The Chinese Art of Cutting Vegetables

Vegetable art displayed at a Chinese New Year festival in Alameda, US. March 2012

 

 This time we want to highlight the Chinese art of cutting vegetables, which is an ancient Chinese tradition. First we show some art pieces displayed  at a Chinese New Year Festival in Alameda, near San Francisco 2012.

Jie: It is said that this kind of art developed for the pleasure of the emperors in old times. Nowadays, a Chinese chef is not only judged by the flavor he made, but everything else combined.

Watermelon flowers and Carrot birds

 

Daogong, one of the most important skills of Chinese chefs

One of the most important skills on which Chinese chefs are judged is the daogong, or cutting technique, according to Jen Lin-Liu, author of the book ” Serve the people”, where she writes about her experiences of Chinese cooking skills. The cutting techniques and knives are different in different Chinese regional cuisines and there are dozens of terms for cutting based on the angle and the motion of the cut, e.g pulling, pushing, sawing, rolling or waving. Knives are particularly important in the preparation of Chinese food since you don’t have knives when you eat. Everything in a Chinese meal needs to be cut into pieces to make it manageable to pick up with chopsticks . (Source: Jen Lin-Liu, “Serve the people, A stir fried journey through China”)

An exquisite radish flower by Chef Zhang

Amazing skills to watch

Karin: The art pieces that skilled Chinese chefs make out of vegetables are truly amazing to watch! At a meeting in the Swedish-Chinese Association in Sweden we had the pleasure of watching a Chinese chef, Zhang Jian, demonstrating his skills in vegetable cutting. He had a whole set of knives and carved the most beautiful flowers and animals from cabbage, cucumber, carrot, beetroot, radish etc.

Chef Zhang Jian making art of vegetables

A cucumber crab overlooking a beetroot dandelion and an egg rabbit

Flowers on Chinese dishes by Chef Zhang

A vegetable bouquet by Chef Zhang

Karin: In Sweden it is not common to do this kind of carving of vegetables. But in Rome the other week I saw some nicely carved vegetables at the farmers market.

Carved radishes at a Farmers market in Rome