Vegetable and Fruit Carving for Dummies

     I like to think that part of what makes this blog entertaining is that I am so passionate about helping my chef that I will research and do whatever I can to help him succeed.
     One of these times was when he was an executive chef at a fine dining establishment. He was getting tired of the garnishes used on his dishes and asked me to look for something new. I have made some pretty impressive veg crudite platters that looked like a large fish scales and all so I was feeling pretty confident.  After my kids went to bed that evening I Googled veggie carving and watched videos on Youtube about how to make cucumber designs, tomato and carrot flowers among other creations.  It was midsummer which meant every produce you could think of was available at my local farmers market.  So I stocked up my fridge which looked like I was feeding a vegetarian convention for 50.
Mistake number one, I realize now, I was using dull knives.  Mistake number 2, I think my tomatoes were a little over ripe as my peel kept breaking.  In the end I ended up with enough garnishes to fill one small monkey dish.  If you don't know what a monkey dish is, look it up, it's small. I would compare it to the size of a feeding bowl for a hamster.  If there is one thing I can't stand is wasting food. It drives me nuts when I make dinner for they boys and they sit down with the appetites of children who haven't been fed since they were weaned off of the bottle then, after two bites they are "full" or feeling "sick". Keep in mind they aren't being fed liver and onions but things we love as a family.  So back to the last thought... after hours of practicing on these veggies, I consumed three tomatoes, five carrots, two cucumber 5 stalks of celery and two apples. Why not wrap and store them you ask. Salad doesn't do well in my fridge. For some reason veggies and fruits would rather die than sit in my fridge for the next meal. 
     After all of this love I put into my research my darling chef came home to tell me he shocked green onions to create some curly looking green octopus thing to put on food.  Needless to say I haven't carved veg or fruit ever again.  However if you are interested in food carving check out Youtube for some great videos. Even if they aren't in English visually they are very informative.