This page contains the advanced knife skills and garnishing techniques that will be covered during the MustangChef Summer Camp and which are vital for Competition team members and Advanced Culinary Students to master. Here they are, from most simple to most challenging:
- Basic Culinary Knife Cuts and How to Make Them
- Apple Swans
- Carrot Tulips
- Fluted Mushrooms
- Tourneed Potatoes
- Bell Pepper Flowers
Apple Swan
Instructions
MAKE THE WINGS
- Slice the apple at a slight diagonal so that it cuts right through the center of the apple core.
- Take the half of the apple that still has the bottom attached, and place it face down on a cutting board. We're going to be making careful cuts into the apple. If you are unsure of your knife skills, use 2 butter knives placed perpendicular to the top and bottom.
- Carefully cut down into the apple from the top, just to the right side of the apple core, stopping ½ inch from the bottom. Do not go all the way through the apple!
- Reverse knife angle and cut towards the middle, stopping where the cuts meet.
- You should feel a little "pop" as the wedge is released. If not, it means the cuts haven't fully met. Gently wiggle the blade from both directions until the cuts align. Repeat the process on the other side of the apple so that you're left with 2 apple wedges.
- The goal is to cut each of these new wedges into 3 smaller wedges, then layer them together to give the effect of feathers and wings.
- The process is very similar to how you cut the apple before, only this time, rather than slicing in from the side, try turning the wedge over to the left, and slicing down. This will give you more control.
- When both wedges have been cut, layer the pieces back together to form a tear-drop shape, and replace them back into the apple “body”. The effect should be two swan wings.
MAKE THE HEAD
- Make a couple of precision cuts near the front of the body.
- Remove the pieces to leave a clean, and fairly deep, groove.
- To form the head, slice the apple into ¼ – ½ inch thick slices; if using butter-knife spacers, put the apple face down between the knives and slice along their length
- Repeat this 3 or 4 times to create multiple cross sections that sport a variety of shapes and sizes.
- Pick a piece that looks like a heart that’s been flattened at the top.
- Make 3 strategic cuts into the apple slice: one cut at the top at about a 45 degree angle, then a 2nd cut horizontal, and to the right. The last cut near the bottom was sloped at about 30 degrees down and to the left. You should be able to see that the top cut was started just on the other side of the apple center, and this is done on purpose to give the sloped face, and the effect of a swan’s beak.
- Discard the cut-away pieces to create a swan head profile.
ASSEMBLY
- Use apple seeds and place them when you’d like the eyes to go, then press into place with your thumb or the side of one of the butter knives.
- When both eyes are in place, simply drop the neck into place, and your apple swan is finished! Spritz with lemon juice to help prevent it from turning brown.
Video
How to make a Carrot Tulip
Instructions
- Take a carrot and trim a little bit of surface off to make a five-sided pyramid. If you are not going to attach a stem, the base of the flower can come to a point; if you are going to attach a stem, the base of the flower has to be wide enough for a stem to be inserted.
- Use the middle edge of a curved blade paring knife to carve the top arc of the petal from one top corner of the pyramid. At this point, when you carve one petal, don’t cut through the end. Keep 1.5 to 2 cm length connected to the point of the pyramid.
- Use the point of the blade to mark arc shapes gently on the surface of the carrot . After that, the process should be easier. Once you have done five petals, use the edge of your turne knife to remove parts of the carrot that are still clinging to the root.
- Use one hand to hold the main carrot, and your other hand to hold and twist the end of the flower. Remove the flower out from the main carrot.
- Use point blade of a paring knife to carve a 0.8 to 1 cm circle hole from the bottom of the carrot flower.
- Get a celery stalk and remove its top leaves and segment. Make a Julienne cut and keep it as long as you can.
- Trim the top of the celery stick that you just cut to be a cylinder at its top section with a paring knife. The top diameter of the cylinder should match the diameter hole that you have created in the carrot flower.
- Insert the celery stick into the hole at bottom of the carrot flower. The section inserted in the carrot bottom should be at least 2 cm long. As such, it will make the celery stick hold the carrot flower well.
- Soak in salted cold water for 30 minutes to encourage the stem and flower petals to curve slightly, then arrange.
Video
How to flute a mushroom
Instructions
- Choose large white button mushrooms with the most beautiful & even caps possible.
- Hold a sharp paring knife with the half way point of the blade at the center of the mushroom cap, angled down to control the depth you want the cut to be. Hold the mushroom in your other hand by the stem.
- Twist the knife in one way and the mushroom in the other to create a shallow, crescent moon-shaped cut in the top of the mushroom (see video).
- Turn the mushroom enough to queue up the next cut.
- Repeat steps 3 & 4 as necessary until you’ve covered the whole top of the mushroom.
- Brush off any trailing bits of mushroom from cutting the top. Flip the mushroom over and trim off the stem to give the mushroom a flat bottom.
- Optional: Roast and/or sear the mushrooms until the tops have browned to accentuate the fluting.
Video
What is a Tournée Cut?
The word “tournée” is French for “turned.” In fact, potatoes that have been cut this way are sometimes called “turned potatoes.” The name comes from the technique — you’ll be rotating the vegetable in your hand as you make the cuts. The goal is to cut a small piece of vegetable into an oblong football shape, tapered at each end.
How to Tournée Cut
To master this skill, it’s best to have a tourné knife, also known as a bird’s beak knife. This small paring knife has a short, curved blade that resembles a beak. A normal paring knife can be used as well, but a tourné knife is a handy tool to keep around. It’s great for peeling shallots and onions, coring tomatoes and strawberries, and digging the eyes out of potatoes.
To start the process, peel your vegetable and trim it to your desired size. In French cooking, there are several “standard” sizes of tourned vegetables:
- Château — 2.5” long, 1.5” thick
- Anglaise — 2” long, 1” thick (most common)
- Cocotte — 1” long, 0.5” thick
- Olivette — 0.5” long, 0.25” thick
Since the Anglaise size is most common, we suggest you start there.
Hold the potato (or other vegetable) segment in your non-dominant hand between your thumb and fingers. Then with the knife in your dominant hand, place your thumb at the bottom of the vegetable. Carefully trim the edges toward yourself, tapering it near the ends. Repeat this process as you rotate the vegetable segment in your hand. Take your time as you get used to the curving motion.
A traditional tournée cut has seven sides which will emerge with seven smooth cuts from top to bottom. But you may find that at first, it takes several extra cuts to get the shape right.
After you have finished the process, the remaining segment of vegetable should look like a miniature football or barrel. Like all things worth doing, it takes practice to master the tournée cut, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t get it perfect right away.
One of the challenges of the tournée cut is minimizing waste. If you keep trimming and trimming, you’ll end up with a tiny nub of potato and a lot of scraps! But even a textbook tournée cut results in some waste. Save those bits for mashed potatoes, purees, stocks and slaws.
This versatile technique can be used for apples, zucchini, pears, carrots, mushrooms and more. Any produce with a firm enough texture can be turned into even, bite-sized barrel shapes.
For zucchini, cut your 2-inch segment into thirds or quarters lengthwise. Then, just tournée cut the interior part of the vegetable, so you leave some of that vibrant green skin on the outside. It will add great color to your finished dish.
Bell Pepper Flowers
While the basic technique is the same for ALL bell pepper flowers – cut off the bottom, trim away the stem, and shape what remains into petals – there are many variations. The video below is a fine example of some of the ways you can take the basic technique and take it to extreme lengths.