About Us

Hello and thanks for visiting Chef Knives To Go! My name is Mark Richmond and I am the owner, along with my wife and business partner, Susan Brown. We operate our business out of Fitchburg, Wisconsin with a small, dedicated team, and we have been proudly serving customers for 25 years.

The idea for Chef Knives To Go grew out of Sue's passion for cooking. After we sold our brick-and-mortar retail store in 2000, Sue enrolled in culinary school at Madison Area Technical College. As she began building her knife kit, I became fascinated with the tools myself and thought they would make a great product to sell online. What started as a hobby in a spare room of our house quickly turned into a full-time business. After the first year, we moved out of our home and into an office just a few blocks from the UW campus. In 2017, we moved the business to Fitchburg, Wisconsin, where we are still located today.

Over the years, the business has grown steadily, and we feel very fortunate to be able to work together doing something we truly enjoy. Our selection has expanded to include a wide range of brands, but our main focus has become handcrafted Japanese knives from talented blacksmiths and small workshops in Japan. Makers such as Takeda, Moritaka, and Tanaka helped shape the direction of our store, and Japanese kitchen knives and sharpening stones remain the heart of what we do.

We are proud of the selection we offer and committed to fast shipping, honest advice, and excellent customer service. Whether you are a professional chef, a home cook, or someone just beginning to explore quality cutlery, we want to help you find the right tools and enjoy using them for years to come.

Sue and I moved to Madison from Massachusetts, where we met, and we have called this area home for many years. I grew up in Connecticut and New Jersey and graduated from Rutgers University with a BA in History and Political Science. Sue grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from UMass Amherst with a BA in English.

Thanks for reading, and thank you for supporting our business. We truly appreciate the many friendships and connections we have made along the way.