To embrace a stereotype, there are two types of people in the kitchen: Tool enthusiasts and food enthusiasts.
The tool enthusiast has beautiful Japanese steel knives treated as family heirlooms; the knives are sent out for professional sharpening once or twice a year.
The food enthusiast has a pile of fibrox knives and a chef's choice electric sharpener. The knives go through the sharpener once a month and the dishwasher daily; the knives get replaced every decade or two.
The tool enthusiast's knives are pretty, but the food enthusiast's knives always pass the paper test.
Nobody has ever complemented me "wow, this meal was prepared with such pretty knives!"
Most people I know never sharpen their knives. My grandmothers (both of whom cooked for all branches of the family every day when I was a kid) never did. I think if a knife got too dull they simply chucked it out and got a new one. And probably cut themselves a few times until it got dulled enough.
Anyway that's three kinds of people: two kinds of foodies, and everyone else.
How can you know your grandmothers never sharpened it? In my experience grandmothers tend to have a steel lying in a drawer and use it at least before cutting through expensive meat. And they use professional sharpening services once in a year. You wouldn’t actually notice as a child.
Yeah, sorry my comment was a bit misleading. I spent a lot of time around my grans when I was a kid, and later as a young adult and a ... less young adult? We lived in the same houses (two, because my parents were divorced). They didn't sharpen knives. They both took great pride in their cooking, but they would just stare at you if you asked them about things like knife skills or mise en place. They were Greek housewives not French chefs.
I'm pretty sure we didn't have "professional sharpening services" either, when I was growing up in Greece. I think I've seen men with whetstones on their backs in old movies, or paintings, but I've never seen anyone like that live. Nor do I remember any shop that did that sort of work.
Why is it so hard to believe that housewives rarely sharpen knives? It even rhymes.
Maybe they understood you better if you didn't insist on speaking french? Arranging your ingredients when mixing them comes pretty naturally to most people even if they don't know a fancy phrase for it.
The tool enthusiast has beautiful Japanese steel knives treated as family heirlooms; the knives are sent out for professional sharpening once or twice a year.
The food enthusiast has a pile of fibrox knives and a chef's choice electric sharpener. The knives go through the sharpener once a month and the dishwasher daily; the knives get replaced every decade or two.
The tool enthusiast's knives are pretty, but the food enthusiast's knives always pass the paper test.
Nobody has ever complemented me "wow, this meal was prepared with such pretty knives!"