooth transition from the handle to the blade allows ergonomic cutting and makes the knife a real pleasure to hold. Due to the optimised design, the cutting edge is contactless with the surface. To meet the requirements of hospitality settings, the material used for our products are manufactured extra-thinly.
Your knives are now used in many Michelin-star restaurants – remind us how many, and tell us
An exclusive version of the table knife with snowwhite handles for French top chef Anne-Sophie
Engraving for 3-star chef Grant Achatz, Alinea, Chicago
Fact!
All sknife products are manufactured entirely by hand.
about some of the venues with sknife products on the table. sknife is set in the world’s best restaurants with over 95 Michelin stars, most recently used by Julien Royer in the three-star restaurant Odette in Singapore.
Some of the hotels on the Côte-d’Azur such as La Réserve Ramatuelle in St Tropez or the Four Seasons in Cap-Ferrat use our products. We are very proud of the Tableware International Award of Excellence 2022 – this is our fourth international top chefs. With special versions, and also with our in-house engraving service on knife and packaging, we can personalise the product for chefs.
Talk us through some of your best-selling products – why, in particular, are they are so popular? Our sknife Swiss knives are manufactured analogue to the French knives but in a finer, higher quality. In France, our brand is very appreciated, used in Mauro Colagreco’s
Input from top chefs has been considered for the design process of the sknife steak knife
design award. In Switzerland, sknife is now the only cutlery manufacturer that produces small series by hand – making every single knife, fork and spoon a unique piece.
How do you work with these acclaimed chefs, is it a collaboration or do you present them with finished products? Our unique knife design is developed in collaboration with Mirazur in Menton, the world’s best restaurant 2021. Due to the properties of the surgical steel used, sknife knives have four times higher corrosion resistance, high hardness of 58 HRC and stabilised wood (which means it does not swell in contact with water) – making them ideal for hotels by the sea and yachts. Thus, it’s not only due to the design but also to the fact that the sknife cutlery is the only formed cutlery which can be used in restaurants by the sea, such as at the Côte-d’Azur.
And what about other aspects of cutlery – forks, spoons etc – do they interest you as much? Yes, because of the great demand from the gastronomy sector for damask knives, we first developed a fork and now also a spoon in torsion damask steel with over 1,000 layers. In a second step, we added versions made of surgical steel with a four times higher corrosion resistance because the restaurants near the sea asked for a complete cutlery set. And finally, what can we expect to see from sknife in the near future? More collaborations with Michelinstar chefs perhaps? We are actually present with 10 three-star chefs, there are 134 in total. We are manufacturing exclusive versions for top chefs such as for Franck Giovannini (Hôtel de Ville, Crissier) and Anne-Sophie with over eight Michelin Stars worldwide. sknife is a small knife manufactory but very high-class which allows us to provide products in exclusive materials and special designs for the three-star gastronomy.
