Steve Pellegrino, knife maker to Philly chefs, severely injured in car crash
The acclaimed knife man, whose work is used in restaurants like Kalaya, Zahav, and Royal Sushi & Izakaya, had recently opened a shop for Pellegrino Cutlery in Doylestown.
Knife-maker Steve Pellegrino, whose knives are beloved by some of the most acclaimed chefs in Philly, was critically injured Feb. 19 in a car crash between the city and his home in Upper Black Eddy, Bucks County.
His wife, Rae Pellegrino, said she was told that his car had slid over a guardrail around 2:45 a.m. on Wednesday. He was airlifted to a trauma center with multiple skull fractures, brain bleeding, and an injury to his carotid artery, she said, adding that he was on life support.
As of Friday afternoon, donations to a GoFundMe set up to defray medical costs had reached nearly $35,000 out of its goal of $65,000.
Pellegrino, 34, launched Pellegrino Cutlery in Philly in 2017. His first foray into bladesmithing came during an apprenticeship with Portland Razor Co. in Portland, Oregon. When he moved back east in 2015, he began experimenting with knife-making from an outbuilding on his grandfather’s land in Upper Black Eddy. His earliest knives were rough: “They looked like hamburgers,” Pellegrino told The Inquirer in 2018. “They were terrible.” Pellegrino honed his skills from there, supplying knives to the likes of Marc Vetri, Michael Solomonov, and Matty Matheson by 2018.
Last fall, Pellegrino opened a 3,400-square-foot shop in Doylestown designed for high-volume blade production with the hope of expanding his business beyond the custom, artisanal knives for which he’s celebrated. “I want to offer an affordable chefs knife that any line cook can afford, and any home cook can depend on for a lifetime,” Pellegrino wrote on Instagram last July. He was also looking forward to starting workshops to teach knife-making.
“I would argue with anyone that he’s one of the best American knife makers,” said Pat Alfiero of Heavy Metal Sausage of Pellegrino.
Other chefs throughout the Philadelphia restaurant community expressed shock and statements of support at the news. “This is very heartbreaking and I am really hoping he can pull through,” said Chutatip “Nok” Suntaranon of Kalaya.