Catering Tips and Tricks - Knife Skills Fine Cuts
Knowing about these basic knife skills and cuts is a must for any caterer, cook or chef. For the purpose of this guide we are only going to show finished products. When planning menus you should consider the amount of time it will take to prepare everything. When we start to execute these parties we really realize the amount of time involved in preparation. A great example is mashed potatoes versus roasted potatoes. Although it takes about the same amount of preparation time, mashed potatoes must be done either on-site or immediately before we leave the kitchen. Roasted potatoes can be done way in advance and then rotated in ovens at the event location.
If you create a menu for two hundred people with julienne vegetables, you may run out of time preparing the cuts, especially if your knife skills are not top knotch.
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 | Batonette should be 1/4 of an inch by 2 to 2 1/2 inches.
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 | Regular brunoise should be 1/8th inches square. It is also called very fine dice. |
 | Fine brunoise is absolutly lovely and should be 1/16 of an inch square. |
 | Julienne Cuts should be 1/8th of an inch and 2-2 1/2 inches long. |
 | Fine Julienne is very labor intensive but the time spent is well worth it. This cut is a 1/6th of an inch by 2-2 1/2 inches. |
 | Large dice is 1/4 of an inch by 1/4 of an inch square |
 | Small dice or fine dice should be 1/16th inch cubes. |
 | There is some argument as to what a paysanne cut actually is. For this description we are suggesting slicing a botonette cut in 1/16th inch "slices" |
 | Supremes are sections of citrus fruit that have been peeled, and cleaned complely. |
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