really a chef's knife is designed to take away the difficulty of prepping for long periods of time, hence the added weight and the typical length of the blade. for most people, they aren't cutting or prepping for more than half an hour to an hour at a time, so this benefit doesn't do much for them. a chef's knife can also be more readily used for breaking down certain cuts of meat, or crushing (think nuts or hard chocolates) than a santoku knife, but a sharp santoku can otherwise handle most other things just as well, if not better (ex: veggies), than chef's knives and won't feel like you are wielding a rough ridin' sword in the kitchen. supertramp has the right idea with the santoku, paring, and serated blade for most kitchen set ups. a good fillet knife is also important if you cook a lot of fish. skinning is one of those jobs that is super tough to do without the proper blade, but it can be done.