Beautifully cut and decorated fruits are a whole art called “carving”. To turn a simple apple into a swan or a rose, you will need skill and special tools. If you have neither one nor the other, it doesn’t matter! There are lighter and no less effective options suitable for non-professionals.

Apple

Large-sized fruits of paradise without damage to the peel are better suited for slicing:

1. Cut the apple in half and remove the core. Thinly chop one half into circles. Set aside the top piece with the peel, and cut the remaining pieces in the middle, not reaching the end by a few millimeters.
2. Move the halves of the pieces apart: the lower the tier, the wider the distance between the halves should be. Cover the top of the resulting pyramid with the cut off top and peel.
3. Cut the reserved half of the apple into two equal parts. Cut out the profile of a swan neck from a rectangular piece, and a tail from a rounded piece. All that remains is to connect everything using small skewers or toothpicks.

Another simple option is crab:

1. Divide the apple into two parts, remove seeds.
2. Cut the top off one of the halves and cut the rest into thin slices.
3. Lay them out like a fan on both sides, and cover the top of the fruit with a cut cap with eyes made of dried cloves.
4. The crab is almost ready to go to the table, you just need to take care of the claws. To do this, cut a round slice from the second part, divide it in half and cut a zigzag shape on each.

Please note that the apple quickly darkens when cut, but there is a way out: just grease the cut with lemon juice diluted with water.

Pear

Fruits of different varieties come in oblong and round shapes. Pears of the first type can easily turn into hedgehogs! Peel the oblong part of the fruit, and decorate the half with the peel with toothpick needles with grapes. Make the nose in the same way, and use cloves for the eyes.

A rounded fruit can become a peacock if you add some sliced ​​fruit that you have on hand:

1. Cut the pear in half and place (skin side up) in the center of the plate. The body of the bird is already ready.
2. Boiled carrots are an excellent material for a peacock's beak and legs, and dried cloves are an excellent material for the eyes. Although carrots are completely replaceable, for example, with a peach or an apple.
3. The tail is the dignity and pride of the bird. It is replete with different colors and patterns. Therefore, use any fruit (strawberries, grapes, plums, peach) to replicate this beauty. Try to cut fruits (especially those with seeds) into small equal slices.

Choose firmer pears. Too soft ones will not hold their shape well, and you won’t be able to make beautiful cuts out of them.

Citrus

Oranges, grapefruits, lemons, cut into thin slices, unlike other sweet fruits, can be bent without fear of breaking. These fruits will make a gorgeous rose!

1. Without peeling the citrus, thinly cut into half rings and place in rows on a plate.
2. Prepare a transparent plastic bottle (you can also use a colored one, but then it will stand out). It's good if it has narrowing in the middle part. If not, then take two containers of different diameters. Cut two rings a couple of centimeters high, one of which will be slightly larger in circumference. Place the small mold inside the larger one in the center of the cut.
3. Insert the remaining slices cut side down into the pan, starting with the smaller circle. The overlapping pieces look beautiful.

That's all: a magnificent fragrant rose will become a worthy decoration for your holiday table.

Watermelon and melon

A large and juicy watermelon is inconvenient to eat in large pieces, especially at a holiday: the juice can easily stain your outfit. Surely you have baking molds that can be used not only for their intended purpose.

Pieces of watermelon (about 1-2 cm), cut into circles, free from seeds. Use the mold as a curly knife, simply plunging it into the pulp.

It is convenient to take such beautiful pieces with a spoon (if their size allows) or a skewer.

Rainbow mix

If you don’t have enough time to process fruits, but want something special, don’t despair and prepare as many products as possible for slicing.

First, open a photo of a rainbow to remember the sequence of colors:

• red (strawberry, watermelon, apple, raspberry);
• orange (orange, apricot, persimmon, tangerine);
• yellow (lemon, pineapple, banana, apple);
• green (kiwi, apple, lime, grapes);
• blue (alas, nature did not create any fruits or berries of this color);
• blue (plum, blueberry, blueberry);
• purple (grapes, plums, figs).

Cut the fruits into slices - not too small so that they are easy to take, and arrange them in the correct color sequence. Do you want to give the rainbow a semicircular shape or stretch food foil across the entire table to place a fruit rainbow on.

Every housewife has her own idea of ​​how to serve fruit and how to arrange it beautifully. Let's describe some methods.

You can arrange a real fruit carnival on the festive table. Fruits are sources of natural vitamins, so diverse in tastes and colors that they will become both a decoration for a treat and a delicious (and safe, low-calorie) independent dessert.

And you can draw whatever your heart desires with a fruit mosaic, for example:

Rainbow

For it, 7 types of fruits are cut into cubes or small slices. Strawberries will create red, orange, tangerine - orange, lemon - yellow, kiwi - green, blueberries - blue, plums - blue, dark grapes - purple.
Products can be changed according to taste: if someone does not eat strawberries, they can be replaced with raspberries or cherries, and pears can be used instead of lemon.

For example, like this:

tropical island

This picture is often created for children. Place banana halves cut lengthwise on a flat dish with their tails bent in different directions. By the way, these “trunks” can be cut crosswise into small pieces to make it easier to eat. The lower parts of the bananas are covered with tangerine slices, peeled and white veins removed. They will imitate an island. “Palm” leaves are laid out from kiwi, also peeled and cut into arbitrary pieces. You can get by with simple triangles.

Or vice versa: the island is made of kiwi, and the leaves are made of tangerines:

A fan that collects any components

It is important that they do not merge in color or at least transition into one another in a gradient. Slices of fruit are laid out from the conventionally tangent center (from the edge of the dish) with expanding rays to the sides. There will be grapes of different varieties and colors, apples, and pears.

One fan option:

Bouquet

A bouquet of tangerine flowers, in which the peel is carefully cut with a sharp knife so as not to touch the segments. The resulting petals are not completely unfolded, separating them from the pulp; the middle will serve as a delicious dessert.
Several of these “flowers” ​​are placed on a dish. The composition is supplemented with edible apple leaves (with green peel).

One big flower

Exotic, because it can be used with different fruits, sometimes not growing in the same region. Each fruit is cut with a sharp knife into thin circles; those that are too large in diameter can be divided into semicircles. Oranges are placed along the extreme edge of the dish. Finding a little on them, the next row is laid down - apples, then kiwis, bananas. A mound of grapes is placed in the center.

Something like this:

Fruit skewers

The decoration of fruit slices for a festive table can be done in the form of “kebabs”, placing the pieces on skewers in the form of an assortment of different types. This is very convenient than just taking slices from a common dish with your hands or picking them up yourself with skewers.

Striped fruits

Chop the fruits into circles of equal thickness (1 - 1.5 cm). Swap them. For example, if you cut oranges, pears and apples, you should get an orange with an apple or an apple with a pear. You can also mix fruits of the same type, but of different colors. Arrange the cooked fruits beautifully on a plate and serve.

Fruit painting

You can make a mosaic or a picture from colorful, beautifully cut fruit pieces.

Fruit canapé

It is very convenient to eat fruit served in the form of canapés. A combination of fruit pieces (the options are endless) on a skewer takes up a small volume and can be put into the mouth whole, allowing you to enjoy the combined taste.

Any holiday is a moment of joy and meeting with loved ones and family. Such an event is never complete without a festive table. At the moment, any woman has a desire to demonstrate her skills in the field of cooking.

Today you will no longer surprise anyone with the usual chopped salads and other similar snacks. Slices from various products are more popular. With the right approach, you can create unique and beautiful dishes that will amaze even the most picky guest.

Fruit slices

No holiday table can do without fruit. But it is unlikely that any of the guests will pay attention to them if they are placed whole on a dish. Even if you take the time to peel, cut and put them on a plate, it’s unlikely that anyone will touch them.

In order to show your guests a desire to enjoy delicious fruits, you need to know some techniques that will help you properly arrange fruit slices.

There are certain rules with the help of which any housewife will be able to correctly select, clean and arrange fruits.

1. First you need to purchase these products. You need to choose beautiful, healthy and ripe fruits. If you purchase them in advance, you can choose slightly under-ripe fruits. When choosing, you need to be vigilant and inspect them for stains, damage and other similar flaws;
2. To decorate the fruit slices, you need to set aside time just before the guests arrive, since the pulp gradually begins to darken upon contact with air. In order to slow down this process, you can use lemon juice;
3. Before slicing, you must wash the fruit thoroughly.

Fruit slices can be made from various specimens. These can be the most common apples, oranges, kiwis, and bananas. But you can also add originality and zest with the help of exotic species such as mango, pineapple or peach. The decoration for any composition can be bunches of grapes, strawberries or melon, cut into cubes.

How to properly cut at home

In addition to overall beauty, it is important to maintain ease of use. This means that the pieces should be small.

The shape of the piece should depend on the density of the product. For a cube shape, pineapples or apples are ideal. But an orange cannot be given this shape. Such products are cut into slices or circles.

There are many devices for beautiful cutting of fruits. These are various graters, shredders, molds and knives. The process of cutting fruits using various devices is called carving. You can find similar tools at the place where you sell tableware.

In order to cut fruit, it is important to adhere to the basic rules. It will be convenient to eat a sweet snack if the cutting is based on the structure of a particular fruit. To help this process, special devices have been invented that will easily help you produce a real masterpiece for the holiday table.

Figured slicing and carving of vegetables and fruits “Delicious floral fantasy.”

Simple cutting of vegetables and fruits step by step with photos

Guest Ksenia Aleksandrovna, physical education teacher, Municipal Educational Institution “School No. 53”, Oktyabrsky village, Lyubertsy district, Moscow region.
Goal and tasks:
- development of creative abilities and imagination;
- form aesthetic taste;
- cultivate accuracy in performing work, caution;
- learn to cut vegetables using the carving technique
Purpose:
This master class is intended for high school children, teachers, parents and creative people. This design of dishes is suitable for any holiday, banquet and, simply, to improve the perception of food and good mood.

For decoration we will need:
Tomato, cucumber, lemon, orange, pear, apple, kiwi, onion, cutting board, 2 knives (large and small with teeth), 2 flat plates, towel.

Progress.

Carving(from English carving - "cutting out") - the art of artistic cutting of vegetables and fruits, as well as wood, ice and stones.
Advice for a beginner carvinger Not every fruit or vegetable is suitable for carving. So, for example, radishes should be large and bright, carrots should be even and smooth, oranges should be very fresh. It is better to take apples with smooth skin, cucumbers - smooth and with dark skin, pumpkins with rough skin have denser and easier-to-work with flesh. Decorations should match the dish in color, as well as taste. It is better to decorate meat dishes with cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, and seafood with lemons. Fruits will serve as an excellent decoration for dessert or as a delicacy in their own right. When choosing combinations of products, give preference to contrasting colors - the compositions will be more enchanting. Red, green, yellow are favorites. Fruits and vegetables for carving must be clean and dry. There must be a golden mean in everything. You should not over-decorate dishes - moderation is important in everything.

1) The first vegetable we’ll start with is the tomato. Cut it in half and cut off the unnecessary part.

2) Then use a sharp knife to thinly slice one of the tomato halves.

If it is small, then you can combine two chopped halves into one. As in the photo.

3) After this, we “stretch” the tomato as thin as possible and begin to twist it into flowers.

4) To carefully transfer the finished flower to a plate, you need to grab it with both hands, pressing it on all sides.

Ready! You can put a lettuce leaf on the bottom of the plate.

5) Our flower is missing something. You can add parsley or make cucumber bells. To do this, place a cucumber on your palm. Using a sharp small knife, pointing it towards yourself, we cut the cucumber in the shape of a petal, plunging the knife blade to the middle. Then, turning it, we cut two more petals.

6) You should get a bell with three petals. To separate the flower from the cucumber, you need to turn it slightly and it will fall off on its own.

Then you can continue in the same order until the cucumber runs out.

You can add strips of pepper or olives to the middle of the bells.

7) You can also cut thin strips of cucumber and fold it in half without breaking it to complement our dish.

8) Gradually we move on to the bow. What can be made from onions? We can make it into a water lily. To do this, you need to peel the onion and soak it in cold water so that we don’t cry. Then you need to cut it evenly with cloves, plunging the knife only to the middle. When finished, it will easily separate into two halves.

All parts of the onion must be removed and assembled to form a flower.

9) Our decoration for the dish is ready and you can add chopped vegetables or assorted sausages.

If you want to treat your guests to sandwiches, you can use the middle for a tomato flower.

10) The vegetable decoration is ready. Now you can start decorating the fruit plate. To do this, we need to cut half an orange as described above.

11) We do the same with lemon.

By the way, lemon flower goes very well with fish products.

12) Next, cut the kiwi, as in the photo. You can decorate a plate or place it like this on top of fruit.

13) Right now it’s my favorite. Apple and pear wings. We will need halves of fruit.

Visually divide the apple in half. I cut out a strip for you, for clarity. On one of the halves we find the middle and immerse the knife, slightly deepening it. To make it easier to imagine, we seem to be cutting off the peel. You need to get half a petal.

Then on the other side we do the same, but we cut exactly to the corners made. You need to be careful not to cut off excess. The result is a leaf.

Stepping back from the cut 2-3mm, cut out the next leaf.

We cut until we reach our “border” of the apple.

Now we connect all the parts and move them apart so that we get a wing.

14) These wings look like petals, so they can be used in cooking to decorate any dishes. To prevent the apple from darkening, you need to sprinkle it with lemon or dip it in acidified water.

At home, with your family, you can eat whatever you want and however you like. But when visiting or in a cafe/restaurant, do not forget about the rules of etiquette. Moreover, we taught you a lot and told you a lot. Today we will touch on fruit etiquette or how to eat fruit at the table. How do you usually eat, for example, banana, kiwi or orange? Have you ever thought about it? Well, at home you can do this without following the rules, as long as it tastes good. But, as it turns out, you also need to enjoy fruit according to the rules of etiquette. In our article we will take a closer look at the existing norms of fruit etiquette.

I think it depends on what kind of fruit a person prefers and what method you use to cut the fruit. To add aesthetics, you can cut fruits into slices, cubes, slices, shavings, and cubes. Sort and wash the fruits thoroughly and proceed to cutting them into shapes. You can use special cutting devices for fruits, which will help you create a culinary masterpiece of unearthly beauty for the holiday table. And with the help of flowers, you can decorate the dish even more beautiful. If we put fruit in a circle in a dish, pear slices, oranges, kiwis and bananas, then we will get a multi-colored spiral, and inside this spiral, for complete beauty, you can add strawberries. It looks amazing. Learn with us how to beautifully serve individual fruits.

APPLE

An apple can be eaten in two ways.
You can cut the skin of the apple in a spiral, then split it in half, cut out the seeds, cut it into manageable pieces and eat it with a fork.

OR, cut the apple into 4-8 slices, remove the peel and seeds from each slice and, using special fruit cutlery, eat the juicy apple. This rule also applies to pears.

GRAPE

It is better to eat grapes with seeds; if you cannot tolerate seeds, it is better to avoid this delicacy altogether. As a last resort, use a dessert spoon and remove the seeds from the grapes without your guests noticing. It is best to take a small bunch of grapes in your hand and, tearing off one berry at a time, put it in your mouth. The twigs can be placed on the edge of the plate.

Any formal dinner begins with an aperitif. It should include: One glass of alcoholic drink, such as wine, and fruit. If grapes are served to each guest in a separate bowl, then in this case they are eaten with a dessert spoon. The bones are carefully spat onto the edge of the spoon and transferred to a separate plate, or to the edge of your own plate.

WATERMELON

Watermelon is no exception, so it also needs to be eaten with cutlery. The cut piece should be placed with the green peel away from you and, using utensils, cut off small pieces.

Remove seeds from each piece if necessary. If a couple of seeds get into your mouth unnoticed, then do not swallow them, but simply carefully, using a fork, place them on the edge of your plate.

In the case of melon, do the same. The pulp of watermelon and melon can be eaten with a teaspoon.

BANANA

As for the banana, take it in your hands, cut the top tip with a knife and remove the peel.

Place the fruit pulp on a plate and use cutlery to cut off convenient pieces.

If there are no sharp utensils on the table, do not despair, use a fork or dessert spoon.

CHERRY, CHERRY, CURRANT

Cherries should be placed on a vase with branches. This will allow the guest to take the required number of berries and put them on a plate.

Cherry berries are eaten one at a time, and any seeds should be left on the edge of the plate.
If the cherries are served in bowls, you can eat them with a spoon.

When serving currants, if they are large, the berries are torn from the branch one at a time. If the berries are small, then they are placed in the mouth along with a twig and the berries are torn off with the teeth. The twigs are placed on the edge of the plate.

APRICOTS, PEACHES, PLUMS

Apricot and plum fruits should be divided in half with your fingers. Then the bone is removed.

Peaches, since they are larger, can be scored along the groove with a knife. Then break it into two parts and remove the bone.

It is appropriate to remove the skin from these desserts if you do not like it.

ORANGE, MANDARIAN

You need to cut off the top of the orange. The more cuts you make from the cut top, the easier it will be for you to peel the orange.

Place the orange fruit on a plate and divide it into slices with a knife. Each slice must be cut in half and the seeds removed.

If the bones get into your mouth, carefully remove them using a fork.

The mandarin is peeled by hand, divided into slices and eaten.

KIWI, MANGO

Ripe juicy kiwi and mangone fruits are worth even trying to peel.

Cut the soft fruit into two parts, place the halves on a small plate and, using a spoon, eat the juicy pulp.

Don't eat just the skin of the fruit. It will not be superfluous if a bowl of water is brought to the table to rinse your fingers.

AVOCADO

The avocado fruit is usually divided into two parts, and the seed is removed.

The avocado pulp is eaten with a small spoon, without touching the bitter layer.

If the avocado is served on a separate dish or in a salad, then it can be eaten with a fork, breaking it into convenient pieces.

A PINEAPPLE

Pineapple is usually served peeled, cut into circles or slices.

In addition to this, the fruit is served with sugar or powdered sugar.

Pineapple must be eaten using cutlery.

If the pineapple is served in separate bowls with syrup, you need to eat it with a dessert spoon.

GRAPEFRUIT

Grapefruit is served cut in half. It is lightly sprinkled with powdered sugar.

To scrape out the pulp of this fruit, a special curved knife or a sharp fruit spoon is used.

STRAWBERRY WILD-STRAWBERRY

These berries are usually given washed and peeled in special vases for desserts.

Milk, cream, powdered sugar are served complete with strawberries and wild strawberries.

The berries are sprinkled with powdered sugar and, if desired, washed down with milk or cream.

Remember that it is not nice to crush berries on a plate if they are served in combination with sour cream, sugar and other toppings.

LEMON

Lemon, as a rule, is grabbed using a special fork, then the slice is placed in a cup of tea or coffee, the juice is squeezed out with the same spoon, and the remainder is taken out and placed on the edge of the saucer.

PERSIMMON

Persimmons should be consumed when ripe. When persimmons are ripe, they are covered with small spots.
The part of the fruit that is slightly below the stalk is cut off and the fruit is placed on a plate.
In this position, holding the persimmon with your fingers, eat the pulp with a spoon.
Large seeds can be separated from the pulp already in the mouth by spitting them onto a spoon and placing them on the edge of the plate.
These are quite simple rules that make up fruit etiquette.