(Click on the picture for more details or to enlarge the image)

Supplier: Lakeland   Guide price: £7.99 each

Santoku - roughly translated from Japanese - means "three good things"; or three uses. That's slicing, dicing and mincing - making the santoku a general purpose knife, good for precision cutting and fine slicing.The indentations along the knife blade are supposed to create little air pockets which stop the food sticking.

The santoku is the Japanese knife that has been most influenced by western knife design - and it usually has bevels to both sides of the cutting edge (compared to traditional Japanese knives which are bevelled on one side only).

This Lakeland version is designed for the UK market and because it has a sharp, robust blade made from stainless steel, it can go into the dishwasher. The blade has a colourful non-stick coating, with matching soft grip handles, and each knife comes with a protective guard for the blade.

Choose from pink, pastel blue or pastel green ... or buy two knives and keep one for meat only.

Blade length: 180mm (7 inches)