Tournage: Carving vegetable bullets

     Tournage isn't something I do every day i.e. carve carrots, Daikon radish and potatoes into vegetable bullets. At the time, I was testing the Korean short rib stew recipe for my Menu Project at school. Tournage is the French technique for turning vegetables into similar shapes for even cooking and elegant presentation. It had been a pain learning the technique. You had to cut a vegetable to a manageable size, hold the vegetable wedge in one hand and turn it as you cut outward curves into the flesh. Hopefully, you'd be left with a rounded post with seven sides. Your dominant hand would become gnarled from holding a paring knife so tightly, and you'd have difficulty opening and closing your hand. After carving 24 little torpedoes, I felt pretty proud of myself. And yet, I don't think I will ever do that again.