"The New Cooks' Catalogue is an essential work for everyone from the beginner to the seasoned professional. The Cooks' Catalogue was published to enormous critical acclaim and commercial success--hailed by the New York Times as "a must."

Burt Wolf and a team of more than a hundred of the world's leading food authorities bring us an all new thoroughly updated and expanded book. An encyclopedic reference guide, The New Cooks' Catalogue presents comprehensive reviews of more than a thousand items of kitchen equipment.

Every piece contained in this book was evaluated in terms of its effeciency and ease of use; the quality of its design, materials, and construction; and even its aesthetics--providing all the information you require to determine your own equipment needs and decide which item will best do the job.

"Any good chef loves hand tools" states John-Paul Damato, buyer and private party chef for Restaurant Nora in Washington, D.C. "If you're cutting a tomato or a pepper and your knife gets dull, you're not going to pull out a stone. The EZ-Sharp is so compact that you can even keep it in your pocket. Swipe it a couple of times and--boom!--your knife is sharp."

Tony Seta, a certified master chef and vice president of menu and product development for triarc Restaurant Group, states, "The knife sharpener we had previously been using literally scared me. When I first picked up the EZ sharp and used it, I immediately said, 'This is what we've got to be using in all our restaurants.'"

Sam Salemi from Next Day Gourmet, says, "EZ Sharp is the most popular knife sharpener with chefs, outperformfing steel, stone, and electric sharpeners." In fact, the esteemed group of food authorities who put together the 25th edition of the New Cook's Catalogue chose to feature the EZ sharap in this definitive guide to cooking equipment.

Even with a new millenium approaching, we still face some age-old problems, including one that has vexed cooks for centuries: how to sharpen a knife and keep it sharp.

"The EZ SHARP is the best thing I've come across in a long time," says chef Aldo Camplani, chef chef/owner of Aldo & Nikki's in Long Beach, California, . "Whoever invented this had the restaurant in mind." Habits are hard to change, but the momentum is growing for newer techniques. At a recent Las Vegas trade show, with hundreds of entries in 34 categories, the EZ SHARP won "Best of Show, Cutlery Division." Anton Brunbauer, executive chef of The Hyatt regency Scottsdale at Galney Ranch, says it's not just ease and performance that are so appealing.

"An average of 90 cooks work in my kitchen," he states. "Because they cut themselves only when their knives are dull, the number of injuries from knives since I started using the EZ SHARP is reduced. My customers benefit because there is more trained staff on duty, and we benefit by saving money on worker's compensation claims."

The EZ SHARP's durable construction, low cost, and light weight mean that chefs on the go can toss one into a knife kit or carry-on bag and be sure of a reliable edge in any situation.

Sam Salemi, Director of Merchandising for US FOODSERVICE, formally known as Rykoff-Sexton, an Indianapolis-based company says quote " Sharpening a knife isn't something to play around with. Anybody could use their product...because you don't have to be educated in terms of steel or stone."

Ronnie Schifflett, Director of Merchandising for SYSCO, specifically had a client to request that they carry the EZ SHARP. "The first customer got them as a sample and tested them," he says. Referring to how SYSCO became a distributor for the EZ SHARP: "They said they were far better than anything seen to date and that's why they wanted the sharpener brought in."

Tired of knife sharpeners that don't work? Try EZ SHARP, used in the restaurant trade for the past seven years and now available to home cooks. It's safe, easy to use, and cheap.

The lightweight tool has a tugnsten carbide blade; hold it with one hand and run your knife lightly through the sharpener with the other.

Stren has acquired the marketing rights to the EZ SHARP knife sharpener from Creative Products International.

Now called the Stren Knife & Hook Sharpener, Stren added a hook honer to the front of the thumb guard.

For whetstone-challenged sportsmen, there's a ridiculously simple knife-sharpening device called EZ SHARP that looks too good to be true. You simply pull the blade to be sharpened through a pair of tungsten carbide blades mounted in a plastic handle.