New Delhi, March 22 -- It was a Misono 440, a hyper-chrome Japanese stainless steel Gyuto chef's knife, and it took months of savings from odd campus jobs that barely paid $8 dollars an hour. Teaching English to South Korean students, working banquet service, slowly putting together the grand sum of $120. A sum I could not ask my folks for since the culinary school in New York City had already issued us a large set of standard, slightly clunky knives, and that, in theory, was that.

My friend Jasmine drove me to a knife store a mile up on Route 9 in New York on a heavily snowed out afternoon in 2001. I stood over the glass cases filled with shimmering steel, each knife a small dream and most out of reach. My knife skills were already good...