Vegetable carving is the art of decorating dishes with artistic cutting. Anyone who has ever been on vacation in warm countries or at a banquet in a restaurant is familiar with this technique. The buffet usually contains dishes decorated with vegetable flowers and figurines. Cutting these figures with a knife is called carving. Mastering the technique is easy. Step-by-step instructions for beginners and examples of vegetable decorations will help with this.
Technology features
Carving as a culinary art originated in Asia two thousand years ago. Initially, the technique was called mukimono - the artistic layout of leaves on earthenware. Modern chefs have adopted the name from in English, where its literal translation is “carving”, “cutting”. With the spread of carving, the technique itself has changed. Oriental craftsmen decorated dishes with leaves, figurines of flowers, animals and birds. Now culinary specialists can carve both a pumpkin carriage and a Cinderella from a zucchini.
In resort countries, carving from vegetables and fruits is a common occurrence, but in Russia it has not yet become widespread. Having mastered the elementary techniques of this technique, you can surprise guests with the beauty of dishes at a dinner party. There are two types of technique: classical and three-dimensional (sculptural).
Classical carving is cutting along the skin of a vegetable or fruit. The carving is carried out along the outer layer to reveal the pulp of the fruit. Due to the contrast between the color of the skin and the pulp, a pattern is created. "Sculptural" carving is a three-dimensional carving on the peel and pulp of the fruit. With its help, complex 3D objects are created.
To make carving at home, it is enough to master the classic technique. Understanding the basics of working with artistic cutting tools, it will be easier to start creating voluminous gastronomic masterpieces. For artistic cutting use fruits, vegetables, berries. Vegetable carving has its own characteristics:
- any vegetable crops are suitable for cutting;
- finished figures can be stored in cold water for 1-2 days;
- light-fleshed vegetables can be dyed with food coloring;
- figures from most vegetables can be boiled, baked, deep-fried, if the temperature and time conditions are observed, they will not lose their color and shape;
- simple figures are made with a kitchen knife, as well as with a vegetable peeler;
- fasten the elements of the figure with toothpicks.
For occupation carving requires patience, concentration, a steady hand and special tools.
Required Tools
For the first test, a simple knife with a sharp blade, which is in the kitchen, is suitable. But for a quality result, it is not enough. When turning carving into a hobby, you need to stock up on at least a small set of professional knives, and buy the rest as you develop skills.
- Main tool - thai knife. It has a pointed blade for curly cutting. It is convenient for them to cut patterns on soft vegetables with a thin skin and work with hard fruits.
- sickle knife indispensable when processing large fruits with a strong peel. For example, pumpkins.
- table knife cut large vegetables into pieces.
- Carb knives make curly cuts. The shape of the notch (groove) depends on the cross section of the knife: round, oval, triangular or V-shaped.
- engraving knife- a tool for creating a linear pattern (grooves) on vegetables. It is round, triangular or shaped.
- Noisettes- these are knives and spoons with a notch. With the help of a recess in the pulp of the fruit, hemispheres and balls of different diameters are cut out. With a noisette, you can take out the pulp and seeds from vegetables, create depressions with a smooth edge. Another part of the composition is usually placed in the recess. For example, the core of a flower.
- Cannelling knife- a device for cutting even grooves in vegetable pulp.
- Calibration knife- a tool for cutting "corrugated" parts. There are calibration knives with different blades: wide and narrow, with a small, medium and large wave.
- Spade knives- tools with an elastic soft blade for creating openwork patterns.
- Serpentine cutter- "sharpener" for vegetables. With it, you can cut a long and thin strip of pulp. Also, a serpentine cutter removes the peel in the form of spiral chips.
- Korean carrot knife cuts vegetables into neat strips.
- die cuts- These are figured molds made of stainless steel. Outwardly and according to the principle of action, they are similar to cookie cutters.
- Scissors for carving are used in two cases. With their help, you can speed up the cutting of flowers from soft vegetables and bring the finished work to perfection.
- Toothpicks and skewers connect fragments of complex figures into a single whole.
Carving tools must be of high quality. All but the sickle-shaped knives have a strong but thin and sharp stainless steel blade. The sickle knife may be made of a more flexible material. Blades need to be sharpened from time to time. The sharper they are, the more convenient it is to work with them, the ornament turns out more accurately.
The handle of artistic cutting tools needs to be smooth, moderately light, so that it is comfortable to hold it in your hand for a long time. The weight of the correct carving knife is 50-70 grams.
Step by step instructions for beginners
There is no universal scheme for artistic cutting on vegetables. To master carving at home, you need to start with simple shapes and gradually increase the level of complexity. Over time, it will be possible to create your own original products without ready-made schemes. And at first, step-by-step instructions from books will help, culinary magazines and the Internet. The carving procedure is conditionally divided into three stages: the selection of suitable vegetables, the preparation of vegetables, and artistic cutting.
Choice of vegetables
Fruits of any crops are suitable for cutting, but of a certain quality. To make a figurine, flower or a whole bouquet from vegetables, you need to choose a "working material" according to several criteria.
- Quality. To work, you need a moderately elastic fruit without rot and mechanical damage on the peel, the correct shape for its culture. The less empty space and seeds inside, the easier it is to work.
- Freshness. Taking vegetables just from the garden is a mistake. Their fruits are still too elastic and juicy. When cutting, a lot of liquid will be released, and small parts of the figure may break. A flabby vegetable is also not worth taking. The edges of the ornament will turn out uneven, the leaves of the flowers will look lethargic.
- degree of maturity. For carving, fruits are needed “in their prime”, when they are already moderately large, but not yet overripe. Such vegetables have dense pulp, strong skin, but there are no voids inside the fruit. They have a bright color inside, outside and are stored longer in the form of finished products.
- Shape and size. The fruits must be selected depending on the shape that should be obtained after cutting. For figures with rounded lines, rounded vegetables are needed, for oblong ones, elongated ones. The shape of a vegetable is already a hint of what can come out of it. For example, it is good to cut leaves from a cucumber, dahlias from beets, lush chrysanthemums from Chinese cabbage.
- The color of the pulp and fruit. Carving looks really nice when a vegetable has bright coloring inside and outside or between the skin and the flesh is an obvious contrast. The closer the color of the vegetable to the color of the prototype figure, the more natural the figure looks.
- From green vegetables, beautiful leaves are obtained, from white and red - flowers, from red - cones. Many colors work well together. For example, greens from cucumber peels and poppies from bell peppers.
- If you need a custom color, it is enough to take vegetables with white pulp (potato, daikon, white radish, turnip) and lower the finished figure into a solution with food coloring.
Preparing vegetables
Before cutting, vegetables must be taken out of the refrigerator, so the fruits will be more elastic. Rinse them with water at room temperature, dry on a napkin. Sprinkle vegetables that darken when exposed to air with a solution of vinegar or lemon juice. Figures can be cut from pickled vegetables if the fruit is elastic. They also need to be washed and dried first.
cutting
It is convenient to master the technique on concise figures.
- Lily from fresh cucumber. Cut off 5-7 cm cucumber. Cut off the rounded part to make the flower stable. With a knife, make incisions (petals) along the length, from top to bottom, without cutting 5 mm to the base. The thickness of the petals is 0.5-1 mm. Move clockwise. Arrange the second row of petals in a checkerboard pattern in relation to the first. The third row is again staggered in relation to the second. The thicker the cucumber, the more rows. Cut the cylinder from the core of the flower to the base, it can be replaced with a circle of carrots. Dip the lily in cold water so that the petals open.
- Chrysanthemum from Chinese cabbage. Take a strong head of Beijing cabbage, cut off the top of the leaves. White veins should remain on the stalk. The remains of the leaves from the veins must be removed immediately. With a carving knife with a semicircular or triangular cut, cut each vein, not reaching 5-7 mm to the place where the sheet is attached to the base. From one vein, from 3 to 6 petals are obtained. The thinner the petals, the more magnificent the flower will be. Dip the chrysanthemum in cold water.
- Poppy from bell pepper and black radish. Take a large bell pepper. Cut off the upper part with the stalk (3-5 cm). It is not needed for carving. Remove the seeds from the rest. Make 4-5 arcuate cuts along the upper edge. These will be the petals. With a thin, sharp knife, split each petal in half. Bend the outer part with the skin slightly outward. Dip the poppy into the water. While the petals are blooming in the water, cut off a small piece from the black radish, about 2 cm high and 3 wide. Do not cut the skin of the radish. Without bringing the knife to the end, cut a piece into strips and fluff the resulting core. Connect the poppy and the core with a toothpick.
Flowers from vegetables can be collected in bouquets, combining the same flowers of different sizes or shapes from different fruits.
Ideas for decorating dishes
Carving - decoration for the festive table.
- With a regular vegetable peeler, it's easy to make roses for salads and serving appetizers. It is enough just to cut a long thin strip from the pulp of a bright vegetable (beet, cucumber, carrot, radish), roll it into a spiral and straighten the edges.
- For salads and cold appetizers that contain onions, sweet white and red onion chrysanthemums are suitable.
- Contrasting flowers and figures from green and red vegetables look beautiful on dishes with grated cheese. For example, pepper poppies, tomato roses, cucumber lilies.
- Curly cuts of canned vegetables (cucumber, daikon, squash, zucchini) are suitable for salted and pickled snacks.
- With the help of artistic cutting, it is easy to emphasize the theme of the table. For example, during the winter holidays, New Year's paraphernalia from vegetables is relevant (needles from greens and cones from carrots, Christmas trees from cucumbers, snowflakes from daikon).
- Kids at children's parties like animals from vegetables (turtles from cucumbers, a lion from carrots). In the form of figures, children willingly eat "tasteless" vegetables: avocados in the form of a firebird, cauliflower sheep.
- On a festive table without a specific theme, guests will be surprised by a pumpkin flower basket filled with bright vegetables.
How to save creation?
There is not always time to be creative on a holiday. Curly blanks from vegetables can be made in advance.
There are a few simple ways prolong the life of finished products. The first way is in technology. If you do not cut the peel of the fruit deeper than 2 mm, it will retain moisture inside longer, and therefore appearance. But this option is not suitable for sculptural carving.
The second option is to sprinkle the finished figure with a solution of vinegar or lemon juice. The third way is to use the cold. Flowers and figures from vegetables should be wrapped with cling film and stored in the refrigerator for a day. For a shorter time, they can be lowered into cold water. These simple tricks will help keep the vegetable creation beautiful before the guests arrive and during the celebration.
How to decorate dishes with vegetables, see the following video.
Carving is the art of artistic cutting of vegetables and fruits. The technique came to Europe from Southeast Asia, thanks to local women and European tourists. The first traditionally consider it a duty to dress up and decorate everything that comes to hand, the second, under the impression, bring home exotics from distant corners of the world.
Carving vegetables and fruits
You can carve products in different ways: cut patterns and inscriptions on the surface or make compositions from slices of different shapes, use one or more types of material in one craft. The video will show how to build structures from fruits and vegetables, assemble mosaics, cut out drawings. The examples from the video tutorial are enough to decorate the entire table.
fruity bouquet
The secrets of carving are revealed by master Zhanna Dyatlova. To build a bouquet, you will need tangerines, kiwi and large berries. The design is assembled on the basis of an apple and fastened with wooden skewers and toothpicks. In the absence of a special carving knife, you can use an ordinary small kitchen knife with a thin elastic blade and a sharp tip. At the end, beginners will learn a useful life hack to preserve the original appearance of fruits without browning. You can do the work in parallel with the online master class and get a finished masterpiece in 10-12 minutes.
Cucumber ornaments. Master Class
Cucumber is an ideal vegetable for carving. Available, easy to cut, keeps fresh for a long time, has a pleasant taste and aroma, looks bright on the table. Due to its rounded oblong shape, the vegetable can be cut in many ways: rings, slices, slices, cubes, straws, plates. Hence the large number of variations of finished jewelry. The video demonstrates two dozen ways to beautifully cut and decorate a cucumber.
butterflies from orange
The usual way to serve citrus fruits is to cut into slices or rings. A short video from the Culinary Fantasies channel will replenish the treasury of novice carvingists with an outstanding option - an orange butterfly. The mini-sculpture is guaranteed to surprise guests with originality. Up to 10 crafts can be cut from one orange. Like the way is fine for lemon and grapefruit.
Making a rose out of potatoes
Useful online carving lesson for beginners. The work is painstaking, and it may take several attempts to get an accurate result.
Drawings on products
With the advent of carving, food ceased to be a means to satisfy hunger and turned into a canvas for art. Craftsmen are able to surprise any sophisticated gourmet. An informative lesson about carving art showcases masterpieces and simple crafts for beginners. Spectators will learn how to make leaves from cucumbers and carrots, flowers from beets and zucchini, carve a dragon on a watermelon and cats on a pumpkin, make marine life from a banana and a swan from an apple.
Butterfly from carrots. Easy and fast
The channel "Carving from vegetables and fruits" contains lessons for beginners and professionals. Beginners will find videos with valuable tips on choosing professional knives and making tools on their own, learn how to quickly and easily craft, make inscriptions. The video shows how to make an unusual butterfly from carrots. The technique is reminiscent of figured paper cutting.
bulb chrysanthemum
Ordinary onions make excellent table decorations. Video gives step by step instructions for the implementation of the chrysanthemum flower in two versions: white and burgundy. The second option can be done immediately from a colored onion or you can paint the finished flower yourself using beetroot juice.
Orange table decorations
Oranges are well-known antidepressants among fruits. The bright orange color creates high spirits and awakens the appetite. Using fun fruit to decorate the table - great idea! The training video is designed for the entry-level knife skills and demonstrates exquisite crafts: a shell box with an olive pearl and an openwork star resembling an anise flower.
How to cut apples beautifully
An apple is unlikely to be able to compete in beauty with exotic fruits and serve as a table decoration. But decorated in the technique of carving - quite. The video will teach you how to create compositions and mini-sculptures from large apples with a knife.
Carving a bird out of an apple
A smart apple will become both a decoration and an edible snack at the same time. A festive table decorated with the help of carving looks much richer and more solemn.
Kiwi flower. Master class for beginners
The online lesson will teach you how to carefully cut smooth lines of petals, separating the skin from the pulp, creating a 3D volume. The craft can serve as the center of the composition or be an independent decoration.
The talent to do this amazes everyone - what is the name of curly cutting on fruits and vegetables? What is the name of the skill to make real works of art out of products? What is the name of the ability to turn vegetables and fruits into beautifully designed compositions? What is required for this, where is it taught, how long will it take and where did this direction come from - interesting subtleties and nuances.
The process of cutting out any pictures, abstractions and decorations on fresh fruits and vegetables is called - carving(English "to curve" - bend, bend). As a rule, a whole set of small knives, spatulas, spatulas and tongs is involved in the embodiment of "pictures". Tools are created specifically for such creativity, but more on that later.
It is worth noting that carving is a fairly common word used not only in the field of cooking. So, carving is called permanent curls, curls, modeled in hairdressing and the style of skiing and snowboarding from snowy slopes.
The history of carving - fruit and vegetable carving
The historical homeland of this skill is considered to be Southeast Asia. It was there, back in ancient times, with the help of cutting fruits, poor tables were decorated, on which, as a rule, only rice and cane were served.
Painted orchids, whimsical patterns and elephant symbolism are favorite "pictures" depicted by Thais on the surfaces of watermelons, papaya and mangoes. Cheap decorations made from “improvised” exotic fruits and a small knife quickly fell in love with Thai housewives.
Later, the technique of carving on fruits and vegetables migrated to China, from where it spread throughout the world.
Until now, carving is a favorite idea of famous Japanese chefs, Chinese chefs.
Carving in Russia and the CIS - why is it not fashionable
At the moment, in Russian-speaking countries, figured fruit cutting is almost not relevant. The “peak” of fashion for such undertakings was noticed at the beginning of the 2000s. Even special sets were actively sold that cut vegetables and fruits in a “curly” way.
The lack of demand in our countries is primarily due to the lack of "area" for carving as such - a small selection of fruits that have a soft, at the same time, overall surface. Watermelon is used in the summer, in winter it remains to be content with the walls of oranges or apples, or pay for the brought exotic.
In addition to the lack of abundance of fruits, our festive tables do not need additional decoration - all dishes are bright, self-sufficient.
Nevertheless, in Russia, carving is used in rare cases, when the theme of the feast allows and disposes. This includes major celebrations, weddings, anniversaries.
How fruit and vegetable carving is done - how much to study for it
As mentioned earlier, a specific set of knives is used to create paintings and patterns on fruits and vegetables. Of course, depending on the skills and the desired result, it will vary. So, for a true professional, the basic Thai carving knife will suffice. As a beginner, will use the entire set.
The main types of carving knives include:
- Thai knife - wedge-shaped, basic version;
- Carb knives - V-shaped, oval or square tools;
- Noisette-knife - in the form of a certain form, stamp-knife;
- Fluting - a knife for creating the thinnest lines.
It is believed that the basic skills of the skill can be acquired in just a few hours of practice. Professional carving "comes" with experience.
Simple home carving with step by step photos.
Chrysanthemum from Chinese cabbage
1. Remove loose leaves from a head of Beijing cabbage weighing from 300 to 700 g and cut off the upper part of the head, leaving about 12-15 cm.
2. We work with an oval or triangular carbovochny groove knife.
3. Let's make cuts of different lengths along the thick veins of the leaves, directing the knife from the top cut of the leaf to the base of the cabbage. We make the beginning of the cut thinner. As we approach the stump, we deepen the knife into the cabbage.
4. Without cutting 1.5-2 cm to the stalk, remove the cut out large leaves. If the sheet is held tight, make a few notches with a small knife.
5. We cut the subsequent rows of leaves in the same way, shortening the length of the chrysanthemum petals to the middle. If the edges of the petals are thin enough, then in cold water they will curl up into rings or curve beautifully.
6. Put the "chrysanthemum" in ice water for half an hour. The product will take on an elegant shape. Let's cut a couple of green "leaves" from a cucumber and make a composition on a dish with salad or various cuts.
Cucumber LILY
1. Cut off a piece of cucumber 7-8 cm in size, cutting off the tail. Let's make a cut in the form of a leaflet, without cutting to the bottom edge of the workpiece.
2. Make other leaves, with a small distance between them, bypassing the workpiece in a circle.
3. Using a knife, make a cut in a circle 1-2 mm thick, creating a platform for cutting the next row. petals.
4. With an oval knife, we make the next row of petals in a checkerboard pattern relative to the previous row. We cut the site again for next level petals. Make as many rows as the size of the workpiece allows.
5. With a noisette or a knife, scrape the core of the cucumber, creating enough space to place the core in the center of the flower.
6. Cut the leaves with scissors, create a triangular shape at the ends. Dip the flower for a few minutes in ice water - and it will open beautifully.
7. From carrots, pumpkins or radishes, we will make a core of a suitable size. Decorate it with cuts.
8. Insert the core into the flower. Can be fixed with a toothpick.
Let's put a lily on a twig with leaves or on a painted wooden barbecue stick. Leaves for it can also be cut from a cucumber.
CONE from carrots
1. Peel a dense carrot with a diameter of at least 3 cm, cut off a straight piece 8-12 cm in size. Use a knife to make a square “tail” for the future cone. Next, give it an oval shape.
2. Having processed the workpiece in a circle with a knife, we will give the thick end of the cone a rounded shape and prepare a platform for cutting the first row of scales.
3. Visually divide the thick end of the workpiece into 6 parts, cut out 6 petal scales in a circle. The depth of the cut is 2-3 mm.
4. With a knife, make a cut along the cone (deepening the end of the knife by 2-3 mm) under the scales, making out the three-dimensional pattern of the first row, thus creating a platform for the next row of scales.
5. In a checkerboard pattern with respect to the previous row, cut out the next row. Again we cut the platform for the next row of scales. We make as many rows as the size of the workpiece allows.
6. We lower the cone for 10-15 minutes in ice water - it will open a little and harden.
hot pepper callas
ADVICE. If the pepper burns your hands after work, wash them thoroughly and wipe them with vegetable oil.
1. Take red or green hot chili peppers.
2. Cut along the length from the stem to the tip.
3. Carefully cut the pulp around the stalk. Seeds should remain on the stem.
4. Expand the pepper, rinse in cold water and give the workpiece the shape of a calla flower.
5. We make a hole on the spread of the future flower and carefully insert the stalk with seeds into it.
6. Cut out the leaves from any green product (cucumber or others) and create a curly composition.
1. We give the carrots the shape of a cylinder. We pierce along the center line with a thin wooden skewer.
2. Soak the vegetable in a salt solution for 2 hours (1 tablespoon of salt per glass of water). The product must be sufficiently soft and not break when thinly cut.
3. Visually divide the vegetable into four sides. We make the same cuts on the upper and lower sides, cutting through to the skewer. The distance between the cuts is 0.5 cm. Let's make cuts on both sides - between the cuts on the upper and lower sides.
4. Carefully cut the fruit in a circle with a long thin ribbon to the skewer. We cut off the skewer with the "stump" and straighten the net.
5. 6. Cut out several different colorful fish from a wide variety of products.
LILY from carrots
1. We give the vegetable the shape of a cone and a pentagon, cutting with a long knife in a circle from five sides. 
2. On each of the 5 cut sides, cut through the petal.
3. Shape the petal with scissors.
4. Remove part of the pulp from under the petals of the first row (make the cone thinner). We cut out five more petals, placing them in a checkerboard pattern relative to the petals of the first row. Do the same for the third row.
5. With a knife, shorten the remaining core and cut it into a cone
6. We split the core into stamens with a knife.
DAHLIA
1. Let's make a slightly flattened rounded blank with a diameter of 5-6 cm from a homogeneous product.
2. Cut out 7-9 petals with a medium oval knife, deepening the knife towards the core.
3. We cut off the excess pulp under the petals of the first row, forming a platform for the next row.
4. Cut out the petals of the next row with knives of different sizes, similarly to the first row. We place them between the petals of the previous row. We make as many rows as possible.
5. We cut to the end and make out the middle.
Chrysanthemum from onions
for decorating salads, meat, fish and vegetable dishes
1. To prepare chrysanthemum, take a small round onion.
You can take both white and red onions. The smaller the bulb, the more beautiful the flower turns out.
Try to choose a thin-walled bulb, then the petals turn out to be thinner and open more beautifully.
2. Peel the bulb and cut off the top and bottom by about 0.5 cm.
3. With a thin sharp knife, carefully cut almost in half, without cutting to the end about 0.5 cm.
The incision is made from the upper side - where the feather grows.
4. Then cut in half again in the same way.
5. Next, cut into as many pieces as you can. It is desirable to make as many incisions as possible.
If the cuts are not deep enough, the flower will not bloom well, and if it is too deep, the flower will fall apart.
6. Put the bulb in water at room temperature - the water should completely cover the bulb.
After an hour and a half, the chrysanthemum should "bloom". The time of "blooming" of the chrysanthemum depends on the variety of the onion. Some varieties are enough and 40 minutes, and some need a couple of hours.
7. To give the flower brightness, dip the tips of the blossoming chrysanthemum into beetroot juice (rub raw beets and squeeze through a cloth). Coloring time - until the desired color is obtained. You can use any other food coloring - brightly colored juice (for example, cherry, blackcurrant), yellow saffron solution, Cahors or other red wine, pickled beetroot brine, etc.
You can paint the whole flower.
Orange colored "chrysanthemum" on lettuce.
onion flower
1. We clean the bulb without cutting off the root seal, but only after cleaning it well from the roots.
2. We make 4-5 cuts (in this example we make 4 cuts) to a depth of 2-3 layers (in this example - 2 layers).
3. We bend the extreme layers (petals), and remove the inner incised layers with a knife. We do all this with caution, because. petals are very brittle.
4. Again we cut the layers of the bulb, shifting the cuts in a checkerboard pattern relative to the first petals. The first incised layer is left, and the inner layers are removed again.
5. Repeat these steps until we reach the middle of the bulb.
7. Then put in a vinegar marinade of water, vinegar and sugar (vinegar and sugar to taste) for 10 minutes or more to obtain the desired taste.
If you want to get a colored flower, add food coloring to the marinade (see previous recipe).
We take out the "flower" from the marinade, slightly shake off the liquid, beautifully straighten the petals and place on a dish.
leek flower
1. Fold a wide leaf of leek in half lengthwise and make frequent cuts from the side of the fold, as shown in the photo.
2. Roll up into a roll - this will be the core of the flower.
3. Make petals from the wide parts of the onion.
4. Fasten the flower with toothpicks and put on a dish.
Leek bow
1. Peel young fresh leeks, cut off the white dense part of about 20 cm. At the same distance from each other, cut the onion lengthwise with several cuts to the full depth (to the center).
2. Bend the “petals” of the first row and cut them approximately in the middle, giving them a triangular shape.
3. Fold the petals of the next row inward with a “bow”.
4. Continue row after row to fold the petals. If the bow does not hold well, you can strengthen it with pieces of wooden toothpicks.
Festive "bouquet" of Chinese cabbage
1. Take an average head of Chinese (Beijing) cabbage.
2. Cut off the top loose part.
3. Traditionally, vegetable carving (carving) is performed using special knives of various shapes. For example, such chrysanthemums are cut with a carving knife in the form of a groove. But you can adapt a simple tool at hand - an olive can lid, which you need to bend in half to make an oval groove. The edges of the resulting groove are not too sharp, but you still need to be careful. We must adapt to hold it as comfortably as possible, without touching the edges.
4. Take the groove as indicated and cut long grooves along the hard part of the head. At first, the groove should not go very deep. Closer to the base, you need to direct it deeper inward.
5. Before reaching about 2 cm to the end of the sheet, you must stop. Remove the groove and cut out the petal next to it. First, 3-5 petals are placed on one sheet.
Due to the increased interest in carving, various knives, recesses and chisels began to appear on the market. Among the many manufacturers, preference should be given to tools manufactured by a company for which this type of activity is core. Conscientious manufacturers are proud of their name and put a brand name on their products.
When choosing knives, you need to follow some rules:
The appearance of the tool must be flawless, without burrs and notches.
Choose only high-strength stainless steel tools. Such a metal will not deform and oxidize during operation.
The professional tool assumes the ergonomic handle. The quality of work and safety depend on how comfortable the tool is in the hand.
In many ways, the ergonomics of the tool is determined by what material the handle is made of. Wooden handles absorb odors and moisture, cracks form in them rather quickly. The metal grips are durable but slip in the hand. Handles from modern materials, for example made of polyamide, are durable and meet all hygienic requirements. They are resistant to juice, fat, detergents, do not absorb moisture and odors.
To choose essential tool, you should know what certain knives are used for.
The main knife, without which, perhaps, you can not do - "Thai knife"
It will be an indispensable assistant in the most difficult patterns on all vegetables and fruits.
Threecarb knives triangular section of various sizes. It is easy and simple to cut leaves with them.
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For an ornament with rounded cuts - are used oval knives different sizes.
Needed for cutting balls and hemispheres of different sizes. And also to highlight the middle of the flower.
It will be needed to cut complex patterns on large fruits: watermelons, melons, pumpkins.
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And you will also need scissors, they will help to shape the not thick flat cut of the product.
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As skill and interest grow in work, you may also need:
- "Thai big" knife - for cutting hard vegetables such as pumpkin, large zucchini or celery;
Nauzette-snail, with figured cups;
Peak knives with soft and plastic blades for lace patterns;
Chisels with a wavy edge;
Knife "dovetail";
A chisel with a square section for lovers of Japanese ornaments and Chinese characters.
Also - tools that are in every kitchen: knives for carving, channeling, a vegetable cutter, a spoon for scraping seeds from a melon or pumpkin, recesses and molds, a bar for sharpening tools and others.
peeler
For peeling citrus fruits
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For removing thin strips from vegetables and fruits, applying decorative grooves-flutes on fruits.
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It is widely used in carving for cutting ornaments and patterns of varying complexity. Allows you to set different widths and depths for decorative grooves.
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It works on the principle of a sharpener: it removes continuous thin chips from the vegetable.
A tool for quick preparation of thin straws from hard and homogeneous fruits: carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, daikon.
Sharpening and care of tools
The blade of the tool must be perfectly smooth and carefully polished. It is impossible to sharpen initially blunt knives without special tools and experience. You should make it a rule to sharpen your instruments every time you start a new song. Over time, even the best knives lose their sharpness. The working edge of the tool can be corrected independently using a grindstone or musat. The size and shape of the sharpener should be commensurate with the size of the tool being sharpened, and the fine-grained structure of the stone will not interfere with factory grinding and help maintain the necessary 
sharpness of sharpening.
Classic is especially suitable for underlining. carborundum block, which is easy to find in any specialized store. To do this, you must first put the sharpener in cold water for a while, then attach a knife blade to it so that the angle of inclination is approximately 20 - 30 degrees. You need to sharpen the knife in a circular motion on both sides of the blade. A quality sharpener has a rougher surface on one side and a finer one on the other. And accordingly, we start sharpening with the rough side, and then we grind the canvas with a finer one. After sharpening, it is necessary to wipe the tool to get rid of small metal particles that 
operating time may damage the product.
For sets that contain tools of various profiles, there are certain sharpeners suitable for them. They exist as shale, so with sandy texture. There are sharpeners in the form of a drop, which is not difficult to sharpen a tool of a very complex shape. A more frugal whetstone is suitable for a U-shaped chisel, and the rounded shape of the chisel should be sharpened with the rounded side of the whetstone. But even such whetstones for sharpening tools must be lowered into cold water before use. A rough stone with a sandy texture sharpens the blade of the tool more, while a stone with a slate texture is more suitable for the final stage. Profile knives should be sharpened starting from the inside of the spout, thanks to which the removal of excess is much better. If, on the one hand, a chisel in the form of the letter “V” cuts better, and on the other, it “bites” fruit, you can lightly walk with a bar along the outside of the canvas.
At the end of the work, the blade of the knife is wiped with a damp cloth and must be dried. The acid found in fruits and vegetables can dull the knife quickly. It is desirable to store tools in special cases with foam rubber upholstered on the inside or in a case with separate cells. With such storage, the blades of the tool will not become dull from contact with each other. Such care will provide a presentable appearance and a long professional life instrument.
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