Topic · Professional Vegetable Cuts
Practicing Tourné
Tourné Potato
Cutting a Tourné potato. The following are some key steps to follow when employing this technique:
Peel and cut vegetables into 2 inches (5 cm) lengths. Large and/or round should initially be cut into like chunks, approximately 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 cm) wide (or the same measurements in length if cutting conical vegetables such as carrots).
Rest a chunk on the middle and ring fingers on your guide hand, providing support with your thumb.
With the thumb of your knife hand at the bottom of the chunk, place the knife blade on the top of the chunk and cut into the flesh of the chunk’s center.
Be sure not to cut straight down into the vegetable; instead, use an arc-shaped cut. A useful image to follow is that of a barrel with seven sides—this image should guide the movements of your hand.
Move-in an outward arc to the midpoint of the chunk with the knife blade tilted out, then tilt it in as you move it in an inward arc down to the bottom. Once you finish with the vegetable, the knife should again be just in front of the center of the chunk.
Using the thumb and index finger of your guide hand, rotate the vegetable chunk so that the edge of the first cut is facing you. This segment will be used to inform the next cut.
Place the blade down on the top and just in front of the center of the chunk. Repeat step 5, using the edge of your previous cut as your guide.
Repeat all steps five more times so that you achieve a seven-sided barrel shape.
*Peeling is optional. If you are not going to use the trimmings, then you don’t need to peel your vegetables. Also, some people like to keep vegetable skin when cooking. In French culinary arts, you always remove the peel of the vegetables you are going to consume.
Tourné Zucchini
Turning a zucchini is different from practicing the same technique on other foods like carrots and potatoes. Indeed, you want the skin to show on one of the vegetable’s larger surfaces. The end result is a flat oblong shape with a green or yellow top face. The bottom of the oval should be slightly flattened so that it stays in place on the plate.
Tourné Carrot
If your carrots are of regular size, simply cut them into chunks and turn them. If your carrots are quite large, cut them into chunks then into 3 equal parts. Turn each part.