Dehydrated camp meals are light and easy calories, but they’re far from gourmet. If you’re a dedicated home cook with a refined palate, the taste of convenience can be hard to stomach.

　　Thankfully, there are a lot of camp kitchen products for backcountry chefs that make essential equipment lighter and more compact than their at-home counterparts.

　　Most people focus on stoves, cookware, utensils, and tableware when building out a dialed camp kitchen, but forget one of the most can’t-cook-without-it items of all: a chef’s knife. If you’ve ever struggled through dicing an onion at camp with a dull pocket knife or a small and awkward Swiss Army Knife blade, you know why it matters.

　　The problem is that chef’s knives are big, sharp, and awkward to carry in a pack. You run the risk of cutting into your backpack or yourself — neither of which is good.

　　The wide, rockered blade lets you chop veggies like a pro; (photo/Justin Park) The Messermeister Adventure Chef Knife ($64) is essentially a giant-sized folding pocket knife meant to address the problem head-on. The 6-inch German steel knife is sharpened to a more precise 15-degree edge for thinner slices and finer minces. 

　　It’s a touch smaller than a standard Western chef’s knife, but the wide, rockered blade lets you mince herbs, slice steak, and chop veggies like a pro, no matter where you’re cooking. There’s a good bit of steel in-hand, so it’s heavier than a pocket knife, but it’s compact and safe to carry, and the price tag is fair for a solid chef’s knife designed to be portable.

　　In short: Lightweight, sturdy, and compact, the Messermeister isn’t a high-end kitchen knife, but it’s one that’s built to go wherever you bring your camp kitchen and elevate your outdoor cooking.

　　Messermeister Adventure Chef Knife check price at messermeistercheck basecamp set on amazon

　　7.0 How we rate products Specifications Open length: 13.25” Blade length: 6” Closed length: 7” Blade steel: X50 Blade shape: Western chef’s knife Edge angle: 15 Grind: Flat Hardness: 56 Lock type: Frame lock Opening mechanism: Nail nick Weight: 7.6 oz. Price: $64 Pros Lightweight Compact Safe to carry Cons Undersized Balance is off Justin Park Messermeister Adventure Chef Knife Review Design Features

　　This knife is built to go wherever you bring your camp kitchen; (photo/Justin Park) Most chef’s knives range from 5 to 10 inches, so while it’s on the shorter end of the spectrum, the Messermeister doesn’t feel tiny in your hands. The build is fairly true to the classic Western chef’s knife profile with a gradually rockered blade edge that’s broad for straight slicing.

　　There’s a bit of a drop point for some reason, perhaps to allow for a slightly smaller handle for protecting the blade and thus keeping the weight down. Still, it comes to a point for piercing, so I didn’t find this much of a drawback.

　　The Wusthof Classic 6-inch Chef’s Knife is a comparable kitchen blade, and it has a traditional shape with a 1.6-inch width. By comparison, the Messermeister Adventure Chef Knife is nearly the same at 1.69 inches wide, though the taper is more abrupt, giving the blade less of a fine point.

　　Perhaps the biggest difference between a classic chef’s knife and the Messermeister is the balance. The handle is an inch longer than the blade, contains plenty of steel in the liner, and is heaviest at the butt end, so the balance point of the knife is back in the handle instead of where you grip it.

　　Does this render the knife useless? No. Will cooks used to high-end kitchen knives notice? Absolutely. I’m not a knife designer, but I think the Adventure Chef Knife could’ve shifted some of the handle’s weight forward for a better, if not perfect, balance point.

　　(Photo/Justin Park) The X50 steel is the same as what you’ll find in a Wusthof Classic, so it’s a familiar blade feel for most chefs. One downside is that it’s a softer steel that does best with frequent honing and sharpening, so if you’re out for multiple days/meals, you might want to carry a field sharpener with a honing surface as well.

　　Messermeister could’ve used a higher-carbon steel here for more field durability, but that would likely push the price well over $100, which is a lot for a knife you’ll likely use a few times a summer.

　　Out of the box, I found the blade a little dull, and it struggled to break tomato skin without sawing. Messermeister says the knife comes from the factory at 15 degrees, which is what I’m used to in kitchen knives. I think it just needed a little tune-up and honing to be as surgical as I wanted. 

　　In the Field

　　Adventure Chef Knife is smaller and lighter than most chef’s knives; (photo/Justin Park) I tested the Adventure Chef Knife as well as the complete Adventure Chef Summit Set which includes the 6-inch Adventure Chef Knife plus a 6-inch Folding Fillet Knife, folding plastic cutting board, a combo peeler/paring knife, and a folding fork/spoon/knife combo utensil. All these tools have their own slot in a well-made zippered carrying case that’s about the size of a modest hardcover book.

　　The size and weight of the full kit make it overkill for backpacking, but it’s a good cutlery setup for car camping or especially boat-based fishing adventures. I brought the Summit Set along on a lake fishing from a boat and was able to clean and prep several fish for a lakeside dinner using just the tools in the kit.

　　For backpacking, however, I only carried the Adventure Chef Knife, though I could see bringing the combination peeler/parer along as well if I were cooking something more elaborate for a group. In backpacking scenarios, I use a thin, hard plastic placemat that I cut down, which weighs next to nothing and sits flat against your back in any pack. 

　　Using the Adventure Chef Knife car camping or in the wilderness is definitely a major upgrade from bludgeoning steaks and veggies with a pocket knife. It’s not as well-balanced as my home kitchen blades, but it’s good enough to earn a permanent spot in my car camping mess kit.

　　Because I’m accustomed to 9-inch chef’s knives, the 6-inch Messermeister feels more like a utility knife to me than a chef’s knife, and that’s OK. I’m only willing to carry one camp kitchen blade backpacking, and in that case, something smaller and more versatile makes sense.

　　The Adventure Chef knife did well after sharpening, chopping onions and other veggies for a rice pilaf, and I was able to use it for trimming a piece of steak as well as slicing it after cooking.

　　Who’s It For? Even though it weighs less than half a pound, you’ll need to be serious about cooking to see the benefit of toting along a folding chef’s knife in your pack or car camping mess kit. If you’re bringing the Messermeister Adventure Chef Knife, you’ll also likely carry more capable cookware than, say, a Jetboil Flash, a cutting board, tableware, plus the groceries that you’ll apply the chef’s knife to.

　　(Photo/Justin Park) This is more than your average camper totes to feed themselves and requires a mindset of leisure camping or backpacking, where cooking and eating are part of the reason for heading outside. I love to cook, but when I spend a week in a tent chasing elk in the backcountry, cooking is simply a means of fueling myself. Dehydrated meals are a necessary evil — and kitchen cutlery is usually an unnecessary weight penalty. 

　　But for car camping and overlanding, the Adventure Chef Knife (or even the Summit Series kit that includes it) is a great way to up your camp cooking quality.

　　The weight is less of a concern in this scenario, but it’s still nice to have a camping mess kit that’s compact, portable, and contained.

　　Conclusion

　　A solid chef’s knife designed to be portable; (photo/Justin Park) Wrapping your favorite kitchen knife in a towel is an option for getting capable kitchen cutlery to your campsite, but it won’t travel well, and it doesn’t make sense to risk damaging or losing your home kitchen knife.

　　It’s smaller and lighter than most chefs knives, which is good for gram-counters and long days hiking. This smaller package makes some sacrifices in design and utility, but it’s still a much better all-around prep knife than whatever camp or pocket knife you have on hand.

　　Whether backpacking or car camping, I’d much rather rely on the folding Messermeister Adventure Chef Knife. The folding aspect makes it safe to carry and keeps it compact. This means youre more likely to actually pack it and use it — and produce those gourmet backcountry feasts you’ve been fantasizing about.

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