If you want to impress someone important in your life, particularly someone you might be sweet on, one of the top ways to do so is with expertise in the kitchen. You don’t have to be able to roll out a 7-course feast at the drop of a hat. But mastering even a few basic meal-prep tasks will make you look like a badass.
And listen, any area of knowledge that involves frequent knife use is always going to be cool.
As with any job, the work is made easier if you use good-quality tools. If you’re still using a dollar-store chef’s knife, trust me when I say your perspective needs some widening. Enter the O.T. Prep Knife from Messermeister.
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Olivia Tiedemann and Messermeister
The O.T. Prep Knife is a collaboration between Olivia Tiedemann and Messermeister. Tiedemann is a popular food content creator whose videos are typically equal parts cooking and flying middle fingers. She’s spent years working as a restaurant chef as well as a private cook for high-end clients. That experience has not only established her as a great cook, but a great cook who gives zero Fs. She isn’t afraid to try something new in the kitchen and turn old standbys on their heads.
For their part, Messermeister brings over 45 years of experience in knife and kitchen tool manufacturing. They are a leading manufacturer in the kitchen cutlery space, with a strong reputation for high quality.
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The O.T. Prep Knife Design
I asked Tiedemann about the design process for this knife. She said:
When I sat down with Messermeister, I basically said, “I want a knife that feels fast. Something lightweight, insanely functional, and easy to control on the board. A knife you’d actually reach for all day.”
So, we stripped away some of the knife’s bulk and focused on performance. The O.T. Prep Knife has a 6.5-inch blade, which is more than enough for almost every prep task, yet it still feels agile and precise rather than cumbersome. The flatter edge geometry keeps more of the blade in contact with the board, so chopping and slicing feel smooth and efficient, without the knife fighting you. You still get great tip control, but without all the extra curve of larger knives.
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We also built in an offset handle because I wanted proper knuckle clearance and a more natural feel during prep. Every part of the knife was designed to make cooking feel easier, faster, and more intuitive.
O.T. Prep Knife Performance
I’ve had the O.T. Prep Knife for about 6 weeks now. It falls between a utility knife and a chef’s knife in both size and design. That’s not a strike against it. I mean, I use the hell out of my utility knives. They get more action in the kitchen than my chef’s knife, if we’re being honest.
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The handle of the O.T. Prep Knife is outstanding. It’s very comfortable and ergonomic. I’ve used some knives that felt very blocky in hand, and that’s far from the case here. That level of comfort allows for a great deal of control over the knife, which is important. I used the knife to trim some chicken breasts, and at no point did it feel awkward or clumsy. Quite the opposite, it was very nimble. Being wood, the handle does need to be lightly oiled from time to time, but that’s not a deal breaker for me.
At 11.5 inches overall, this isn’t a huge knife by any stretch. The blade is 6.5 inches long and 1.63 inches high at the heel. As Tiedemann mentioned, there is plenty of knuckle clearance in this design. As someone with large hands, this is a feature I really appreciate.
One area where the O.T. Prep Knife really departs from what we might think of as classic or traditional kitchen cutlery design is the blade tip. Rather than a straight spine-to-tip profile, this blade has a sort of flattened reverse tanto shape. I found this worked particularly well for trimming fat and similar work from meat, as well as for cutting a slice of cheese into thin strips.
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For dinner earlier this evening, I cut up a bag of baby potatoes to roast with chopped garlic. The O.T. Prep Knife worked like a dream for slicing the yellow and red taters. As with any knife review, the test isn’t really about whether it will cut certain materials or mediums. It’s how the knife feels and performs the task. I don’t believe in torture testing blades to the point of failure, especially kitchen cutlery. If you’re hammering a chef’s knife through a brick, you’re doing cooking wrong.
I found myself reaching for the O.T. Prep Knife again and again, passing over my WÜSTHOF
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and Shun knives to grab it. The knife does everything I need it to in the kitchen without being a pain in the ass to maintain. It holds an edge remarkably well, so I don’t need to touch it up every ten minutes.
As Tiedemann said, “And honestly? I think it looks badass, too. It has this clean, performance-driven shape that feels modern and intentional — because it is. I’m really proud of how it came out, and Messermeister absolutely crushed bringing it to life.”
Oliva Elite Spear Point Paring Knife
While ordering the O.T. Prep Knife, I was browsing the Messermeister site and came across their Oliva Elite 3.5-inch Paring Knife. It fell into my cart as I completed checkout. While this isn’t a Tiedemann collaboration, it’s similar enough in appearance to look like a matched set.
End to end, it’s just a touch over eight inches long. With a 3.5-inch blade, this leaves plenty of real estate for a comfortable grip. The last thing you want in the kitchen is your fingers cramping from trying to hold on to a tiny knife handle. There’s also enough blade length to handle most routine chores without trouble.
The blade tip is sharp and thin enough for chores like deseeding peppers, which is great. It’s a very agile knife, quick in hand and easy to use. Among other things, I used it to slice some mini peppers for my wife’s omelet on Mother’s Day.
As with the O.T. Prep Knife, it needs a little oil on the wood handle every now and again. And don’t you dare ever put these knives in a dishwasher. Wash them by hand, dry them off, and put them away. Take care of them, and they’ll stay in great condition for a very long time.
The Fine Print
I’ll be the first to admit that these knives aren’t cheap dates. The O.T. Prep Knife runs $180, and the Oliva Elite Spear Point Paring Knife is about $90.
Now, let me be clear about something. The cost of a kitchen knife isn’t always indicative of its quality. I have a Victorinox paring knife that I picked up for about twelve bucks that does a ton of heavy lifting in my kitchen.
That said, these Messermeister knives are the kind that get passed down to the next generation of family cooks. With just a little attention, they’ll last at least a few lifetimes.