Evan Antzenberger

Evan Antzenberger is a French blacksmith with more than fifteen years of forging experience, having completed his training under Master Thierry Peyranne at the early age of sixteen. That long apprenticeship, started young, gave him a grounded technical base before he moved into culinary knives specifically, and the discipline of working alongside an experienced master still reads through the work today. He forges each knife himself, with close attention to every step, and the workshop practice has the patient, hand-led quality of someone who came up through traditional French blacksmithing before turning that training toward the kitchen.

Cutting performance and quality sit above everything else, and the catalogue reflects a maker comfortable moving between techniques rather than committed to a single signature treatment. Evan works in honyaki, laminated and pattern-welded steels, and each knife emerges as a one-of-a-kind piece with its own identity. Material selection is tasteful and restrained, the details brought together with what reads as genuine affection for the object, and the variety across his releases is one of the defining characteristics of the work. There is artisanal quality throughout, but each blade is allowed to be its own resolution rather than a variation on a template.

What sets Evan apart in the Modern Cooking Collectors Selection is the combination of that early, formal training with the design freedom he allows himself now. The knives feel like the work of someone with the technical fluency to do whatever the piece calls for, and the editorial discipline to keep each one focused on cut, feel and finish. For a Modern Cooking audience that values maker-led work with French forging roots and individual character, Evan's knives are a pleasure to represent and, more importantly, a pleasure to use.