About Chef'sChoice®

Play golf or invent things. The choice was easy for Daniel D. Friel, Sr. when he approached retirement from his forty-year career with Dupont Company. Friel determined he "wasn't going to play golf, and instead the long-time scientist, development engineer, and electronics researcher aimed his skills and interests toward a second career.

Already a patent holder on a number of sophisticated instruments he developed, Friel set his sights on inventing a superior electric knife sharpener for a variety of knives, particularly fine quality gourmet knives. Knife sharpening had enthralled Friel for years, so he established a personal goal of three years to make adequate progress on his project. To resolve something that long frustrated him, Friel rescued a twenty-year-old gift set of Gerber knives from a closet and determined to create a sharp edge on them.

Doggedly working in his basement laboratory, Friel, with the help of a few other professionals, developed thirteen prototypes and soon narrowed the selections to one. In 1984, Friel founded the EdgeCraft Corporation and introduced Chef'sChoice® Diamond Hone® Sharpener. This revolutionary sharpener earned the acclaim of food experts and chefs around the globe including Pierre Franey, Jacques Pépin, and the late Craig Claiborne.

"I am basically an inventor, Friel notes. "I have tried to apply entrepreneurial and inventing talents to everything I have done. And I have always wanted whatever I create to be the very best of its kind. Many culinary professionals agree that every product that Friel's EdgeCraft produces is "the very best of its kind.

The original EdgeCraft knife sharpener, the Chef'sChoice® Model 100, incorporated 100% diamond abrasives and precision guides to produce a revolutionary razor-sharp edge. The EdgeCraft line of sharpeners expanded over the years and today includes electric knife and scissors sharpeners, manual knife and scissors sharpeners, diamond steels, diamond stones and sharpening rods, and a diamond steeling device with precision angle guides.

The company's newest sharpening breakthrough is the Chef'sChoice® Model 130 Professional Sharpening Center. Chef'sChoice sharpeners are assembled at the EdgeCraft facilities in Avondale, Pennsylvania, and sold in over fifty countries. Chef'sChoice sharpeners are world renowned for their superior quality and performance on kitchen knives, pocketknives, sports knives, and scissors.

In 1992, EdgeCraft introduced a line of premium handcrafted kitchen knives. Two years later the company debuted the first Chef'sChoice® Gourmet Electric Food Slicer. With nearly a dozen food slicers now available, Chef'sChoice is recognized as America's leading producer of professional quality food slicers for the home. In 1995, the company introduced a diamond hone sharpener for the commercial market and over time expanded the commercial line to include manual sharpeners, slicers, and more.

EdgeCraft launched into the hot beverage market in 1997 and today offers a number of innovative electric hot beverage appliances, including the cordless electric kettle. In the 1997, the company unveiled the most technologically advanced line of waffle makers.

From its simple beginnings with the revolutionary electric knife sharpener to today's leading gourmet kitchen appliances, Chef'sChoice infuses ingenuity and passion for excellence in all its products. It's the same ingenuity and passion of excellence that kept Daniel D. Friel, Sr. off the golf course and in his basement laboratory. And for that, professional and home chefs around the world thank him.