Show and Tell

Rupert Smith’s “Show and Tell”

There had been many “show and tells” throughout the countryside in little Scarboro where most of the chefs lived and cooked for the wealthy people in the city. One of the chef’s names was Rupert. Rupert was about twenty-five years old when he finished up his education in the Culinary Arts program at the local University. He loved his work and his future appeared to be very bright.

He spent much of his free time trying to help out in his local community that hosted a type of “Show and Tell” for the children who enjoyed coming together to hear about new and exciting things. It was his idea to help the community out by introducing the children in a specific age group to the many things that go on in the chef’s kitchen. He knew that he had to set an age group so that the children were old enough to understand and take explanations seriously since it would be about the many utensils used in the kitchen, specifically the knives that were used for many things.

As far as Rupert was concerned, he used five types of knives in the kitchen: he used the Chef’s knife that he used for mincing, dicing, and slicing. He used the slicer that had a long thin blade used for cutting meat and poultry. He used a serrated knife that can be used to cut tomatoes and bread. His paring knife was a favorite and he used it to peel and for intricate work. When he works on meat products with bones, he uses a Meat Cleaver that can cut through bones. All of these knives were part of his collection, he liked to call them the “tools” of his trade.

After thinking over what he’d like to do for the community and the array of knives he could talk about and show to the age-appropriate group of children, he called one of the town’s organizers to see if he could set something up.

“Hello, this is Rupert Smith. I’m a local chef in the area and I’d like to know more about the community’s “show and tell” sessions that are held down at the fellowship hall near Main street. I know that a lot of people bring things to talk about and I want to be a part of it if I can,” he said over the phone.

“Mr. Smith, thank you for calling us about our presentations to the community’s children. I don’t think we’ve had someone like you before who would like to share the things they do for a living. Our next meeting will be next Saturday at ten o’clock am. You can bring us a short description of what you’d like to present and the age groups that would benefit from your “show and tell”, stated Sally Underwood, the community’s activity supervisor.

“That would be great,” said Rupert. “I’m a Chef and I’d like to talk about the many knives I use in the kitchen. Some of the children in the area have shared with me that they’d like to know more about what I do,” he said.

“Oh, that would be great. I’d like to know more too,” stated Sally who was a mother of three children.

“So I’ll bring a copy of what I’d like to talk about to your office who you have a copy,” stated Rupert.

The week passed quickly and Rupert gathered his knives together, wrote down what each one did, and also prepared the Chef Knife especially so he could explain the part of the knife. He had a feeling that no one would know about the parts of a Chef’s knife.

He decided that it would be a good idea to have pictures of the knives he was going to talk about along with their uses. During the week before the “show and tell”, Rupert spent time putting together a small booklet that would describe things like Brunoise Knife Cut, Small Dice, Medium Dice, Large Dice, Botonnet, Julienne, Tourne, and Paysanne that are created by knives in his kitchen.

The first thing he wanted to talk about with those who attended was how to create Mince, Brunoise Knife Cut, Small Dice, Medium Dice, large Dice, Batonnet, Julienne, Tourne, and Paysanne. These cuts are used in his kitchen all the time, but many people don’t know what they are. So he put together a short explanation and a few pictures to help those who attend to understand.

* How to Mince food: Line up your vegetable slices. Take the perpendicular slices you just made and place the vegetables on a cutting board. Keep them close together when lining them up, but be sure to avoid any overlap

* Brunoise Knife Cut Brunoise is a technique for cutting vegetables. It is the method of cutting vegetables into the smallest pieces before they’re considered to be a mince.The brunoise knife cut (pronounced BROON-wahz) measures 1/8 inch × 1/8 inch × 1/8 inch, which makes it the smallest of the dice cuts.

* The littlest of the dice cuts, the small dice measures 1/4inch × 1/4 inch × 1/4 inch and is produced by slicing the allumette into 1/4-inch sections.

* The medium dice measures ½ inch × 1/2 inch × 1/2 inch, and is a smaller version of the large dice.

* Large Dice. The large dice is a culinary knife cut measuring 3/4 inch × 3/4 inch × 3/4 inch.

* The julienne cut measures 1/8 inch × 1/8 inch × 2 1/2 inches and is basically the allumette cut once more lengthwise.

* Tournée Cut. An oblong-shaped cut for vegetables such as carrots, potatoes or squash that provides a distinctive and consistent appearance to the food item being served.

* paysanne (which means peasant) is cut to the basic size of 1/2 inch wide by 1/2 inch tall by 1/8 inch thick. The thickness of the final product is the most important factor, not whether the edges are squared or rounded.

* The word Rondelle means round and is usually used to cut conical or cylindrical vegetables and fruits such as carrots, zucchini, cucumbers and bananas. Rondelles are similar to coins.

* The oblique cut, also known as the roll cut, is easy to master. First, grab the oblong vegetables of your choice— carrots, eggplant, zucchini, and so on—and begin at the thinner end. Make your first slice diagonally across the vegetable. Next, roll the vegetable 90 degrees.

“There, that should be enough to keep the children interested and I’ll provide them samples to look at too,” said Rupert to himself as he prepared the informational packets to be distributed to those who came to listen to him and his career. His knives were a very important part of his life’s work. Without his knives, he’d have a very hard time getting things done.

… On the day of the “Show and Tell”.

“Oh, hello Chef Smith, it’s so good to see you. I really appreciate you taking the time to sent the information over to us beforehand so we had time to review it all before the program begins,” stated the person in charge of the “show and tell” events for the children.

“Of course, you know that my knives won’t be available for the children to handle, that would be unsafe. Therefore, I made this small packet of information and pictures to show the children instead. It’s better to be safe I always say,” said Rupert as he thumbed through the small pamphlet that detailed the chef’s knife and the different cuts that chefs use in the kitchen.

There were a lot of children who gathered in the small meeting room to hear about Rupert’s career and to see the knives. It seemed as though they were very interested in how to make the cuts and what they looked like.

“Now, children, let’s settle down and look at the pamphlet I gave out to you when you came in. There are a lot of things that we can do as chefs with vegetables and meat to make them look more attractive and change the way they are cooked,” started Rupert as he pointed out the different cuts and explained how to make them.

“Wow, Chef Smith, you sure know a lot about knives,” said one of the children who was sitting near the front of the group.

“Why thank you. Did you know that you can become a chef also if you study really hard and pay attention? It takes time, but It’s really worth it,” said Rupert as he finished up his “show and tell” and put his knives away in a safe case away from the children. He locked the case for safety.

After the “show and tell” was over, some of the parents of the children came up to Chef Smith and thanked him for his excellent presentation and the fact that he insisted that the children learn to be safe when using knives.

“You’re welcome!” exclaimed Rupert as he thanked each one who came to his display.