Jonathan has worked in the food industry for 36 long years. He is the purchasing manager for a local family-run wholesaler. The wholesale business offers mainly cheese but also offers meats, olives, drinks, and many other products.
Believe it or not, Jonathan was never really into cooking. Not until COVID came and everyone was affected by the lockdown.
Jonathan loves all sorts of fishing, mainly coarse and sea fishing. Because of this, and as part of his fishing kit, he owns several outdoor cooking/camping stoves, pots, and pans. While in their garden during the lockdown, he started getting out his cook kits and doing a bit of outside cooking. This started as just frying up a few sausages and a bit of bacon, to an elaborate array of recipes. This cooking idea has been a slight error now that his wife of 23 years knows he can cook, and he's pretty good at it!
His cooking equipment expanded quite a lot, as cooking outside became something that helped them through the lockdowns.
As part of his love of fishing, he owned several knives. These knives were used while he did outdoor cooking to chop vegetables and various meat products. While using these knives and possibly for a while before, he had longed for a quality knife to use.
His fishing knives are stainless steel, but his pocket knives are carbon steel. Both blades have their qualities. Stainless steel is versatile and does not need much caring, whereas carbon steel is a joy to sharpen and use but requires a bit of looking after. He longed for a Japanese carbon steel knife. According to him, many knives for sale online claim to be Japanese knives but are not authentic.
“After a lot of research I brought my Syosaku Gyuto Aoko Blue Steel No2 bladed knife with a Black Pakkawood handle. I’m so pleased with my Syosaku Gyuto. It has been a breath of fresh air when it comes to cutting up vegetables and meats. It was so very sharp out of the packaging and such a beautiful knife.”
Jonathan Brazier
“Now that lockdowns are hopefully a thing of the past, Karen and I continue to go outside and chop up a load of ingredients and throw in some herbs and spices and love to create something nice (well I do, while she watches haha). It’s something that we love to do together and will continue to do and using a Syosaku knife makes it all that more enjoyable.”
Jonathan Brazier
Jonathan now also enjoys his second knife from Syosaku. It is a Hammered Damascus Petty Knife! He had it customized by engraving his name JONATHAN in Katakana characters.
“Enjoying using my new Syosaku Petty Japanese knife. The personal engraving gives it that special touch.”
Jonathan Brazier